Disappointed with Voice Chat

Q u o t e:
I just wanted to share my initial impression of voice chat. After having used it to run a couple of heroics with a couple different groups, I have to say that I am not very impressed.

I thought it would be a cool feature to have.

Mainly, the voice quality is terrible. I have the volume cranked all the way up on the voice chat feature, and it's still extremely difficult to make out what people are saying. If when it is loud enough, it breaks up and is not clear.

The push-to-talk feature seems to be a little buggy. I hold down the button to talk, and I hear the noise and the little speaker icon next to my character, but occasionally, the icon disappears while I'm still holding the button. This makes me confused as to whether people can still hear me or not.

Overall, I was very disappointed with the system. Currently, as difficult as it is to hear people, I would almost prefer to not have it in the game at all.

It's sad really, because it looks like it could have been good.

Let me start by saying, that the Voice Chat feature is not meant to outright replace third party programs. It is an additional feature we have implemented to give people a means within the game to be able to talk that choose not to use a third party program and to make it easier on people that want to use Voice Chat.

Secondly, we haven't stopped working to improve the feature just because we've released it. We only plan to continue to refine it and make it better every chance we can.

I've been able to use it though, like many others, I've had to turn the volume to the maximum on my microphone so that others can hear me. I've also noticed that push to talk tends to be more dependable than just voice activation. Not to mention, last night I spent a good portion of an AV listening to someone breathe in their mic to the entire raid. Keying push to talk will save people some embarrassments I think and if I hear something coming over the mic, I would rather it be "Defending the graveyard" or the like, not an impromptu obscene phone call.

Q u o t e:


Thanks for your response, I appreciate it.

I'm glad to hear you guys will continue working to improve it. I just felt the need to say something since is the first time I've been truly disappointed with a feature upon it's release.

I tried to avoid complaining about annoying people using voice-activation, since that's a user-specific choice/problem.

Another thing I'm a little unclear on is how exactly voice chat is enabled when joining a group. I have voice chat set as "enabled' in the sound options, but it doesn't seem to automatically be usable when I create a party. Do we have to go into the "chat" menu and join that channel every time we join a group?

As long as the other members of your party have it activated, you should automatically be able to talk to them. Keep in mind though, that if you have a custom channel or another channel you are talking in, you will need to switch channels. You can't be in two channels at once.

Q u o t e:


This feature is driving women from the game. Ever since this went live every other group is so insistent I get on chat that I have to leave.

Great, I get to go on voice with 4 randam men, or not play.

Way to put your female customers at risk for no good reason.

Being that I'm female, I haven't had any problems as of yet when speaking in the Voice Chat. I'd also like to say that right now, the feature is new so people are going to push the envelope (so to speak) and they are going to say and do things purposefully to disrupt things. The best thing that anyone can do is to simply ignore them and not feed into it. If you don't use the feature, they win.

I've been a gamer for a very long while. I've pretty much seen it all from in-game stalkers to those that started off that way and ended up becoming friends after they gave up on their game. ;)

I don't like giving advice normally that involves things like "suck it up" because no one should have to, but I will say that sometimes facing down someone that attempts to be abusive can have amazing results. I'm stubborn though and I don't take kindly to people deciding who or what I should be, nor will I let them run me out of a place I enjoy. There will always be those that get a kick out of inciting gender wars either for or against one gender or another. In my book everyone that steps foot into the world of Azeroth is a gamer and an equal no matter their age, gender, occupation, etc. A good player is just that, a good player. Prove yourself in game and you earn respect.

This thread will remain open so long as people remain respectful to each other. Should it go down the gender bashing path of shame, I will shut it down. I have low tolerance for such things. I also have low tolerance for people making inflammatory statements in the hope of representing a particular gender and starting a gender war.

Q u o t e:


Neth, that's very elitist of you. I've got four jobs, eighty five children, three boats, six lawns to mow, and I just don't have the time to devote to becoming "good" at this game while supporting eleven supermodel mistresses, repairing antique cars, piloting F-22s, and playing lead guitar for Led Zeppelin. Why are CM friend slots only available to the no-lifers??

Please give me one of the cars and an autographed Led Zeppelin album and we'll talk about that friendship slot. ;)