by Jeremy Matthews

Created on: April 13, 2010

Voice chat is an ever growing form of communication not only in games but in general everyday computer use.  There are millions of people who use voice chat each and every day.  Just like etiquette with sending email; there is a similar etiquette that should be used with voice chat.  In my experience, I play a lot of online games where voice chat is imperative for success in our game session.  Without fail, I always tend to encounter people who have no clue how to interact with other people via voice chat.

For example, when playing a recent match of Left4Dead2 I met another player who was very much a terrible 'voice-chatter'.  As soon as the match started the player starts talking.  Apparently, he had no clue how to configure his microphone to work properly.  His volume was extremely loud and fuzzy sounding.  Luckily, we could mute that player.  But when you have to go to those limits, you start to loose the strategy that voice chat grants within the game.  When using voice chat, for the sake of all who will eventually talk to you please take a couple of minutes and configure your microphone.  Nothing is worse than someone jumping into a game and yelling: "Can anyone hear me?".  Yes, we can hear you.  In fact, we can hear too much of you.

Another piece of voice chat etiquette is cutting out background noise.  When you jump into a game and turn on your microphone, we can hear whats going on in the background.  Not rocket science.  If you are trying to listen to your stereo, watch your favorite television show, and play your favorite game.  Please stop.  The world is a better place with multi-taskers  like yourself, but please stop.  We can hear all of that noise.  And that's exactly what it sounds like on our end, noise.

Always be respectful of other people when voice chatting.  People tend to get pretty brave when they type emails, texts, or text chat with other people.  Why?  Easy, if they say something offensive, there is no way of getting a quick 'come-back' on the them.  Same thing with voice chat.  Just because you can be an arrogant snot online doesn't mean you should be.  And in many games, coming across this way will get you muted, kicked, or even banned.  Play nice with others, and the same will be done to you.  If you are playing a game with someone and they have to leave the game for a while.  Please don't send them voice messages or emails belittling them for actually having a life to manage outside of the game.  Respect is key to keeping voice chat etiquette.

 If you keep these tips in mind you can have a great time using this newer form of communication within games and every day computer use.  It really isn't much different than using a telephone.  Just play nice and be smart.  Happy chatting!

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