Microphone enabled in dungeons/trials/raids

[mikanana]

I would like to suggest this to the team since some find this a convenient communication method during dungeons/trials/raids and especially when you have your hands busy. and it's hella fun.
Some ways to implement this~
-The sound can be heard as 3D (volume changes based on how far away or close the character is from the recipient)
-It should be optional and can be changed in the duty finder/party finder settings
-Now to distinguish which voice belongs to which character, a volume meter should be placed next to the character name on the party list.

Some downsides to this is people going on duties just to use voice chat.

What are your thoughts on this?

[Enkidoh]

Yoshi does not support the concept of voice chat in the game - he addressed his reasons for this in a post way back in 2012:

Hi all, it’s ‘coming down with the flu’ Yoshida here,

Thanks for the discussion regarding voice chat. I wanted to present my thoughts on the subject, too.

Conclusion
We currently have no plans to implement voice chat into FFXIV, even for Version 2.0.

Level of Communication
I’m also an online gamer when I have spare time, so I use voice chat when playing MMOs, online games, FPSs, and fighting games. However, voice chat is mostly used by the “hardcore players”. In MMORPGs, “chat” is the main form of communication and because it is text based it is fairly simple to use. However, hearing everyone’s voices when you’re communicating amongst a huge group of players can be highly irritating. Risks put aside, I think that the communication level in comparison to chat is a few steps higher.

Pros and Cons
Everyone pretty much said everything already.

The main cons:

There will be times when voice chat will be mandatory for things like instanced raids.
In particular, there is a fear that female gamers will get harassed when the say something and will then want to stay away.
A gap will appear between those that have/don’t have a mic.
As this will eat up more bandwidth, there will be more bandwidth costs.
We will need to create some kind of sound management, like creating an effect so that it's not your “real voice” that is being heard.


The main pros:

It is much faster than chat for direct communication so when playing as a party it is much easier.
If you can get along well with the other person, it is convenient, just like being on the phone.


Alternatives to Voice Chat
There are loads of great alternatives to voice chat such as Skype and Ventrillo. If we don’t officially support it, I think that there will be fewer cases where people will be forced to use it and told things like "come on, just use voice chat for crying out loud!" So for linkshells and what will become the Free Companies, if you can come to an agreement, I think that it would be good to consider using external software for voice chat purposes.

Summary
We will continue to make it so that our FFXIV players can play safely across all regions. Even if we can technically support it, for things that involve communication, we would have to make it official, but I think we would really need to think about this carefully so it won't be a stressful experience. So with that in mind, we will not be having official support for voice chat.

Hence I do not see his stance on voice chat changing I'm afraid.

[mikanana]

Yoshi does not support the concept of voice chat in the game - he addressed his reasons for this in a post way back in 2012:



Hence I do not see his stance on voice chat changing I'm afraid.

Aww. He is right though when it comes to full size parties where its irritating to hear everybody at the same time.

[Lelila38]

Aww. He is right though when it comes to full size parties where its irritating to hear everybody at the same time.

It's the duty of the party leader, in pugs usually the one who created it or the person whom the voice chat belongs to, to call people out for unnecessary chatter. In a fight, only relevant info should be called out, to do that you can also mute all members of the party but a designated caller. It's usually unnecessary to go that far though, a friendly reminder to not talk about unrelated stuff is enough most times.

[NephthysVasudan]

Stuff

Sorry...but I have to say "hell no"
It's bad enough when I get idiots and morons who are so stupid and salty that they have to express themselves in text chat - to hear them in voice chat would make me cancel my subscription and say "#### you" to the rest. Ok maybe not but the anger is valid.

I do not need a bunch of idiot children crowding voice coms over something like that...especially when its randoms.
There are too many ways to solve this via other means that are very useful and to top that off free - and it restricts abuse to the point where people have to know where to go.

I strongly advise you check out discord.
https://discordapp.com/
Its free - no trash - no bs - just simple - easy - convenient. Anyone can start their own private server at no cost.
Works on everything from cell phones to most computers if not all.
Already found it to be handy in impromptu voice coms for private parties.
Id rather SE focus on other things as opposed to implementation of an entirely new feature that will get abused to no end. I agree with Yoshi on his cons list..most emphatically.
Again - I get the motivation and the why - but the randoms/mob - would make it stupidly miserable.

[mikanana]

Sorry...but I have to say "hell no"
It's bad enough when I get idiots and morons who are so stupid and salty that they have to express themselves in text chat - to hear them in voice chat would make me cancel my subscription and say "#### you" to the rest. Ok maybe not but the anger is valid..

You can just tick out the mic in the settings, as I said in the original post it is optional when entering a trial or dungeon

[NephthysVasudan]

You can just tick out the mic in the settings, as I said in the original post it is optional when entering a trial or dungeon

There's not enough justification for this feature....not with the tools already available to us.
99% of the time - i would never use the game feature when I can use Discord.

And 99% of the time you don't need voice chat for the things we do in FFXIV - unless its a private - very focused group - and even they will yield to applications like discord before turning to the game.

And in the majority of packages out there - the feature is automatically shut down from the get go - so when people join in...they will likely never turn it on for fear of getting into something they don't want to hear.

There's not enough justification for this is the bottom line. Good intentions or not....abuse factor is too high. SE won't spend the money or hours on it.

[Jellybums]

Not necessary. In EX content, yeah, would be convenient but there's 3rd party apps for that. Not eager to find out of this game has squeakers too.

[Ilyrian]

WoW introduced this as an integrated feature (what feels like) a million years ago. In fairness it sucked quality-wise but literally the entire player base ignored it and continued using Vent/(and the other one I can't remember now). Given all the 3rd party Chat there really is no need for it and non of the LFD content requires it.

[Shouko]

In game vc would just put more stress on the servers, another option for someone to turn off or on. Pretty much everyone uses Discord anyhow and would never be used in game because Discord works fine.