Are there any other deaf / mute raiders out there? How do you deal with it?

[Zerobreaker]

I find it really difficult to express myself, as I've been quiet my entire life and topping that off with shyness is the icing. I just joined this really great LS and they want me to raid, But whenever the leader asks me to get on TS to just "talk/wastetime" my anxiety disorder takes over and I get flustered....

Talking to strangers has always been hard for me, if I join a PF group that requires VC, I usually get asked why I don't talk. I tell them I just have nothing to say or pretend I am mute(terrible I know). Heck I'm not even a fan of typing to talk to most people, unless it's fight related or helping someone. Not being face to face with someone in a conversation makes me nervous about how they receive what I say.

[Cassandaria]

I can say confidently, I don't like voice chat in games like this. I do it because people push for it, so my free company and linkshell have their own teamspeak and I hop on, but I wont talk while I'm on. The problem comes from the fact that, despite being a game about playing with other people, it's a game about "playing" with them, not holding conversations or cracking jokes, you can do that fine in text and it bothers no one. When you get involved in raiding and you need to focus, voice chat is often more annoying because people want to complain, moan, talk about their day; instead of focus on the task at hand, using voice when it's handy (like calling out rot in turn 2). this makes it very...irksome to even consider voice chat. It's not that I'm antisocial, it's that I want to be able to focus and at the rate people keep proving they can't handle voice chat well when people push for it? I'd be better off using macros, at least then it's a less than a second to push a button to get the information you need.

[Suirieko]

I'm one of the deaf ones. Well, hard of hearing, but still it's just as bad anyway. It's the issue of being able to articulate what'sbeing said in the voice chat ( Hint: None at all), so therefore, voice chat has always been useless to me. That being said, it does bother me to see that we're going in the direction that people actually make it a requirement to rely on voice chat in order to get things done. I get the fact that communication is important.

Fortunately, I've yet to be in a situation where I've been barred from events due to my hearing. I also don't join voice chats because if I'm there, then people would expect me to be able to hear and understand what's being said. There were times that I've been in voice chats and people have kept calling out to me and I was none the wiser.

My approach to the situation is to know what's going on and observe the situation. All the fights in FFXIV aren't even randomized at all, and all have patterns. Long as I know the pattern and what's about to happen, I'm good, and that is why I don't even need voice chat anyway.

And no, me actually talking on voice chat doesn't help either. As I said, if I'm there, people expect me to hear them, sooo. Nope.

A few weeks later, we realized that one of our LS members was completely deaf and felt REALLY left out because we were chatting on vent all the time. We felt really bad that he felt left out, and mostly stopped using vent as a result. That's the only experience I've had with a deaf player/friend in an MMO...

Absolutely this. Being on that guy's side. I know exactly how he felt. BEfore most of my FC members jumped server, They all chatted it up and hung out on ventrilo/teamspeak, and I couldn't participate so I felt left out. People were getting closer to each other, and I had no idea what was going on. It is actually an extremely discouraging situation, because you can't even form that kind of bond those people do. I've been in several LSes that do this, and believe me, it's extremely discouraging and frustrating at times.

Of course there were times where I found out that people were using it to talk behind my back and I had no idea. Which actually pretty much pisses me off the most, and really one of the quickest way to be on my bad side. >.>

[Goodberry]

When I raided in WoW I had a friend who kindly PMed short instructions to me for new fights. I needed that because I am not a native English speaker and though I can obviously talk with people face-to-face, understanding the slurred bumbling of the raid leader and the other guys thru lousy PC speakers was beyond me.

An example: if the raid boss had been Titan Hard Mode, my friend would type:
Remember Landslide from Story Mode? Same deal, avoid it at all costs.
Try to dodge all the other crazy stuff.
DPS the Heart ASAP.

Meanwhile I was pretending to listen to the others' 30 minutes of bumbling explanations, strategies and silly jokes. Nobody in the raid knew the truth - it was a secret between my friend and me. :P

[Crimson-Falcon]

i still dont know why ppl think communication is required to beat content

i dont use any communication nor the whole static do plus im PS3 and got T9 on farm now

the fact that communication programs improves performance i agree with that

but communication required to beat content? dont make me laugh

still beatable but on a little longer pace

EDIT: i also have deaf BRD in my static

yea hes deaf and better than any BRD i have played with in the whole server

[Suirieko]

i still dont know why ppl think communication is required to beat content

i dont use any communication nor the whole static do plus im PS3 and got T9 on farm now

the fact that communication programs improves performance i agree with that

but communication required to beat content? dont make me laugh

still beatable but on a little longer pace

Only because most players think these things aren't going to last forever, so they must beat it before it disappears.

I mean, that's why they can't stand wasting time, right?

[Symari]

Myself, I went from having decent hearing to almost completely deaf. (Tumours and Infections; Lost hearing completely on the right, my left is pretty bad as well) over the span of about 5 years. I've been playing MMOs for about twice that long.

With the transition, Its been a mixed bag. A lot of groups now will 'require' voice chat. How I deal with it is simply telling them the truth. They will either be cool with it or not. If they aren't cool with it then just let it go. If you are a good player your server rep will shine past your disability. A good, understanding FC is awesome as well.

[Ryuko]

Absolutely this. Being on that guy's side. I know exactly how he felt. BEfore most of my FC members jumped server, They all chatted it up and hung out on ventrilo/teamspeak, and I couldn't participate so I felt left out. People were getting closer to each other, and I had no idea what was going on. It is actually an extremely discouraging situation, because you can't even form that kind of bond those people do. I've been in several LSes that do this, and believe me, it's extremely discouraging and frustrating at times.

Just thought I would point out... in the case of my friend, no one knew he was deaf... he had never mentioned it. And so we didn't realize we were being really insensitive about him being deaf until he told us why he never came in vent. We all felt absolutely horrible and I think we learned an important lesson that day. What's worse is that I am slightly hard of hearing due to a permanent hole in my eardrum I've had since I was a kid, and I get very frustrated when people get upset at me for not being able to understand them the first time (IRL). I know that having hearing issues is not something people can see or know unless you tell them. So, I should have been more observant regarding my friend who never joined us in vent, and I was kind of disappointed in myself for not realizing it sooner. It's not fair that the burden was on him to say, "Hey, I can't hear you. At all. And I feel left out." But, we stopped using vent as soon as we knew and all was well again... I guess that was the best we could do given the circumstances.

[HeroSamson]

I find it really difficult to express myself, as I've been quiet my entire life and topping that off with shyness is the icing. I just joined this really great LS and they want me to raid, But whenever the leader asks me to get on TS to just "talk/wastetime" my anxiety disorder takes over and I get flustered....

Some of y'all can just say its so "easy" to speak the truth. But for me the truth hurts, and its not uncommon for people to change or assume there's some kind of derpy brain injury along with being treated differently.


That's why I just wanted to see how others might fare in the same situation.

Just be you, believe in your ability to play and ignore outside insults. Your frame of mind should be this is just a game.

If you know you're good then use that as your drive force.

[Altimis]

We never use voice chat

We are on T9 and we still not even need voice chat

Does this make OP feel better? this game don't need voice chat, everyone know the jobs, everyone do it good