Voice Chat?

[Youkulm]

hey discord, its free. get it.

[Valenth]

I know from developers of different games they often don't implement voice chat in games like these because it's even harder to police than text chat. That and it saves resources not having to implement it.

[Derio]

There is also the fact that not everyone has a microphone. Which is why Discord is perfect because everyone in this day and age has a cell phone. And discord is free.

[Xlantaa]

Voice chat is not good idea if you're with randoms. That's for friends and that. Nothing more. I won't be happy if a unknown guy start yelling at me or talking shit in middle of dungeon. A voice chat will have option to turn off and that, and most people will turn off because don't want to talk with unknown people, potentially a jerk. So in the end, it is a waste of resources and infrastructure (you need more servers or more powerful ones to have voice servers alongside game). Using teamspeak, of discord because is free, it is better. This clients does not consume too much resources an can be installed even on smartphones for those who paly on console and don't have PC near.

Also, the language barrier. You can talk in english, but maybe the person who is hearing you don't understand.

[Tsumdere]

No. I can't count how many times I joined people's voice chats on other games only to get harrassed, hit on, and annoyed because I'm a female.

You don't need voice chat in dungeons, all mechanics can be explained in a few sentences of text. If you desperately want to talk to someone, drop your Discord name - it only takes 5 seconds to do so.

[DaikiKiyoshi]

Thing about player made "rules" such as "voice chat is now mandatory" is they are very easily defeated by proper enforcement of the ToS. If SE never made the voice chat mandatory (and I doubt they ever would) if you ever got kicked or harassed for not using it in a random duty then you can report that. As for private parties (premades) we already have the right to impose whatever rules we want and indeed people already do post parties to the PF that REQUIRE 3rd party voice chat. I think there is too much fear mongering going on regarding it becoming mandatory.


I also think it's kinda ironic that people are simultaneously saying it would suck so bad that no one would use it and that if it were implemented it would be enforced as a new meta.

[Vidu]

Thing about player made "rules" such as "voice chat is now mandatory" is they are very easily defeated by proper enforcement of the ToS. If SE never made the voice chat mandatory (and I doubt they ever would) if you ever got kicked or harassed for not using it in a random duty then you can report that. As for private parties (premades) we already have the right to impose whatever rules we want and indeed people already do post parties to the PF that REQUIRE 3rd party voice chat. I think there is too much fear mongering going on regarding it becoming mandatory.


I also think it's kinda ironic that people are simultaneously saying it would suck so bad that no one would use it and that if it were implemented it would be enforced as a new meta.

Kicked for difference in playstyle - or kicked without given a reason. We dont even go so far as having to kick someone - lets just think of the following scenario: Group wipes to any given boss.
Player A: That would have never happend if everyone would be using the voice chat and we called out mechanics!
Player B: But... I dont want to use the voice chat...
Player A: Then is your fault we're not clearing this dungeon!
Player C: Salut! [Continuing in french]

Its not even about being kicked or not - its already about "if we dont clear this its your fault because you werent on voice chat!"
It could be used to outright lie to new players and unsettle them - even if the ToS would say "Participation in voice chat is not mandatory to play this game" - a group can easly say "Look, if the devs thought we could do this without voice chat, they'd never introduce it. You really have to use it, if you want to do this content!"

PF parties with such requirements are different - because you know that they expect you to join their voice chat before you join the party and can then choose if you wnat to do that or not. They also require it most likely for more difficult content - and not for an expert dungeon. So, there is your difference...

Also, again: harrassment within voice chat would be more difficult to track down and turn into "he said, she said" - unless they'd make audiologs which would put even more stress on the severs on the hand and on the other hand might be tricky with privacy-policy.

[Kaethra]

Its not even about being kicked or not - its already about "if we dont clear this its your fault because you werent on voice chat!"

Everquest 2 has voice chat.
It also has harder less forgiving mechanics than FFXIV.
Its also free to play. Meaning it has more riffraff.

None of what you described happens over there.

Hell I've never seen a group over there require it. Most use it for socializing, but still explain mechanics in text.

[Vidu]

Everquest 2 has voice chat.
It also has harder less forgiving mechanics than FFXIV.
Its also free to play. Meaning it has more riffraff.

None of what you described happens over there.

Hell I've never seen a group over there require it. Most use it for socializing, but still explain mechanics in text.

Great to hear that voice chat is working in that game! Maybe it could work in this game aswell - I'm not saying its completly impossible or anything. But I understand why the devs dont want to give it a shot and I can agree with that choice and those reasons.
Why invest time in something that
...most of the people who want it, already have?
...can easly be abused and prevents a source of harrassment that isnt as easy to monitor?
...isnt needed to clear content/play the game?

I know that the last one might be a little weak since you guys argue that its ofc not needed but a QoL-improvement.

But thats where I'm unsure - we seem to agree that you dont need voice chat to explain the mechanics and that even in Everquest 2 its used more to socialize. I dont know anything about Everquest 2 ( ...except that it seems it isnt doing so well...? I mean, it wasnt always Free2Play, different language supports seem to have vanished, the last update on their website is from 2015 and if I understand that graphic correct a lot of servers appear to be not even half full - now thats ofc not because theres voice chat in the game xD But the smaller your community the better a voice chat will work - Free2Play doesnt mean more riffraff necessarly - it can also mean: Less People who actually stick around and those who stick around might even be more loyal and attached to the game) but looking at FFXIV socializing during runs wouldnt even be a real option: a dungeon-run normally lasts between 15 and 30 minutes, depending on the dungeon.
15-30 minutes to socialize with a new bunch of strangers... in a game where not even everyone says as much as "Hi" in party chat...

Those who want to use voice chat to socialize have already found their tools to socialize with their friends - and those who dont want that dont have to feel pressured by an ingame tool now.
I'm very fine with that - I can understand why th negative would out-weigh the positive here or is at least considered more important by the devs. Maybe the community in Everquest 2 is, for whatever reason, different enough from FFXIV that this can work over there. From what I've read Everquest 2 was more focussed on players playing together in groups, while FFXIV can easly be a solo-experience. If you want your people to form close knitted groups to achieve something in your game, it makes sense to give them the tools for that (aka voice chat) - if you want to create a game thats more fluff content for the solo-player and is also attractive for people who are completely new to MMOs not having a voice chat seems like an actual good choice to me.

[Astyrah]

here in masamune (JP) my FC and the LS's im part of run multiple discord servers and we only ever use voice chat for learning new trials ex and savage raid (and sometimes for farm runs when we run non-standard comps or try a new strat) - once we have the content down and memorised we rarely (or never) use voice chat anymore. for all other content we just type out in regular chat what we want to say because these things don't require as much coordination as top tier content.

granted we're mostly all asian so majority of us are really shy (as compared to westerners who are more open out and about). though we do have some social voice chat channels in our discords and mostly it's the people who transferred from NA/EU who frequent those.

also ingame voice will just be underutilized or not used at all in JP DF, in the nearly 2 years i've played on masamune i've only had about 2 or 3 runs in leveling and expert roulette combined where people chatted beyond the customary よろしく and おつかれ at the end of the instance. everyone just goes about their own business and 97% of the runs go really smooth.

for them to include an ingame voice chat feature the demand has to come from a sizeable chunk of the JP + EU + NA playerbase and that SE would deem discord,teamspeak,mumble,skype,etc. would be inadequate for use ingame communication