BA Shared Topic: Voice Chat

This week, Azryu over at The Arcanery asks, "What if voice chat worked in cross realm dungeons?"

Hmm. My reply is going to be a bit short, since the question is small!  However, it brings up a good thought.  I am glad it doesn't work.

1. The thought of interacting with four other COMPLETE strangers, possibly having to mute in game sounds because of them (if muting sounds even affects that aspect) is just too much of a pain to do every single random 5 man dungeon.  
2. Plus, my guess is there would be some annoying players, younger players (who are either immature in what they say or immature and don't need to hear things older players may say)  or speech-challenged players, two groups of which could be taken advantage of.  That sweet little girl does NOT need a headset to communicate with random strangers on the internet.  She really doesn't.  
3. Accountability.  People may be rude as all hell over voice chat and not have a care in the world because they aren't on your server. At least if a random pug on your server gets in vent, for a raid, you might have an inkling of who at least a quarter of the people are.  If the RL is rude, people will drop.
4. I'm already chatting with my guild on vent. Why do I need to stop for a random 5 man?  

The only advantage to having voice chat in 5 man cross-realm dungeons is that new strategies in Cataclysm can be more easily explained.  There would be no typing or slow explanation of what to do.  People could explain reasons why they are going afk "My puppy just peed on the floor" or "BRB jeep in living room" without having to waste time typing it out or inciting use of the vote-kick button for not typing anything.  Plus, perhaps, it MIGHT bring the group together a bit, but, you might end up with one of the people in number 2 and either have someone making fun of them or them making fun of someone else. Maybe you.

So all in all, no voice chat in cross realm dungeons, mainly for reason number 3.

Other Thoughts:

Aliera @ The Violet Scribe
Blacksen @ Blacksen's End
Azryu @ The Arcanery