Online games have quickly become popular in recent years. In fact, it has become a multi-billion dollar industry. These huge virtual worlds provide a realistic and immersive environment in which people can play and interact. It has been a fertile ground for bringing together players from all walks of life. As a result, these games have produced large and vibrant online communities.
In these virtual worlds, you can choose an avatar or a character that represents you. The latest games offer the ability to customize these characters in unlimited ways; you can change your character’s hairstyle, facial features, size, weight and clothing. How about the ability to change your voice to suit your online personality? This isn’t currently a standard feature in games. But I see technology stepping in and providing a solution.
Think about the possibilities: Players could now change their voices to sound like a troll, a giant, a dwarf, or a dark lord. They’ve spent many hours making their online character look a certain way, why not change their voice to fit it? They are products like Screaming Bee’s MorphVOX that can meet this need. MorphVOX is voice changing software specifically designed for online games. This tool allows players to role-play more effectively. Not only can they play the part, they can also have a voice to match.
Voice communication in games has been around for some time, but has only recently gained popularity in online games. Much of this could have to do with the increase in the number of people who now have broadband Internet connections instead of dial-up. This provides the precious bandwidth to cover an additional voice channel. As voice chat is becoming more and more prevalent in the use of online games, companies such as Xfire, TeamSpeak, and Ventrillo have emerged to meet the needs.
One company, Xfire, demonstrates the popularity of voice chat. Xfire provides a free application that players can use to easily find friends online and communicate in the game. Since 2004, the company’s market share has grown rapidly to nearly four million users.แทงบอลผ่านเน็ต
Many gamers find voice chat to be a better way to communicate than the slower process of typing messages on a keyboard. If a monster pops up, there’s no need to fumble with keys when you need to shout for help. Voice chat also allows players to effectively coordinate large groups of people in large raids.
What about role-playing games and voice communication? There is some reluctance to use voice communication in online role-playing games. Much of this problem stems from the lack of good voice changing tools in the past that can work effectively with games. Also, there is less control over good content in voice chat. External noises, like other people talking in the same room, are very annoying and cannot be easily masked by a microphone. Additionally, some less useful players may use voice chat to taunt or annoy other people, who may not be able to mute a voice channel in the game. And roleplaying live voice communication presents a challenge for most people to find the right thing to say at the right time. Most of us aren’t very good at impromptu acting – improvising in real time.
However, new online games such as Dungeons & Dragons Online (DDO) provide in-game voice capabilities that add new life to RPG. Many people are now starting to adopt voice chat as an important part of their gaming experience. As games as DDO become more common, I anticipate brighter days for voice communication. By providing rich hearing experience, voice chat will enhance realism for players. This is part of the never-ending process of adding more immersion to these virtual worlds.