Should ESO on PC have an *optional* proximity voice chat?

xylena_lazarow

No, ESO should not have a proximity voice chat feature

Is there a reason you can't "opt in" to using Discord for comms? Seems like a waste of development.

tomofhyrule

One of the main things that would prevent the development of this feature is just that Discord already exists, and has more features anyway. If the idea is that people would be able to use an in-game chat for callouts, that would also require the other players to also use the same feature... and many of them would not want to swap from Discord in the first place.

In essence, you'd go from "join the discord!" "I don't have discord" "then you don't get callouts." to "join the discord!" "what about the game chat?" "we're on discord voice so they won't be in game."

If ESO was first being made, then sure. But after 11 years of being established with most guilds preferring an external source (even those guilds which didn't used to have Discords have moved there), adding this feature to the basegame will not magically make people migrate off of Discord. We've already seen this kind of thing in the number of PC players who have dropped addons like EHT or LWC because home tours and "show only quest" got added to craft stations - if the basegame makes a feature which is still inferior to the external tool, you're not going to get a lot of people to swap over.

sans-culottes

Yes, ESO should have an opt-in proximity voice chat (Off by default)

mctaff wrote: »

Unless there is a very clear Terms Of Service that allows it to be recorded (which most players would object to), in order to have it moderated where a complaint is made, the answer is no from me.

Gold selling shills would be standing by wayshrines broadcasting pre-recorded messages, the hatred when someone 'steals' a node from someone, and the general screaming from people who were offended by something... no thanks.

Let’s nip this in the bud: As a console player, I’ve never once encountered this. If that’s your objection, then you can safely put it to rest.

If your concerns are things like annoying conversations, bad music, and the sounds of eating, etc., then that’s another story.

SkaraMinoc wrote: »

Matt Firor discussed this topic in an interview many years ago. Basically they don't want to code a feature that is already widely available on PC. Also there have been stories of domestic abuse on open mics, people eating loudly with slurping sounds, coughing, mouth breathing, etc. all while you're trying to enjoy Tamriel.

Any number of things “could” happen over a voice chat. I don’t think basing concerns around the worst or most tiresome outcomes is reason enough to object to a feature available on other platforms. If these sounds aren’t what you’re looking for, then I can’t imagine Discord, Ventrilo, and so on would be enjoyable for you, either.

GloatingSwine

Other (please describe your thoughts)

If ESO on PC was to get voice chat, it should be group only.

Nestor

Other (please describe your thoughts)

I think it would be great if we could opt in to Voice Chat for Groups. While Guild Groups have an easier time setting up Chat for Groups, Ad Hoc and Group Finder groups have no real way to set a Voice Chat on the Fly. Discord and other third party Comms Invites are process.

I would not use Proximtiy myself, but as long as it is Opt In, perhaps with a clear icon abovce my character that shows my Voice Status.

LunaFlora

Yes, ESO should have an opt-in proximity voice chat (Off by default)

i don't often use it on console but it's nice to have as an option.
would be a good option for PC too.

IsharaMeradin

Other (please describe your thoughts)

Opt-in and it be used as the go to chat method for trials and harder group content.

Better yet, full control over what channels can be included and at what times. No need to be limited to proximity.

Rogue_Coyote

If it was done like the CoD voice proximity chat, then yes. Would like to hear and speak with enemies in cyro

sans-culottes

Yes, ESO should have an opt-in proximity voice chat (Off by default)

Rogue_Coyote wrote: »

If it was done like the CoD voice proximity chat, then yes. Would like to hear and speak with enemies in cyro

I don’t think this would be the best idea.

Erickson9610

Yes, ESO should have an opt-out proximity voice chat (On by default)

Rogue_Coyote wrote: »

If it was done like the CoD voice proximity chat, then yes. Would like to hear and speak with enemies in cyro

There was a bug with ESO on consoles that allowed you to voice chat with nearby enemies in Cyrodiil, even after you or they were killed. I think it's hilarious, but obviously some people didn't like being trash talked.

Marronsuisse

No, ESO should not have a proximity voice chat feature

rootkitronin wrote: »

A lot of people here don't seem to understand what the word optional means or have failed to read the subject line of the thread.

Something that is glossed over in the OP is the fact that if there's an optional proximity voice chat, there would also be a non-optional group voice chat.

I'm glad voice chat doesn't exist as an in-game option for casual PUGs with strangers. I like that I don't have to miss out on what people are saying if I don't want people yelling and blasting music in my ears (that got old so fast on console).

Discord is there for playing with friends and guildies. It's only practical to use with people you already know, and that's perfect to me.

Orbital78

While I don't generally use typed chat and play with a controller, this would have needed to be done earlier in the games life. Unless it is a simple fix and could be done quick and easily, I don't think it would be worth it. I don't think the game has too many more years left as it is. I think they should focus on more pressing issues and broken aspects of the game first.

fizl101

Yes, ESO should have an opt-in proximity voice chat (Off by default)

Marronsuisse wrote: »

rootkitronin wrote: »

A lot of people here don't seem to understand what the word optional means or have failed to read the subject line of the thread.

Something that is glossed over in the OP is the fact that if there's an optional proximity voice chat, there would also be a non-optional group voice chat.

I'm glad voice chat doesn't exist as an in-game option for casual PUGs with strangers. I like that I don't have to miss out on what people are saying if I don't want people yelling and blasting music in my ears (that got old so fast on console).

Discord is there for playing with friends and guildies. It's only practical to use with people you already know, and that's perfect to me.

Why would group chat be non optional? Its optional on console, all the voice chats are

tomofhyrule

fizl101 wrote: »

Marronsuisse wrote: »

rootkitronin wrote: »

A lot of people here don't seem to understand what the word optional means or have failed to read the subject line of the thread.

Something that is glossed over in the OP is the fact that if there's an optional proximity voice chat, there would also be a non-optional group voice chat.

I'm glad voice chat doesn't exist as an in-game option for casual PUGs with strangers. I like that I don't have to miss out on what people are saying if I don't want people yelling and blasting music in my ears (that got old so fast on console).

Discord is there for playing with friends and guildies. It's only practical to use with people you already know, and that's perfect to me.

Why would group chat be non optional? Its optional on console, all the voice chats are

Well, Discord is currently optional as well, and yet the entire premise of this thread is “groups are excluding those who choose not to use it.”

It’s not a leap to expect that if this feature existed that groups would similarly demand that the others turn it on or face being kicked.

belial5221_ESO

Other (please describe your thoughts)

Only voice chat should be group voice.Though with voice means more servers to run,someone to maintain,more chance of instability and cost.Best to just use 3rd party that only has to deal with one thing.

spartaxoxo

Yes, ESO should have an opt-in proximity voice chat (Off by default)

Marronsuisse wrote: »

Something that is glossed over in the OP is the fact that if there's an optional proximity voice chat, there would also be a non-optional group voice chat.

It's not glossed over because that doesn't follow at all? Why would one channel be optional and the other mandatory? The voice chat on console is not mandatory.

spartaxoxo

Yes, ESO should have an opt-in proximity voice chat (Off by default)

tomofhyrule wrote: »

Well, Discord is currently optional as well, and yet the entire premise of this thread is “groups are excluding those who choose not to use it.”

It’s not a leap to expect that if this feature existed that groups would similarly demand that the others turn it on or face being kicked.

????

Where did the OP say that?

Wereswan

No, ESO should not have a proximity voice chat feature

Thysbe wrote: »

towards the "gatekeeping" argument: there is a limited pool of ressources and developing that feature takes from other features I would rather see implemented - or bug fixes. So yes, there is a reason not to want features implemented even if they are optional.

I would turn off voice chat anyways and I see a lot of people doing that. One of the reasons beeing language.

We are in a Multi-Language environment and not everyone feels safe talking in English, the threshold beeing much lower when typing.

So the amount of people you can actually communicate with in proximity might be a lot smaller than you think.

Voice chat is the first thing I disable in any game that has it, thanks to my experiences with it in games like Overwatch and GTAO. I play games to relax, not to be verbally abused.

LadyGP

No, ESO should not have a proximity voice chat feature

Please no. PvP zone chat can be toxic enough.

Orbital78

LadyGP wrote: »

Please no. PvP zone chat can be toxic enough.

You can turn it off or put it as a back tab, I have a zone chat and tells tab. I don't watch zone chat most of the time. It would also be optional, but probably not worth the resources to implement it.

SilverBride

No, ESO should not have a proximity voice chat feature

It would be more accurate if the poll was for PC players only because we are the ones that would be affected by it.

Erickson9610

Yes, ESO should have an opt-out proximity voice chat (On by default)

SilverBride wrote: »

It would be more accurate if the poll was for PC players only because we are the ones that would be affected by it.

Yes, I specifically stated "ESO on PC" several times.

Edit: I misunderstood the context. You mean that the poll should only be able to be voted on by PC players, not that the poll somehow wasn't targeted at PC players.

Marronsuisse

No, ESO should not have a proximity voice chat feature

fizl101 wrote: »

Marronsuisse wrote: »

rootkitronin wrote: »

A lot of people here don't seem to understand what the word optional means or have failed to read the subject line of the thread.

Something that is glossed over in the OP is the fact that if there's an optional proximity voice chat, there would also be a non-optional group voice chat.

I'm glad voice chat doesn't exist as an in-game option for casual PUGs with strangers. I like that I don't have to miss out on what people are saying if I don't want people yelling and blasting music in my ears (that got old so fast on console).

Discord is there for playing with friends and guildies. It's only practical to use with people you already know, and that's perfect to me.

Why would group chat be non optional? Its optional on console, all the voice chats are

Ah, I really could have worded that better. You're right that it's technically optional, but if some members aren't listening to voice, and others are only chatting with voice, it's confusing. So to me it feels non-optional for groups. That's why I switched to PC, everyone has a keyboard.

JemadarofCaerSalis

Other (please describe your thoughts)

As someone who doesn't want to hear random chatter from people, especially if it wasn't related to the game itself (ie just random chatter about their life, or cats or whatever), and as someone who will likely never do end game content because of the requirements for voice, even if it is just to listen to instructions, I would far prefer to not have something like this, simply because I could easily see it becoming standard to need to have it on to do even regular group content.

On the flip side, I wouldn't really care about it becoming a thing if it were opt in, I just wouldn't opt in, nor would I use it/do content that requires it, I just don't really want to take the chance that it would mean that even more content requires having voice chat on.

(also, as an aside, I am also someone who tends to be more visual in that I far prefer text instructions rather than voice, which is another reason I will likely never do end game content that requires a group)

SilverBride

No, ESO should not have a proximity voice chat feature

Erickson9610 wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

It would be more accurate if the poll was for PC players only because we are the ones that would be affected by it.

Yes, I specifically stated "ESO on PC" several times.

Edit: I misunderstood the context. You mean that the poll should only be able to be voted on by PC players, not that the poll somehow wasn't targeted at PC players.

Yes the edit is what I meant. Not that I want to exclude console players from commenting, but for the actual voting I feel it would give a better idea of what PC players want if only they voted on it.

tomofhyrule

spartaxoxo wrote: »

tomofhyrule wrote: »

Well, Discord is currently optional as well, and yet the entire premise of this thread is “groups are excluding those who choose not to use it.”

It’s not a leap to expect that if this feature existed that groups would similarly demand that the others turn it on or face being kicked.

????

Where did the OP say that?

Apologies, I confused this thread with the other from the same day asking the same question: https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/674123/voice-chat-in-eso-on-pc/p1.

I have noticed a theme recently where a thread gets posted pointing out a problem and saying the solution is “ESO needs [thing]!” and then a poll thread coming out shortly afterwards asking “Should ESO add [thing]?” Perhaps that’s why the mods prefer one thread per topic so we don’t have simultaneous conversations in different threads rehashing the same points.

Either way, I do consider these two threads as inherently related, so the genesis of this idea is from Discord vs. in-game voice chat.

Now I haven’t voted in this poll because I really don’t care one way or the other. I am, and I assume many other PC players are as well, already established on Discord so I would not see the need to move to an in-game version that is inherently leas than what is offerred by Discord in the first place (e.g. you can’t post diagrams of positioning with in-game features, and even being able to copy-and-paste a url from in-game text chat requires an addon). So if such a feature were added, it would be something irrelevant for console players and also unused by a number of PC players. Again, I’ll bring up the Home Tours comparison as “a feature that was added to ESO that many players already had an external tool to do the same thing but with more features to boot” as an example, and we can see how well that announcement was received, particularly among the players who do use EHT in the first place.

Now of course, there’s also the reality that time, as much as we wish it were, is not infinite. If ZOS went to make PC chat a thing, that does necessarily mean that something else would not be able to be given that dev time. Would the return-on-investment be appropriate for them to make that a feature (that console doesn’t need since they have it natively and that PC will likely not switch to using in great numbers) if that means another feature is delayed or tabled? Or would it be better to cut their losses and just let players continue using a (free!) external tool to do so and use that dev time on other things?

sans-culottes

Yes, ESO should have an opt-in proximity voice chat (Off by default)

SilverBride wrote: »

Erickson9610 wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

It would be more accurate if the poll was for PC players only because we are the ones that would be affected by it.

Yes, I specifically stated "ESO on PC" several times.

Edit: I misunderstood the context. You mean that the poll should only be able to be voted on by PC players, not that the poll somehow wasn't targeted at PC players.

Yes the edit is what I meant. Not that I want to exclude console players from commenting, but for the actual voting I feel it would give a better idea of what PC players want if only they voted on it.

Given that we have this feature and can have meaningful input on this re: PC, I’m going to have to disagree. The question wasn’t “do exclusively PC players want feature x?” Instead, it was asking if this should be a feature on PC or not. Given that it’s already a console feature, our input is if anything going to be quite informative.

TheMajority

no, keep it far away. reading what people say in world chat is bad enough, would be worse to hear them say it while blasting bad music or chewing their lunch while they yell at they kids, just no

i dont want people making VC mandatory for stuff like BG's or other stuffs that I want to not even hear peoples voices.

Desiato

No, ESO should not have a proximity voice chat feature

I play another game with in-game voice chat and love it. However, in that game, if someone is annoying, I can foundation wipe their base and take all their stuff.

I would hate it in ESO. I don't think it should be added on PC because it would be too disruptive to the existing culture with text chat understood to be the default means of communication for those not in Discord with each other.

SilverBride

No, ESO should not have a proximity voice chat feature

sans-culottes wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

Erickson9610 wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

It would be more accurate if the poll was for PC players only because we are the ones that would be affected by it.

Yes, I specifically stated "ESO on PC" several times.

Edit: I misunderstood the context. You mean that the poll should only be able to be voted on by PC players, not that the poll somehow wasn't targeted at PC players.

Yes the edit is what I meant. Not that I want to exclude console players from commenting, but for the actual voting I feel it would give a better idea of what PC players want if only they voted on it.

Given that we have this feature and can have meaningful input on this re: PC, I’m going to have to disagree. The question wasn’t “do exclusively PC players want feature x?” Instead, it was asking if this should be a feature on PC or not. Given that it’s already a console feature, our input is if anything going to be quite informative.

That is why I said console players should be able to comment. But ultimately it will only affect PC players. I don't want my gaming experience determined by others that won't be the least bit affected if PC has a voice chat or not.