IGN: Splatoon's lack of voice chat is "cheap and lazy"

Not everyone playing is bad some people could actually use the tip, I know I play Monster hunter.

Do you mind enlightening me if there is anything to it other than not running in to the giant hitbox? Like... if there's anything that's not immediately obvious I'll totally agree with you, but if people are insisting on running in to the giant roller of death, giving them the hint that doing so is lethal probably won't help matters.

*edit*

OK, I suppose saying "attack them from a point where they can't run over your face" is a helpful tip.
 
I believe there are tons of valid excuses:

Small match times
Useful map
Toxic community members
Straightforward gameplay

There are other games with all of these things that still have and benefit from voice chat. I understand toxic community members, but they're incredibly easy to silence. GAF arguably has some toxic community members, but there's an ignore button for a reason.

Why would they do that?

So that people can expect what maps would be chosen.
I could actually understand them doing it for like half an hour or maybe even an hour periods, but four hours is just terribly long. Not to mention there's gonna be 5 maps at launch, it's not like it'll be hard to prepare for 5 different maps.
 
It's mind-numbing how obtuse their defenses are. I don't get it. It's incredibly selfish and deliberately short sighted. Telling people they shouldn't have an option just because they dislike, or simply don't care about something.

Am I missing something here?

To be honest, half of it is likely blind Nintendo support. I'm a huge Nintendo fan, but it's pretty ridiculous how people will jump through hoops to defend every decision they make as if doing anything else is literally blasphemy. Anyone remember how Nintendo wasn't doing DLC because they "actually care about gamers and release full games"? And now Nintendo is releasing half a game at launch with Splatoon with DLC and patches months down the line completing it, and somehow that too is because "they're amazing and actually care about gamers like no one else".
 
I had no idea Fran was still with IGN. I remember when he was with Dolphin Cove and interviewing for the job, which seems like eons ago now.
 
Funny, the only thing I hear on PvZ voice chats is mexicans saying puto and screaming children, but nonetheless that game was amazingly fun.

Then YOU should mute it. I however have had excellent games along with the potential nonsense.

Removing options because you don't like them gets us all lesser games.

Same. Without voice.

Awesome. So in my case the game benefited from voice chat. I guess it DOES benefit from it.
 
Im ok with no voice chat because I don't want to hear 12 year old kids call me fag while I'm playing this charming game.

This lame excuse could be used for every video game ever. "Why should they put in an optional feature people could use with their friends when it's possible that kids might call me names?"
 
Who chats on a console anymore? Serious question. I never do with randoms, and I don't play with friends a ton and even when I do we don't really chat.

That's...kind of weird, and pretty much just you.

People who play with friends are going to want to chat together. Yeah voice chat is not all that important with randoms given that nobody really does that anymore, but if you have a close-knit group of friends and/or family you're going to want to talk. If the game doesn't have ANY options to talk you're asking them to get on some other chat system that's just a poor implementation plain and simple.
 
Consise and correct, IMHO. It's inexcusable for an online team-based game to have no method of voice communication. It would have been pathetic in 2006 let alone 2015.
 
These are not excuses, these are factors that make the lack of voice-chat sting slightly less.


That's why voice chat would be optional.

As I said earlier:

Sure, but I don't listen to other people when they give out orders or directions. When I talk on online games, they don't listen either. Hell, I don't even play Counter Strike anymore with the amount of vitriol that comes out of my own team's mics. Voice chat is an option in those games too and you know what happens? The team doesn't help you or they purposely try to sabotage you if they feel you are the cause for the losing.

The devs are right in this case to not have voice chat at all.

As social psychology has shown as well, opt-in systems don't work like people think they will work. The culture that initiatives are implemented in dictate the way those initiatives are used. The culture in competitive/FPS is toxic. Hell, the gaming community as a whole can be pretty toxic. The only people that will use voice chat are the ones you don't want to use voice chat.
 
Personally I don't see the obsession over voice chat in gaming. I've played a lot of multiplayer games from CS to L4D to DOTA to MMOs and not once did I desire to have an online voice chat. Part of that because I rarely talk when I game anyway.

You pretty much summed up how I feel about it. It sucks for people who do want it but personally I just don't care about it.
 
Who chats on a console anymore? Serious question. I never do with randoms, and I don't play with friends a ton and even when I do we don't really chat.

My friends and I do all the time (Mario Kart, Smash, Battlefield, Bloodborne co-op, dying light, nhl)...if you're playing multiplayer with your friends, why the hell wouldn't you want to communicate. It makes it much more enjoyable to me....unless you hate your friends I guess.
 
Completely honest, I used to use voice chat all the time during the Xbox and the early 360 years, but over time grew to mute everyone except for my friends in a separate party chat.

Last thing I ever want to do is talk to the people I'm playing with or against. I do wish there was a party chat system like on the 360, though.
 
the funniest part of all of this is that nintendo's early ass online games had voice chat, like fucking pokemon diamond of all things and metroid prime hunters. what happened in 10 years that they went so backwards.
 
They might also enforce the no chat thing to make sure most players actually aren't co-operating in a hardcore manner. Compare it to running into a clan in the cod games. They're usually a bunch of try-hards exploiting the most annoying tactics and co-operating in such a way that it results in a spawntrap or unwinnable situation where the other team just has an awful time or lots of ragequits. As this game is trying to promote itself as newcomer friendly game, the voice ban not only prevents toxic people, it prevents toxic gameplay as well.

This also shines true in other parts of the gameplay, like not always having to engage in fights cause you should be covering ground and forcing the use of the gamepad so players can always see where they're most needed at any time. All the design decisions, including no voice chat, are there to add up that specific game experience they're trying to create. I can only commend them for trying to create what they want instead of just add things because they can or because it's 2015 or blablabla.
 
Do you mind enlightening me if there is anything to it other than not running in to the giant hitbox? Like... if there's anything that's not immediately obvious I'll totally agree with you, but if people are insisting on running in to the giant roller of death, giving them the hint that doing so is lethal probably won't help matters.

*edit*

OK, I suppose saying "attack them from a point where they can't run over your face" is a helpful tip.

Something like throw a grenade on the ground so they turn around and get hit or keep moving and get also hit.

There are other things I wish I could tell people, like ink recharges faster when moving than when you stay still.

You can cancel the rifles charge by turning into a squid.

I'm sure more people know about other techniques too.
 
I've missed out on the bad shooter voice communication thing.
Most games I've played people are silent. With the occasional guy talking to ask if anyone has a mic. To which no one responds, including me, because of not plugging in the included headset.

The only game genres that don't really need voice chat compared to others are 1V1 styled multiplayer games. Fighting games, strategy games, RTSes. Even then talking to a friend during a friendly match or practice can be really beneficial.

Some of those have team based variants, like 2v2, 3v3 etc in which case you might want voice chat or something because team communication is absolutely vital.
 
the funniest part of all of this is that nintendo's early ass online games had voice chat, like fucking pokemon diamond of all things and metroid prime hunters. what happened in 10 years that they went so backwards.

Hey You Pikachu was the first time I ever spoke into a mic for a video game lol
 
the funniest part of all of this is that nintendo's early ass online games had voice chat, like fucking pokemon diamond of all things and metroid prime hunters. what happened in 10 years that they went so backwards.
Its strange that Pokemon, by Game Freak, boasts Nintendo's most forward thinking online suite by a country fucking mile. Beats out any other handheld console game's connectivity.
 
What I find more incredible about all this party chat situation in the WiiU is that I've relied on their competition to be able to have option they don't give. My friends and I use our Vita's/Ps4 to have a good party chat. The fucking VIta has a party chat option. The Vita, let that sink in.
 
As I said earlier:

You're ignoring people with IRL friends and family that want to talk to each other while playing the game. The game telling them "you do your own voice chat solution because we ain't giving you any" is a pretty terrible idea, pure and simple. That doesn't realy have anything to do with "toxic gaming communities" or whatever, it's about simple features for people who need them.

I've no clue why people pretend online voice chat is exclusively about randoms. The reason why nobody uses voice chat with randoms on the PS4/XB1 is because of party chat, whereas Splatoon won't even have party chat.
 
Who chats on a console anymore? Serious question. I never do with randoms, and I don't play with friends a ton and even when I do we don't really chat.

As somebody who never played a lot of online games but found SOCOM back in the day to spectacularly elevate an experience I otherwise wasn't interested in, I feel a little sad that this sentiment is so common. Communicating with players online seems, to me, to be the point of playing online (aside from the difference in challenge between AI and bot players, although human players can easily be equally shitty.) Chatting with other players on strategies, or sharing triumphs with living players on your team, or just rubbing it in to somebody that you got the jump on, that's a whole new layer added onto the gameplay. So while there are of course plenty of games that don't make great use of chat, when it's working right and the culture is groomed, it's a highlight experience in gaming.

socomassrev2.jpg


New gamers I guess are not experiencing that, and I feel sad for them. Like quartering up or LAN parties, there's a cultural aspect of gaming that we're going to lose in my lifetime. Sure, technology has marched on and made many, many things better (and maybe the vast majority of online chat is so awful that some will think we're better off without,) but chat with your fellow gamers inside the game world (which is different than party chat... that's really just a phonecall, nothing special about that) was one of the great breakthroughs of the past generation or two, I hate to see it dismissed and I hate to hear of such awful experiences ruining the value and I hate that it seems to be going away.
 
lmao man, not even a day after the demo and it's already back to this same tired argument

Splatoon was never going to and will never have voice chat with strangers, period. It might happen with friends, you'll have to wait and see, but it may be limited to lobbies like MK8 and Smash if it strains the connection or whatever
 
There are certainly more elegant solutions they could have taken, I'm sure. Not that I think anyone has nailed it, but I think enough thought into the issue and a silent default rather than the typically noisy one could work, even if just in friend team matches. I'm not bothered but they did come up short here.
 
I'm not set against voice chat but I don't use it and it levels the playing field with teams that normally do use it.

If Nintendo has the player numbers then imo they should have ranked matches and non ranked matches with the former only having mic support. Which gives competitive players and fixed teams what they want but blocks them from Pub stomping, a win-win in my book.
 
It's lame that it has no voice chat, but I was never expecting it.

Is anyone planning on using Skype or something similar? Back when I was playing a few different PS2 online games that didn't have voice we'd use Ventrilo or Skype.
 
I've missed out on the bad shooter voice communication thing.
Most games I've played people are silent. With the occasional guy talking to ask if anyone has a mic. To which no one responds, including me, because of not plugging in the included headset.

I doubt most players would be interested in talking to randoms tbh. Xbox and Playstation's party systems have been conditioning players to only talk to friends for years now. Not even being able to do that is pretty shitty imo.
 
lmao man, not even a day after the demo and it's already back to this same tired argument

Splatoon was never going to and will never have voice chat with strangers, period. It might happen with friends, you'll have to wait and see, but it may be limited to lobbies like MK8 and Smash if it strains the connection or whatever

Every system should have party chat. My VITA has party chat. This is only a "tired argument" because Nintendo is so far back in 2001.
 
lmao man, not even a day after the demo and it's already back to this same tired argument

Splatoon was never going to and will never have voice chat with strangers, period. It might happen with friends, you'll have to wait and see, but it may be limited to lobbies like MK8 and Smash if it strains the connection or whatever

Limiting it to lobbies is still stupid and ass-backwards. You may be tired of the argument but many of us are tired of Nintendo being dragged kicking and screaming into modern online gaming.
 
lmao man, not even a day after the demo and it's already back to this same tired argument

Splatoon was never going to and will never have voice chat with strangers, period. It might happen with friends, you'll have to wait and see, but it may be limited to lobbies like MK8 and Smash if it strains the connection or whatever

Which is dumb, and hopefully Nintendo keeps seeing this stuff and learns to stop being dumb.
 
I'm sure if chat is somehow patched in and we get a gaf group going, we can talk anime and crap :3

I doubt I'll use it to strategize haha
 
They might also enforce the no chat thing to make sure most players actually aren't co-operating in a hardcore manner. Compare it to running into a clan in the cod games. They're usually a bunch of try-hards exploiting the most annoying tactics and co-operating in such a way that it results in a spawntrap or unwinnable situation where the other team just has an awful time or lots of ragequits. As this game is trying to promote itself as newcomer friendly game, the voice ban not only prevents toxic people, it prevents toxic gameplay as well.

This also shines true in other parts of the gameplay, like not always having to engage in fights cause you should be covering ground and forcing the use of the gamepad so players can always see where they're most needed at any time. All the design decisions, including no voice chat, are there to add up that specific game experience they're trying to create. I can only commend them for trying to create what they want to create instead just add things because they can or because it's 2015 or blablabla.
How the hell do you rationalize calling working with other players as a team "toxic gameplay"?

You know how you prevent spawn-camping? You design a game that doesn't promote spawn-gamping.

You know how you prevent spamming annoying tactics? You design a game that doesn't promote spamming annoying tactics.

You know how you don't prevent those things? Removing voice chat in an online team-based shooter in 2015.
 
If only there were cool people on the internet.

You know, like, friends of mine. Or clan members, or schoolmates, or whatever.

Sadly there's only preteens on the internet as I've learned from GAF. I think I'll keep my real life friends added on Steam and consoles since I know they exist, but all those people I've met through Arma 3 and CS and Killzone, I didn't know they were screaming preteens. Now that I do they're def getting defriended.

Well most of my friends and I used the party features on the Xbox and PS to communicate with each other.

I hated hearing other dudes or little kids cussing their lungs out online.
 
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