Comments on: Voice in Second Life

By: Angela Thomas

Angela Thomas — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 04:36:49 +0000

Wow that’s fantastic Tasrill, thanks for sharing your thoughts and your story. I would love to make a collection of people’s stories, it is so fascinating to understand how this is potentially impacting upon individuals. I’ve had a lot of research participants actually comment about the slower pace of text being really valuable. I appreciate the idea of voice not being friendly to creativity and artistry of expression in many contexts. Thanks again! I love that line “text is king” Can I steal that for a publication title?

By: Tasrill

Tasrill — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 07:53:56 +0000

Well if you want stories of voice I can give you mine. I’m one of those role players. I shift gender and species at the drop of the hat. But I also am not scared to use voice. How ever I have seen that voice and text are very very different in the interactions you get with people. I have laughed so hard I cried on voice. It is fun, light hearted, and generally a ball. But well that is it. If you want something more then your average conversation voice is not it.

I have yet to have a deep soul searching conversation on voice. In my feeling voice is actually worse for those things then text for a simple reason. Humans are made to talk and the written word is very unnatural for us. And with that we get a distance form what we are saying in text. That distance means we can open up easier in text then voice. I have had so many people tell me very personal things and feelings that they would never express out loud in text that I have lost count. It is part of the reason relationships on line are so fast to start and quickly get into personal and deep feelings. People talk more truthfully then they do in voice about things that aren’t talked about in real life.

Also the role play aspect is not to be underplayed. Simply put everything in sl is a version of rp in some way. Going out to a club, having a house that looks like a rl house including bathroom and kitchen, siting in a chair on your deck watching the waves as you talk to someone, even wearing a swimsuit when you go into water. All of those things are not needed in a virtual world but that are comfortable to people and are light rp. It is part of the reason the vast majority of people look like the idealized version of there rl self if they were simply younger, sexier, and never had a bad hair day. SL is not conducive to being first life mark II. Visually and partially emotionally we are not ourselves and we even act slightly different on sl then we do in real life for the majority of people even if they are not role playing being a furry cyborg or other vastly different body form.

And there is the simple fact that role playing in voice is very awkward and unnatural. When I cuddle or more personal things I explain what I am doing in detail. I create a story. Sometime it is a full short story since one time I did a word count and it was 4,ooo words. The slower pace of text gives time to think. I have played a bard in text and told long involved stories that lasted for an hour or more. Created entire legends of the top of my head because of that slower pace. I love telling stories to people and it is a free form flow of consciousness form of writing. But in voice you can not do that. It is to quick and any delay in the story telling is unnatural. Simply put I can not put as much of my creativeness and artistry of text into voice.

So voice is fun, but it is also not as friendly to creativeness as text is. So light hearted chat is is great but if you want more then that, deeper then that, or more creative then that text is still king.

By: Angela Thomas

Angela Thomas — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 14:13:01 +0000

I’ve heard the same concerns too Ian, and its interesting for mt to try and get a collection of stories about peoples experiences so we can have more data to reflect on the affects of voice on society and culture. Any stories, please send them my way

By: Voice, text, meetings… «

Voice, text, meetings… « — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 09:40:18 +0000

[...] August 9, 2007 Voice, text, meetings… Posted by socialworlds under Accessibility, deafness, virtual Worlds and learning A report (and a mix of comments) about a positive experience with voice in SL (well, I should include one…) at Angela Thomas’ blog. [...]

By: Ian Murray

Ian Murray — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 01:18:12 +0000

I found a lot of the most interesting conversations with people in SL were with those who had some trouble with English. They therefore preferred text which they could review (and translate). Others had a scripter’s affinity for text and others were switching gender/species. In these cases they are very upset with the move to voice. I have heard a lot of people worry about the effect on their enjoyment of SL.

By: Alan

Alan — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 07:35:00 +0000

Ouch, you are double tagged! I am tagging you for a silly meme.

By: Chris Duke

Chris Duke — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 18:37:14 +0000

Angela,
I don’t believe you’ve been “invited” to play just yet. So, you’ve been tagged! See http://tinyurl.com/ys3ucs for specific details; reply requested
-Chris

By: Angela Thomas

Angela Thomas — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 07:59:01 +0000

@Halt Hi there I had some initial problems with my internet server blocking the audio for some reason, which was easily fixed because it was on my end. But I found that when I was tp-ing back and forth across sims that sound dropped in and out. I don’t have a clue why that was. Some of my friends on Macs had to fiddle with their setting to get it working but since I am not on a Mac I didn’t get the details. I think there are conversations about works and what doesn’t and troubleshooting etc on the Linden blog.

@Achriya Hope you have everything you need now, it was nice to meet you in SL There are a lot of people anti-voice for various reasons, and I can understand them all. But after using it for a few days I find it lovely when I can hear people laughing

@labsji Yeah there’s a few companies who are offering voice modification software. I heard somebody mention “Screaming Bee” but havent followed it up yet. I think that would make a fabulous study – fictional selves, fictional voices. Let me know if you get something going so I can come listen to you

By: labsji

labsji — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 05:09:21 +0000

@Achriya I too have apprehensions about voice. I guess will get used to it with time.

@Angela Is anyone working on Avatarization of the voice? I want to speak in say mickey mouse voice instead of my original voice. A lot of scope for using Speach2Text and Text2Speach technologies.

Thanks Andy Piper for pointing to this blog!
RL :-Balaji S. – Chennai, India
SL: Labsji Link, SL2RL Tree Sapling Teleport Service

By: achariya

achariya — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 02:04:56 +0000

Nice write up indeed. I had a very strange incident regarding voicing today in SL — I was hanging out in Caledon when I met a man who was about to sell his land there. I asked him why, and he said:

“It happened to me in EQ, and now it’s happening here. Goddamned voicers are taking over, ridiculing me because I prefer text. My favorite SL bar, which is usually a solid scroll of text, was all but silent last night because of voicing. That’s why I’m going to sell my Caledon land and move to Babbage, where it isn’t enabled.”

Fascinating, isn’t it? I had no idea that “anti-voicer” sentiment existed.

By the way, I’m Achariya Rezak, one of Donna Alvermann’s grad students. And if you have a moment, I’m ACHING to get my poor, comprehensive-exam-writing, grubby hands on your New Literacy Sampler article about fanfiction. Please, please shoot me the PDF if you can? The link to the site has been taken down. *cough* Anyway. I’d be very grateful.

On SL, my login name is Achariya Maktoum, and I’ve stalked you there as well. =)