Why is the world so quiet? There is only one voice in the entire game...Why is the world so quiet? There is only one voice in the entire game...
"May I have a bit of copper please?"
When I first heard it I thought I had imagined it. I moved closer to the beggar and listened. He said it again. It sent a chill through my spine. Not because I was happy, but at how erie and displaced this was. No one in the entire world speaks accept for the beggar / madman.
Why is this? Voices can convey a lot of information quickly and easily.
A game I was highly addicted to before EQ was a multi-player online team game called Tribes (By Dynamix, distributed by Sierra).
Voices could be used by a simple series of keystrokes. These were always a combination of 3 letters. (I think some combinations may get up to 5 keystrokes.) If I recall correctly, V, for voice, G for Offensive menu, G for the final command to say to your team "Going offensive". To a good team this 2 second process gave your whole team an idea of what you were doing. The other teammates didn't have to look up from the action, didn't have to read. They heard what you were doing and were free to concentrate on what they were doing.
Why does it upset me EQ has no such system?
Well, /help is a step in the right direction, but suppose your in combat. It's a big battle, there is a full group of 6, and your fighting 3 monsters. That's an average of 15 lines of text per round flying past your screen. I'd average that's about a 3 second read time per round.
What are the chances you will see that persons call for help behind you during that battle? Highly unlikely. What about your own teammates who you may have not noticed who's dropped to 1 bubble health?
Now, what if you could hear the cry for help?
How about, your at 1/2 life and mana, resting, talking to your buddy via tell, and your typing away absorbed in what your saying. Few would notice the 'cries for help', but if all of a sudden the silence were broken by an audibly cry, everyone would surely notice that.
Voices would also be very useful in other instances. How many times have you chased someone who was weaving to get a monster off him? How many times have you had the chance to do a tell, or say, for them to 'stop that you'd get it off them'? I'd bet very rarely.
But what if you could in fact do, V, H, S. And then an audible voice says "I will save you" (V for voice, H for Help menu, S for "I will save you").
How about Hail? I'm over 35 th now and don't have to stare at that spell book. It's nice to see when someone says hail if there speaking to me. But not that long ago I couldn't tell. At least with a voice attached to the hail I could hear which direction it came from, and the distance.
Summary / Solution / Truth
Sound is prevalent and key in EQ. I see no reason why they can't add some voices to help the players and facilitate teamwork and friendliness. Not a big range, but bigger than say. I'd say maybe 50-100 foot radius. No bigger than the monster noises.
Tribes came out over 3 months sooner than EQ and voices are essential for teamwork. Imagine if EQ had just a few key sayings.
"Help"
"I got it"
"Have you got it?" or "Do you need help?"
"I'm fine."
"I'm dying"
"Hail" or "Greetings"
"I'll save you"
"Look out!", "To arms!" or "Behind you!",
maybe "Train"
"Thanks"
Others that would be good but not necessary.
"Hurry up."
"I'm out." or "My energy is expended.", good for mana
or health
Even just the addition of these few would prevent countless needless deaths, as you could hear a voice, instead of it flying by your screen. Especially if you consider the fact that there are a lot of EQ players who don't type or read all that fast.
Yours truly being one of the accept ions at 70 wpm ;>
Tribes voices are, for team use, extremely helpful, as general use, humorous and amusing. Another example is Starsige, the customization of voices being combinations of insults and humorous remarks, makes the game much more enjoyable.