14 Responses to “New poll: Are you excited about voice?”

1. wow im really surpised at the results, i was pretty sure there would atleast be some more people into voice then 5%

   Posted by: kitten on August 2nd, 2007 at 7:49 pm

2. I have been worried about the potential impact of voice coming to SL might have on community…envisioning a two strata system wherein all the cool and hip people only use voice chat to communicate, while those like myself who are deaf, hearing impaired, or who just don’t care for voice for whatever reason are left out of conversations, or poked and prodded for being old fashioned, or whatever.

   I watched this happen in other places, most recently my longtime WoW guild, where slowly as voice caught on fewer and fewer of my friends typed in guild chat, and increasingly, I became aware that I was missing most of the guild banter and community discussion.

   As a deaf professional woman who has struggled with the language barrier all my life, online games and communities like SL have been a haven for me for many reasons…one among them the removal of that barrier to communication. Here I was like everyone else, and most people did not even know I was a deafie. Even my closest friends often forgot. I have worried that that was about to be taken away from me and others like me with the introduction of voice in SL.

   However, with the results of this poll, perhaps there isn’t as much interest in it here as I have seen in other online arenas. I will have to wait and see, but I hope that my fears of a social stratification based on voice use won’t come true. I don’t want to give up my haven.

   Posted by: Zoe Llewelyn on August 2nd, 2007 at 8:16 pm

3. I am surprised at the poll too! I love using voice and have been looking forward to the main grid roll out. It is always interesting to see, but I never believe open polls. Voice is a great add to SL and I am looking forward to using it.

   Posted by: Isabella Duros on August 3rd, 2007 at 8:56 am

4. Voice is really a great program. I really enjoy speaking with people in SL. The stereo sound makes it seem like you’re in an actual room with people. I think it poll is a little off. I’m pretty sure that there’s a lot more voice users than that.

   Zoe: I empathize with you, however instead of fearing voice why don’t you push for voice-to-text integration into SL to accommodate SL’s already large deaf community.

   Posted by: Joe Miles on August 3rd, 2007 at 9:50 am

5. some of us can’t speak at all, so it’s a useless feature.

   Posted by: Kristine Deadlight on August 3rd, 2007 at 11:18 am

6. Kristine: I’m unsure whether you’re refering to the mute population in SL or a technical problem. I’m sure any technical problems will be fixed as soon as possible. However if you’re mute you could ask for text-to-speech applications to be built into SL.

   There’s always some way to connect with people… you just have to ask yourself. Are you going to be the one to take the lead and do something about it?

   Posted by: Joe Miles on August 3rd, 2007 at 12:23 pm

7. I actually do know a friend in SL who works for a company that is developing speech tools that could be useful. I will have to ask her how it’s coming. Honestly, I don’t see much chance of Linden Lab integrating such tools into SL just for the deaf and mute community. We may be large in some ways here, but we are still very small in comparison to the majority of hearing peoples. I expect third party tools will be needed to bridge the gaps eventually.

   Posted by: Zoe Llewelyn on August 4th, 2007 at 6:41 am

8. Joe: Why does Kristine have to ask for it? Couldn’t you do so as well?

   The problem with the Voice supporters is typically that they don’t think anyone else counts - or that they should assist them. So if voice supporters can think of ways to do that - I’m all ears.

   But here’s my problem with voice. I like being in tune with what is going around me when I am at the computer - and headphones don’t allow that. I also don’t like to hear some people babbling away when there is good music in the sim. It quickly becomes noise pollution. These two things cannot be fixed.

   I’m sorry. Text wins. And when you find yourself in either scenario, you will find it the same.

   Posted by: Nobody Fugazi on August 4th, 2007 at 9:20 am

9. I feel that voice is an invasion. I come to SL for annonymity… and choose to voice only with those people with whom I have developed an extensive relationship with, in which case i use out of sl systems to voice. I think the avi speaks volumes as a silent individual, and requires us to learn to use emotion on a level that far exceedes tones and accents on words as in rl. We are able to express on a much deeper level, and force to think before we speak to really create a complete thought when voice is not involved. In essence we are less lazy, more involved in our conversations, and use a pure form of expression. I prefer chat. ON another note, I ran accross a voice chat person in a sim the other day, and was frankly annoyed that they were humming and shouting to their friends .. babbling nonsenically! Down with voice! I for one am against it as a mainstream in sl.

   Posted by: Grace Winnfield on August 4th, 2007 at 10:15 am

10. There are 100+ reasons not to want to use voice and only a few really good reasons to use it.

    If you go to other websites and view other polls regarding this subject, you’ll find similar results. Approximately 59% of the population of SL does not want voice chat.

    I think you’ll find that, because there is such a prevalence of people who don’t want to use it that “voice only” events will be in the minority.

    Many of the people on SL are not there for a dating service and are there specifically because it offers a chance at a *SECOND* Life, not First Life 2.0 (if you understand what I’m implying.) So, naturally, these people don’t want to use voice because your voice betrays a lot about who you really are.

    Now, augmentationists (people who project their RL selves directly into SL) might think that people who are either immersionists or who simply want their privacy have something to hide…. well.. I have had the unfortunate experience of being stalked online and in RL when I made the mistake of giving out my first name and a photo on a blog that I used to run. I don’t have anything to hide, but I will not reveal myself too much online anymore because of that experience. Also… if I did have something to hide, it’s none of your business anyway.

    I learned the hard way that it’s easy to step into that situation and to never ever let anyone pressure me into giving out more RL information than I am comfortable with.

    To me, letting someone hear my voice is almost like giving out my RL picture… it’s too close to RL… and this is SL, after all.

    I am already finding that a great many people are disabling Voice on their sims and still more people are refusing to even turn the feature on.

    Additionally, If you look at the SL blog you will quickly find that every posting that has had anything to do with voice has met with an extremely negative response from the residents.

    So, in short, don’t be surprised at all.

    @Nobody Fugazi — People who engage in “Voice Bigotry” (people who want to judge based on use or disuse of the feature) will find that they are quickly outing themselves as the bigots that they are. I’m not saying that Joe is one, just that the “non-voicers don’t count” sentiment seems to be all too prevalent among the minority of people who are interested in voice.

    Very Sincerely,
    Anony Mouse
    “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent” — Eleanor Roosevelt

    Posted by: Anony Mouse on August 4th, 2007 at 10:19 am

11. One additional observation.

    Second Life is different from WoW. WoW is a game… with game rules and a game setting. Second Life isn’t the same was WoW. It isn’t really a “game” in the traditional sense. It’s an online world with no objective but what you make for it.

    The result of this fundamental difference is that there are more people who are immersionists on SL than on WoW.

    @Isabella

    Please take a look at the poll at slpixelpulse regarding voice. Also there was a poll done by the Reuters representative in SL on voice and it came up about the same… somewhere around 60%-70%.

    If such a result were a one time thing, it would be easy to write it off as a fluke. But it’s occurred again and again independently. Something tells me that the people of SL have “spoken” (pardon the pun, please) and have decided not to speak. ;)

    Anony Mouse
    “The truth often jars the ears.” ;)

    Posted by: Anony Mouse on August 4th, 2007 at 6:32 pm

12. Many of the people on SL are not there for a dating service and are there specifically because it offers a chance at a *SECOND* Life, not First Life 2.0 (if you understand what I’m implying.) So, naturally, these people don’t want to use voice because your voice betrays a lot about who you really are.

    Now, augmentationists (people who project their RL selves directly into SL) might think that people who are either immersionists or who simply want their privacy have something to hide…. well.. I have had the unfortunate experience of being stalked online and in RL when I made the mistake of giving out my first name and a photo on a blog that I used to run. I don’t have anything to hide, but I will not reveal myself too much online anymore because of that experience. Also… if I did have something to hide, it’s none of your business anyway.

    Precisely, Anony Mouse (I’ve read your rebuttals on other blogs against voice, and found myself agreeing wholeheartedly.) Though I do use the voice client and very rarely will chat with certain close people (like my partner) I disdain voice bigots and people who aren’t accepting of the manner in which I approach SL (as a creative environment and game rather than a social network like Myspace). If some of us want our Second Lives as far removed from our First ones as possible, that should be our prerogative, and that choice respected.

    Posted by: Caliah Lyon on August 4th, 2007 at 9:06 pm

13. [...] believe that with the following polls: here, here and here, that the “voice of the voiceless” has spoken. Each of these polls was taken separately [...]

    Posted by: Second Life: Immersionists in Second Life (a response to Giulio Prisco) « Identity In The Digital Age on August 18th, 2007 at 9:47 am

14. I think that it is cool for instance you can speak with a friend whom you know except secondlife it is great that :)

    Posted by: Rossana Decosta on September 8th, 2007 at 2:44 am

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