On Tue, Apr 8, 2008 at 2:29 PM, Mark Mielke <mark at mark.mielke.cc> wrote: > > I think you've fallen into the other poster's trap that suggests voice > replaces text. I haven't read a single person here who claimed that text > was unnecessary. This thread has a lot of straw men erected. :-) I > believe any referenceable information should be in text, whereas any > event-based information should be in voice. > > It's also a trap to compare newbie voice communicators with clued text > communicators. It's illogical to compare the two. You are proving that > clued > newbie, and believing that this therefore means that text > voice. Hi Mark, I meant that even if it is not intended that voice will supplant text that may well happen since newbies will a) probably prefer voice over text b) it is something they are familiar with from other games. And as more newbies become regular player this will trend in that direction. In my view voice is a cool tool for some situations and I see strengths with voice but also some weaknesses as I pointed out. So let the player decide. It should be designed so that one can turn of all voice with a single variable in the netrekrc for those who find it an annoyance/distraction. I think giving the player different levels of control over the voice granularity will cause the least ripples. Most of us who have been playing regularly for years will still probably prefer text, but I can see how voice would be an asset in training newbies and getting their attention which itself can be sometimes very problematic. We could make a voice library or ideally a video library of common problems newbies face and let them choose a topic and get help on it either in-game or offline. Newbies are the future of netrek (unless we find a way to lure back the hundreds/thousands of former netrekers who don't play anymore) so we should be nice to newbies and help them to learn if they show the desire to do so. Zach