Ventrillo/TeamSpeak

[Dark0ne]

Just a little poll to see if any people use VoIP software to chat to other gamers online.

[Peregrine]

You mean people would actually want to communicate more with the idiots online? There's a good reason all my games get voice chat muted!

[Abramul]

I have Skype, but I don't know if that can be used underneath a game. I don't have a microphone anyway, though...just a spare pair of headphones.

[Switch]

I don't use anything for talking across the net. I don't even have a mic. I just prefer text speak. Real talking makes things more difficult. It's not that I have a problem with real social interaction, but when you're talking with someone the conversation usually has to be constant... which can be very distracting and time consuming, whereas at least with text speak you can take breaks from the chat without having to worry about any kind of awkward silence etc. :P

 

I would not want to enter into a new online game with complete strangers and start chatting to them over a headset. That's just embarassing. :P

[Dark0ne]

Its not confusing, it's time saving. The two games I use VoIP with are Day of Defeat and WoW. I don't really need it for WoW, just a handy feature to speak to the other people in my guild, but it's a godsend for games like DoD.

 

Scenario: You know where the enemy sniper and MG are and want to cooridinate an attack against them.

 

Bad Situation: You don't have a microphone and so have to type what needs to be done and where they are. Probably taking a minute to do and stopping you from playing the game. More than likely 10 of your teammates die in this time frame.

 

Good Situation: You have a microphone. You can coordinate your attack using your voice in a matter of seconds while still playing the game.

 

Obviously there are a lot more scenario's where it's useful. I'll often go into a random clan server and get to know the clanners in a matter of moments over voice. I generally judge how friendly a clan is on how they coordinate themselves with others over voice.

[Stanhead]

I use Ventrilo. I mostly use it during clan matches in Counter Strike, it's great.

 

This is a real scenario that happened. We (clan AoD) were playing CSS on de_dust2. We are heading round to a bombsite, and the enemy come at us from behind. The enemy are following us, not being able to get a good shot at us. I turn around and see about 10 Terrorists all coming at us. I manage to take out atleast 3, and get killed. As I'm getting slaughtered, I yell out on my mic "BEHIIIIIND US!!!!". That was a great match, we won.

 

If I hadn't warned the guys, we would've been caught from behind and all shot with our backs turned.

[Dilvish]

I originally voted no in this poll. I just installed Teamspeak today so I'd like to change my vote. I'm preparing for Guild Wars. My new guild, Lacerta Priscus wants to do Guild vs. Guild battles eventually. With eight members per team, it will take some serious coordination to work effectively together. It seems that many of the new Guild Wars guilds are planning to have Ventrillo or Teamspeak working from day one.