Blizzard Voice
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Blizzard released its beginning voice service today.
Battle.net accounts are free to make.
Voice is free to use.
Could be useful.
It IS limited by region Friends lists. So I would suggest folks coordinate on which region they will be using.
I have a waggish sense of humor.
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@Misadventure Is it in any way superior to Discord, which is web-based and overall awesome?
Edit: There's a desktop client for it as well as a web version, both of which are fully featured.
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Mm, I would say no, it is slightly easier to use, but Discord has a low bar.
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I prefer to use Curse over pretty much any other voice chat, especially when playing games. It works like Skype in that you can make group calls and all that but is optimized to work while gaming. No banner ads, no CPU-hogging and all that, plus there are a lot of nice extra features, like add-on management, game sync and guild features. That said, I'll see if my friends would like to try it out if only to give an opinion on it after some use.
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So, a general tool with more development time and established or excited users may beat out a proprietary tool usable only within a limited scope on a single game.
I can think of one demographic that Blizzard is targeting with this: New users. They might win if they get a critical mass of new users, or if it's considerably easier to use than Curse or Discord, the latter seemingly critical to affect the former.
“If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.”
― Carl Sagan, Cosmos -
@Thenomain A battle.net tool would also have one massive advantage; an in-game interface (in fact several games supporting it internally).
All those Overwatch, WoW, SC2 etc players are very often in one-time groups formed on the spot, who currently if they want to chat while they play to coordinate etc they need to figure out which voicechat to use (which... not everyone is using the same one), then alt-tab out to go log on there and find each other. It's not a lot of work but it's some work which as you said might not be the easiest thing to do for casual computer users.
If instead these games, played by millions, offer everyone an one-click-and-it-just-works way of chatting with your group then the new voicechat will immediately become the de facto way of doing it. I mean overnight. And once people are hooked to it they might start using it for other things outside of Blizzard's ecosystem (which is almost certainly their plan all along) even if dedicated tools offer better featuresets overall.
Blizzard had tried this before, kinda, a few years ago... but the voicechat feature they offered at the time was barely even functional. It was a horrible implementation which caused it to be dead on arrival.
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I never use voice chat for quick-play games in Overwatch. I don't want those people in my ear.
If you're looking for some sort of VOIP to supplement a M* for some reason, I recommend Discord.
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@krmbm For Mythic+ groups it is very handy though. You really never have time to type stuff out (when to give Bloodlust, call out an incoming patrol, warn about CC being broken, etc) during boss fights. Way more so for raids, naturally, if you're doing any type of hard content at all.
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All those things you said make no sense to me, but I'll take your word for it.
I only voice-chat with people I "know." I would never use VOIP with a PUG, so I just Discord it up.
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I sometimes use group chat in OW if I group with a few people from my friends list - those being people I met through the game - but if I group with people I play with more regularly then I vastly prefer Curse. Discord is okay but, like I said in my previous post, I love the features Curse has.
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Yeah, as a female, I don't voice with randoms, period. Way too much crap over the years. My guild uses Curse, it works, is easy to use, and manages my add-ons beautifully. I don't see anything about this new feature that would entice me to switch to it.
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I just wish sometimes on 5-mans there was voicechat just so I could point out at-large adds, explain mechanics on the fly, etc.
Then again whiny 12 year olds screaming in my ear would probably make any such tactical advantages irrelevant.
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Every voice system lets you mute individuals.
Also, you don't have to speak. Usually the tank or healer is leading for WoW-likes. For FPS, call outs will move you up a grade in team performance. Watch for teamwork so tight only voice could manage it in games, and you'll see what I mean. Like say a McCree High Noon double fake out.
Now if it could remember who you want to keep muted permanently, that would be good.
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If I'm doing something with a pug, it is not something that needs that coordination. I am not interested in talking to randoms. Idgaf if I can mute, or don't have to actually speak. Duh. I do not need to have basic fucking use explained, nor does anyone else here.
What I use now is fine. Blizzard is a day late and a dollar short. I am uninterested in being convinced. I was simply providing an echo of what was being said, to confirm that yes, what they have said is also true for me.
Also? I'm the fucking tank. Way to assume.
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Edit, okay I am too dumb to get strikethrough to work.
I don't know why you think I am thinking about you Sunny. I never am. I am very specifically never trying to communicate with you.
I have a waggish sense of humor.
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@Misadventure
Strikethrough.
