Voice chat and anxiety

[Ninster]

As my posting history shows, I'm a barrel of real life issues that I am usually happy to ditch as soon as I'm able to play video games.

That being said, it's a bit confusing being relatively green to MMORPGs, when I've finally caught up to that point where casual play becomes too casual and progression content becomes a possibility.

Anyway, I had an FC mate try to help me out with rotation practice on SMN, and while I was a good sport and accepted the help, I freaked as soon as he asked if he could call me. I'm REALLY kicking myself at the moment because incidents like this have been frequent with my FC mates and I've apologize too many times to keep causing problems like this.

This got me to thinking, are there any raiders that deal with some form of anxiety or social anxiety that could help me... well, not do that? I mean... if I'm really going to push forward, I'm going to need to accept that at some point I'll be having to introduce myself to 7 strangers on a microphone.

[Kitfox]

I would never give out my phone number online to random people, if that's what you meant by calling.

As far as voice chat goes, I feel like it's only awkward the first couple of times you start using it. I used to be extremely self-concious about my English pronounciation and accent, but after using VOIP for sometime, you realize that nobody cares, as long as you're understood. And nobody really cares about introductions and such either, some people like to chat more, some people don't, just like with text chat. VOIP is mostly just an extra tool used for on-the-fly communication in battles. Of course, some people like to use it for socializing in general, but if you just want to raid, you mostly need to be able to listen raid calls and maybe call one or two words every now and then, if it's relevant to the fight.

[Ninster]

I would never give out my phone number online to random people, if that's what you meant by calling.

On this point, that may be roughly 1/10th to 1/20th of what led to my reaction. This FC mate and most of the FC are friends of a friend. This friend and I actually started as online gaming friends (through Super Smash Bros.) but over the course of 8 years we've become real life friends as well. That being said, my friend is a lot less introverted and paranoid as I am, so he happens to have some of his closer friends' phone numbers. I'm not sure if this is the same with the FC, but I do agree with your sentiment: I'm not the type to make friends this way.

On a related note, I'm not very familiar with voice chat in general, so not only do I not have any chat programs at the moment, I don't think I have the equipment for it as well. I know my friend and his FC chat through PS4, but I'm on a laptop. Do raid parties generally play on the same platform or is there some voice chat program that both platforms can make use of?

[Kitfox]

Do raid parties generally play on the same platform or is there some voice chat program that both platforms can make use of?

VOIP programs are usually PC based but some also have phone apps. So, if a player is using PS4, they usually have a laptop on the side for the voice chat or use their phone for it. Teamspeak3, I believe, has a paid phone app, Discord has a free one, not sure about Mumble but pretty sure there was an app for that also. The PC clients are free for all three. Teamspeak is probably the most popular and Discord is starting to get more common cause can be used without a seperate app with PUGs.

[Alexftw]

Yep. My accent sucks terribly, even so nobody cares. As long as theyre able to understand me. Worst case, when they're not able to understand me I simply write.

So I wouldn't be anxious if I were you.

[Angelusdemonus]

Personally, I see myself as a rather extreme introvert. But in some instances, if I'm in a social event or place, and I can either relate very well to it, or have a lot of knowledge with it, I'm ok with talking to people and such. Once I go into an area where I don't know much about, I'm usually silent and prefer to just sit and listen.

That might not apply to you since, again, it's a personal thing, but when it comes to gaming, I'm usually more comfortable with talking to other people. With that said, though, I prefer not to voice chat at all unless I really have to.

Just to give a few examples of what some of my friends have tried:

- I had one try streaming themselves and just talking about what they are doing to try to help it out a bit. Like you're talking to some audience. Maybe that might warm you up.

- I had another friend who normally is very quiet in a chat scenario, but if they wanted to be chatty, they would drink a bit because it would loosen them up. (I'm not a drinker, so I couldn't relate).

Another suggestion, which I prefer in most occasions, is just let your friend or your group talk it out and you listen in. You don't need to communicate back in voice. You can type out answers to questions in chat mode if needed, which I do. But a lot of people prefer to communicate in talking not because they want to hear *you* talk, but more that they can't express their words in text very well. They would rather "tell" you in person, instead of typing out a lengthy term paper.

[Mirili]

This got me to thinking, are there any raiders that deal with some form of anxiety or social anxiety that could help me... well, not do that? I mean... if I'm really going to push forward, I'm going to need to accept that at some point I'll be having to introduce myself to 7 strangers on a microphone.

Well, aside from occasional necessary call-outs, you can just sit there quietly and listen.

That's the big thing, really. To be able to at least hear the discussions and strategies.

No one I've raided with has had any problem with me doing just that. Hell, we had a member that never spoke except through a soundboard. :P Out of combat, I'll still often just type to respond to people. That said, it does get easier when those 7 people don't feel like strangers anymore. And that'll come with time.

[WinterLuna]

What helped me on Teamspeak was downloading an add on that changed my voice. Then they're not really listening to YOU.

[Eul]

What helped me on Teamspeak was downloading an add on that changed my voice. Then they're not really listening to YOU.

o_o There's add on to change your voice? I just knew this Is it only for Teamspeak?

[WinterLuna]

o_o There's add on to change your voice? I just knew this Is it only for Teamspeak?

There is! I don't remember the name of it unfortunately nor whether it's for Teamspeak only, but it had a couple of voice changers like high pitched, low pitched, robotic etc. I used to get a little feedback so I could hear the sound of my voice and I absolutely hated it so this helped amazingly. Just don't use a way too high pitched one and have everyone burst into laughter while you're raiding

Edit: I think it's called Clownfish plug in