What is the deal with people not being in the voice channel?

[Cerulien]

<p>Seriously, do you just not care?  You can't be in your guild channel while in BG, so what gives?  If there is one thing that any player can do to dramatically improve the performance of their group, it is to get into the voice channel at least to listen.  Trying to type for everyone not in voice = FAIL.</p>

[EverRude]

<p>Over half the time I join noone says anything. The majority of the time when something is said it's whining and complaining. I can count on one hand the times I've heard actual team strats being discussed out of nearly nearly 250 matches excluding Smugglers. Even smugglers is mostly whining and complaining with some strats mixed in. Not exactly the best incentive to join voice. Sometimes I leave voice so I won't hear the whining.</p>

[Taldier]

<p>Im going to take a wild guess and say its generally for one of 3 reasons.</p><p>1. SoE voice chat doesnt work / doesnt allow them to join the channel</p><p>2. About 80-90% of pug BG's have one of the following:              - A prepubescent kid screaming and whining into the channel              - Some guy who is playing eq2 while totally blazing high              - Two or more people arguing with each other over bs</p><p>3. Atleast 50% of the players who are actually in voice chat generally dont listen to anything said by anyone in voice chat, succinct typed instructions are often more effective and people are less likely to argue with them like rebellious children.</p><p>Voice chat allows team players who are able to work together to take coordination to the next level.  It just allows pug groups to b1&%* at each other in real time.</p>

[LardLord]

<p>Voice chat is terrible.  Too much whining, ect.  Plus, I've had enough problems that were related to VC that I prefer to keep it disabled entirely.</p><p>Instead of typing for the people who aren't in voice, just type for everyone and don't bother with voice.</p>

[Somatic]

<p>All serious pvp groups use ventrillo as requirment to join group and form groups before going into bgs.</p>

[Taldier]

<p><cite>Fritzzz@Nagafen wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>All serious pvp groups use ventrillo as requirment to join group and form groups before going into bgs.</p></blockquote><p>QFT</p>

[Shorcon]

<p><cite>EverRude wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Over half the time I join noone says anything. The majority of the time when something is said it's whining and complaining. I can count on one hand the times I've heard actual team strats being discussed out of nearly nearly 250 matches excluding Smugglers. Even smugglers is mostly whining and complaining with some strats mixed in. Not exactly the best incentive to join voice. Sometimes I leave voice so I won't hear the whining.</p></blockquote><p>Instead of just avoiding voice mute them. You ever run into me in a bg you will be hearing strats. Ill start complaining when people just run in all directions and dont listen or 6 of 12 are in voice crippling our ability to win. 90% of whats going against a team in bg can be spotted and keyed on to overcome and conquer. It's a game of chess in which comunication is 100% crucial.</p>

[Shorcon]

<p><cite>Fritzzz@Nagafen wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>All serious pvp groups use ventrillo as requirment to join group and form groups before going into bgs.</p></blockquote><p>I'm a serious battlegrounder and I dont use vent. I use mute for the duhs. I dont get whats so hard about using a headset and muting people you dont wanna hear. I love it when premades come in with 6 of the 12 for ganak on vent and cut our communications in half. I bet they go into server saying "if the pugs didnt suck we would have kicked @ss." I say " if you were in vent i would have followed your lead in numbers and im sure 2 or 3 of the 6 in voice would follow also. " Vent sucks. VC works great.</p>

[StaticLex]

<p>I never join VC.  Just join the map, do your job, and win some tokens.  It's not rocket science.</p>

[mysticalone]

<p>I join the voice but I have had to leave a few times</p><p>people say mute others, but as of yet I see no way to mute other players all the buttons on the chat interface for that are greyed out.   However rarely if ever does anything very constructive happen on those channels.</p><p>I have left twice now due to people just being plain abusive.  I left a few times because the nattering was so insanely bad it was distracting me from the game and i was turning the master volume down.   The voice chat is not being used for much other then gossip or in some cases to make fun of other players (on either side .. ) or just to be plain obnoixious.  The game is not that complicated and there are only a few viable strategies.  Rule of thumb is "stay with the pack" in most cases if you see the pack split .. pick one of the packs to roam with. </p><p>For the most part voice is not needed and in the case of playing with in some cases kids who were underaged something more of an irritant then a help.  </p>

[mysticalone]

<p><cite>Shorcon wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Fritzzz@Nagafen wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>All serious pvp groups use ventrillo as requirment to join group and form groups before going into bgs.</p></blockquote><p>I'm a serious battlegrounder and I dont use vent. I use mute for the duhs. I dont get whats so hard about using a headset and muting people you dont wanna hear. I love it when premades come in with 6 of the 12 for ganak on vent and cut our communications in half. I bet they go into server saying "if the pugs didnt suck we would have kicked @ss." I say " if you were in vent i would have followed your lead in numbers and im sure 2 or 3 of the 6 in voice would follow also. " Vent sucks. VC works great.</p></blockquote><p>how do you mute? i gave up trying unless they fixed it when you open the vocie chat window with the people in the room there is no way to mute them.  Also half the time I can't hear most of the people.  This is likely server lag because the sound quality drops upon entering the BG and goes up when you go back to your home server.  All in all though i have yet to find any conversations particularly helpful.   I used to attempt to bridge the gap between voice users and no voice users because i can type 128 words a minute, but it soon became clear that some people dont read text or use voice lol.  In those cases its time to just go with the flow or you will go insane.</p><p>I am also not sure what a "serious battlegrounder" is lol its a game with goals in them and you try to win.   Loosing is not fun and getting ground to a pulp by a team that can steam roll is not fun either, but in the end better gear rules even more so then effective communication.   "stay with the group" is something that is not hard to learn and those that can't learn it are a lost cause anyhow lol</p>

[mysticalone]

<p><cite>Taldier@Venekor wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Fritzzz@Nagafen wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>All serious pvp groups use ventrillo as requirment to join group and form groups before going into bgs.</p></blockquote><p>QFT</p></blockquote><p>yeah i watched that backfire a few times.  Its never helpful unless you can join and fill your side completely to basically play as if the other 6 or 12 players dont actually exist.   I saw one group fail miserably as they went to vent after the game start and left 6 of the total group of 12 out.  It was a doomed match though when they didn't want to share healers ... it made no sense and so half of us just gave up half way through as we were simply driving up the score faster by being killed.  Even one of their own team mates asked them to switch a healer in the text chat.   (didn't happen though and the scout group died over and over and over ........)</p>

[StaticLex]

<p>Oh yeah, you probably wouldn't want me in VC anyway because I'd be telling the noobs how terrible they are.  lol  <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" /></p>

[Trynt]

<p>The worst is when underperformers bark instructions instead of focusing on improving their own lack of contribution.</p>

[Haliken]

<p>"Okay, so... umm... G3 move to P2 and... uhh... yeah... keep doing that. No, go to P2."</p><p>Ignoring the fact that it tends to sound awful to say letters instead of "Group 3" out loud, or the high likelihood that nobody else knows what or where "P2" is since the person talking likely came up with that on their own...Voice chat makes people sound REALLY boring! (well, and you can't look back and double check something since voice chat doesn't leave something you can re-read as necessary)</p>

[Cuendilar]

<p><cite>Taldier@Venekor wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Im going to take a wild guess and say its generally for one of 3 reasons.</p><p>1. SoE voice chat doesnt work / doesnt allow them to join the channel</p><p>2. About 80-90% of pug BG's have one of the following:              - A prepubescent kid screaming and whining into the channel              - Some guy who is playing eq2 while totally blazing high              - Two or more people arguing with each other over bs</p><p>3. Atleast 50% of the players who are actually in voice chat generally dont listen to anything said by anyone in voice chat, succinct typed instructions are often more effective and people are less likely to argue with them like rebellious children.</p><p>Voice chat allows team players who are able to work together to take coordination to the next level.  It just allows pug groups to b1&%* at each other in real time.</p></blockquote><p>Most of this.</p><p>Also, there is a performance hit just having Voice Chat enabled for many.</p>

[Zabom]

<p><cite>Cuendilar@Permafrost wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Taldier@Venekor wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Im going to take a wild guess and say its generally for one of 3 reasons.</p><p>1. SoE voice chat doesnt work / doesnt allow them to join the channel</p><p>2. About 80-90% of pug BG's have one of the following:              - A prepubescent kid screaming and whining into the channel              - Some guy who is playing eq2 while totally blazing high              - Two or more people arguing with each other over bs</p><p>3. Atleast 50% of the players who are actually in voice chat generally dont listen to anything said by anyone in voice chat, succinct typed instructions are often more effective and people are less likely to argue with them like rebellious children.</p><p>Voice chat allows team players who are able to work together to take coordination to the next level.  It just allows pug groups to b1&%* at each other in real time.</p></blockquote><p>Most of this.</p><p>Also, there is a performance hit just having Voice Chat enabled for many.</p></blockquote><p>/agree Also, about 10% of the time VC crashes when I enter BG. I could reboot to fix it, but that would just leave me with truancy or worse....stuck in a match where i am on neither team. I'm sure I am not the only person having this problem</p><p>Edit: I do use it when I can. And I agree with the OP that it is frustrating when others don't. I try to be understanding though because I know there is a chance that they are having the same issues.</p>

[Marytaten]

<p>No your not the only person having a problem with voice chat. Even on my regular server if I change channels or characters it will kick me out entirly. Sometimes logging in and out doesn't even work. It will crash or do some nonsence where it will tell me I'm not logged in with this character. Its so frustrating. <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/1069449046bcd664c21db15b1dfedaee.gif" border="0" /><img src="/eq2/images/smilies/2786c5c8e1a8be796fb2f726cca5a0fe.gif" border="0" /></p>

[Cerulien]

<p><cite>mysticalone wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>how do you mute?</p></blockquote><p>Try right-clicking the name in the VC window <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />  VC in game works fine for me...never had the first issue.</p><p>So, I think I got my answer:  "I can't be bothered with it and I don't particularly care who wins the match."  I guess I have to live with that or use a pre-made.  It's just hard to get one together when the server channels don't work in BGs, because everyone who wants to BG...is in a BG!</p><p>And please don't pretend that typing is just as effective.  There is a reason why people don't let you join a raid unless you get in Vent.  You die and fail more.  It is just a fact.</p>

[Snagnasty]

<p>Every 4 days or so I get bugged and can not join VC.  I have tried reseting VC and the computer but nothing seems to work until I log in the next day and it is back up again. </p>

[Armironhead]

<p><cite>EverRude wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Over half the time I join noone says anything. The majority of the time when something is said it's whining and complaining. I can count on one hand the times I've heard actual team strats being discussed out of nearly nearly 250 matches excluding Smugglers. Even smugglers is mostly whining and complaining with some strats mixed in. Not exactly the best incentive to join voice. Sometimes I leave voice so I won't hear the whining.</p></blockquote><p>It doesnt take alot to play in the bgs.  If you've been in a handful of matches you pretty much know what your supposed to do and either you are going to do it or not, thus there is no critical need to talk.  Moreover, these are cross server pugs.  Most likely dont know anybody on your side and since you are unlikely to see them again outside of the bgs there is no incentive to engage in social chit chat. </p>

[VikingGamer]

<p>Just an observation but if you start into voicechat the same way that this thread was started, that is to say, blaming everyone else, then you might have your answer as to why people avoid voice chat. Leadership, in this context, must be earned rather than simply assumed. Your army is that of volunteers. Offering a sound strategy with confidence and not loosing your cool when people don't listen will earn you more loyalty among the perceptive than being a control freak and becoming abusive when things go to hell.</p>

[Roald]

<p>On my old computer I had to disable VC entirely or I was unable to swap characters without my entire computer crashing.</p><p>Not an issue on my new one, but I still see no point in using it really. Then again I'm normally with guildies in vent.</p>

[Hellswrath]

<p>From what I've seen in BGs, effective communication means a great deal everywhere except Klak.  It can help in Klak, but let's face it, not too much strategy needed in there normally.  However, in Ganak and Den, even one or two well organized groups can make a big difference on the outcome.</p><p>Of course there are the screamers and whiners and people who don't know what they are talking about.  You'll find that everywhere and those people need to be muted.  Personally, I've had issues trying to get mute to work in voice even when I'm the raid leader.  This is something that needs to be solved on SoE's end.</p><p>However, people who just run on their own because they don't want to listen to anyone's instructions are just as likely to be a liability as a help and very rarely fit themselves into the raid's plans as well as they could if they were in voice.  Obviously there are exceptional players who are out there to win but can't log in to voice for one reason or another.  But just getting people to log in to voice shouldn't be such a struggle.  Having respawns called out and strats called certainly makes it easier to stick with your group and win a match. </p><p>Real time communications on a team oriented game. . . Who'd want that?</p>

[MadHatter1]

<p>It's kind of irritating when folks can't take the time to joing VC.  It can make all the difference in the world with team performance.  Unfortunately, it can also be abused, and to my knowledge, you can't actually mute individuals, but you can turn selected individuals all the way down, essentially muting them in that manner.</p><p>I can understand that there are some people, for one reason or another, that can't get VC to work due to conflicts, outdated hardware, or user error, but those are the only people that have a good excuse not to join voice chat.</p><p>To those that go into full premades, I can see using Vent over VC...hell, we tend to use skype due to the superior quality over VC.  But, if you are going into, say Ganak with maybe six people and you are all using vent and not in VC, then you are doing the other six people in your raid a big disservice.  As far as I"m concerned, the message that you are imparting to those pug six is, you aren't worth the time and effort for us to get into VC and share our strat with you.</p><p>To those that contend "we don't need VC...we put strats in raid chat," that might work at times, but when things get hot n' heavy, I can guarantee that I have no time to read what the heck is going on in raid chat, and I'm willing to bet that I'm not the only one.  Raid chat is akin to using runners in a war...it's a crappy way to fight a battle.</p>