Why voice fonts don’t matter
I don’t think that my opinion in the title differs that much from the average EVE player, except that it might simply go a little further. I say that because, in general, the only real target audience (so to speak) for the new gender-bending feature that I can imagine basically consists of roleplayers, folks who actually pretend to play a character much like an actor would.
So I went over to the Chatsubo forum, used primarily by the IGS set and a few of us masochists, and asked point-blank. The result?
73% have no intention of using it beyond goofing around once or twice.
Keep in mind that the group polled here largely comprise the hard-core RP groups (or “anal” if you prefer). I can’t think of anyone more likely to have an interest in the voice fonts, and only 1 in 4 of them even plan to use it. Some time may pass before we see actual usage, of course.
I realize that the Vivox API does this already and that, to simplify somewhat, CCP just had to throw a UI on top of it.
But if they had bloodline fonts, then they might have something.
Related posts:
Date: 2010-01-27
Categories: OOC
Comments RSS TrackBack View Comments
Rettic
100% agree. Part of me wonders if CCP has some yet to be revealed purpose for this in the future. Otherwise, they would have to have known how little interest or demand there was for this among the player base already. Just doesn't quite add up when their energies could be put to so many other much more relevant game tweaks.
katsumi1980
As a Roleplayer myself, playing the acting role of Katsumi: Yes, I would love to give this feature a try if I am allowed. I say “Allowed” because most all Corporations do not allow Eve Voice at all, They rather require all Corp/Alliance members to use Vent. Which does have features like this, in paid format as well. But if given the chance, and maybe I am elsewhere besides home, running missions, or helping a new friend out: I'd absolutely give Voice Fonts a try. I've yet to be impressed by any voice-changing software I've ever tried so far though. Even ones I've gotten pirated that supposedly cost hundreds of dollars sounded rather fake, and very cheap. it would definately be cool if they worked right.
Kalahari
I think they are trialling it to see if there's any interest for future expansion into bloodlines-based voice fonts. I'm still pretty sure I saw a Brutor one on Sisi a couple of months back.
Trouble is, nobody seems interested without that feature, so they have themselves a Catch 22 – they want to see if there's interest before developing it further, but nobody is bothering because the interesting bit isn't there.
Wensley
It does smack a bit of feature bloat. Just because they can add it doesn't mean that they need to. The only real reason that I can see them adding it is because it is part of their plan for Walking In Stations (or whatever the hell they call it these days). Definitely not something I'll ever use.
Casiella Truza
I seem to recall that voice fonts are part of their plan for Incarna. So even though a lot of folks won't use this yet, they can maybe at least start to get some iterations on the UI going. If I could actually sound like a Sebiestor female, I might use it in some cases. Don't have an interest in sounding like a chipmunk, though.
Casiella Truza
But that's how they started with EVE Voice: making it more useful over time. Still not where they (or we) want it, though.
Casiella Truza
It's tied in someway to the runup for Incarna, if I recall correctly from what I read during Fanfest.
Rettic
Hm, interesting if thats the hook. Maybe we'll use EVE voice by default when walking in stations, and we'll hear each other when in close proximity.. like Halo works.
In that case, I could see how it'd be fun to be more in-character.
Casiella Truza
How does Halo work? Conversations overheard when in close proximity?
Rettic
Yeah, in battle, you can't hear your enemies voice comms until you're near them. So you can overhear someone sneaking around the corner. It's kind of brilliant.
So in EVE, imagine gathering your corp in the station, standing in a circle and having a corp discussion. It'd be much more immersive than a corp meeting in your ships, across systems.
Vol Jbolaz
Did you ask, “Do you plan on using the Voice Fonts?”, or did you ask, “Do you have an other-gender character and plan on using Voice Fonts?”
I have no intention of using them, but my toon is my gender. Besides, I rarely get to use Eve Voice.
Now, if there was a Voice Font to rid me of my slight drawl, then I might be more interested. I guess that goes back to bloodline fonts.
Casiella Truza
Valid point, but I didn't want to restrict it that much. I imagine Casiella having something of a sultry voice with a Norse-like accent, but that's just me. And I can't pull that off, either, being a Dallas man.