Arguments Against Voice-Comms Specific to DBD? (And More)
I'm just curious, are there any DBD-specific issues that are preventing voice comms from entering the game?
I know the common thing people bring up is the heightened chance for toxicity, but that isn't a DBD specific issue, and its one that does have solutions such as muting.
If you ask me, that's not a good reason to not give people the option to use voice comms.
I'm not strictly an advocator for voice comms, but due to the recent increase in the devs trying to merge Solo-Q and SWF survivor groups, I figure this is a question worth posing.
Edit: I'm reading some great responses, but I'd like to ask two questions...
1.) A lot of reasons for not having voice chat that I'm seeing have some weight to them, but I've gotta ask why other casual games have voice chat and DBD specifically couldn't. One comment has mentioned how most matches aren't competitive, and I do agree, but I feel like some simple instructions to other players has the potential to really increase efficiency in regard to survivors. I think everyone has encountered a match where they could have easily escaped if they had just a little bit more communication with others. Just a LITTLE bit more specificity.
2.) What else could bridge the gap between Solo-Q and SWF more or equally? That's what this is all about, and I don't think things like the Survivor Action Icons have closed the gap as much as people think. They've helped alot, but if you ask me, Solo-Q survivors should basically know EVERYTHING about their teammates (such as their perk-loadouts, items and their addons, etc.), and should be able to communicate more (maybe with more hand gestures like the pointing and calling that we already have).
Comments
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Moderation is a big aspect. The game wasn't built with voice chat in mind, so adding the infrastructure after the fact would be tough to get right.
It's not a hugely needed thing until you get into more competitive matches, which the game doesn't really do at the moment unless it's by sheer accident. They're a plus, but not needed unless you're facing a killer who is a real outlier in terms of skill and awareness.
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Too many kids play this game... and too many horny people play this game. Also too many screeching psychos play this game. Nothing that I really want to have to listen to while I work on gens and try to make sure Ghostface doesn't sneak up on me, or while I try to juke a quickscoping Deathslinger.
In-game VC should stay out of DbD, I think. You COULD just turn it off or mute people that annoy you, but then toxic players will sandbag you for "ignoring" their call-outs.
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Because on some servers there's quite a language barrier, like the EU ones. Not everyone speaks English, yet you're being paired up with people from all across Europe, so that would make communication very difficult. And people who play with friends already have access to comms elswhere.
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I have no desire to use a voice comm
In fact the more I think about it, I think it's a major reason I stuck with DBD for as long as I did. Survivor has way more stuff to do in something like The Evil Dead Game but I don't want to talk to people while I play. If voice comms are added to the game, the game will be balanced with the assumption that the voice comms will be used.
I don't know if that's a specific reason to DBD but that's my specific reason against voice comms
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- Infrastructure would need to be overhauled, BHVR has enough on their plate
- Language barriers
- People don't want to be subjected to other people's nonsense. If I wanted to listen to a bunch of screeching toxic twits, I'd play CoD.*
- Much harder to moderate, would lead to a tsunami of reporting
- you could make it optional, but then you'd have people crying about and attacking people because they weren't using it.
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This is a good summary.
I believe the devs have stated several times their primary reasons for not implementing VC are both the concern over language barriers and the availability of various chats via third parties.
However imo their biggest concern would be the moderation nightmare they'd be taking on, and wanting no part of that.
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the simplest explanation is: the game was never supposed to have it. mechanically and thematically the game was never supposed to allow players to communicate.
as far as coding and implementation of a voice chat system... nothing is stopping them.
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This argument is such a none factor when nearly every other online game on the market has built in voice chat and also connects people across Europe.
Also it matters when a game isn't balanced, designed or optimised for people using outside communication.
In all other games this also becomes a non factor since both sides are always equal and not using said third party comms is most often a choice. Not so in asymmetrical games.
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Let it be proximity voice chat that the killer can hear and now its spicy gameplay. But honestly I feel like Voice chat would only benefit non-swf groups because, lets be honest, friends are gonna voice chat no matter what. But with recent survivor hud changes it feels like were trying to inch closer to something akin to swf balancing.
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Game would finally need to be balanced around comms. And that means most aspects of the game need to be adjusted.
You wouldnt need to close the soloswfgap with goodies that buff both because it'd be closed with just vc.
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You'd also want to add another complicated subsystem that isn't tied to the gamestate to BHVR's code. Er...
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Put comms according to ur languaje preference problem solved
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Seeing other survivors' perk loadouts is about the only information missing that would still be reasonable to add. I believe mobile even has this already, and it would be good to have in the game for solo q.
I'm not 100% certain, but I thought that some countries require moderation of any built in game communication. For text chat, that's easy because you can potentially just save it in a database somewhere. But for voice, now you have to transcribe it to text and go from there.
That's a lot more work for a feature that, I'll be honest, is likely just to be more toxic in a lot of cases. Personally, I'd rather BHVR focus on other things, since I tend to just turn off any in game chat right away in any game I play.
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For me, it's the importance of sound, particularly for survivors. Of hearing the terror radius early enough to respond. To be able to hear Wraith's gurgle or Ghostface's cloak or Myer's breathing. Having people in my ear constantly could be detrimental to all that.
There's also the fact that, due to my region/server location, I play with alot of players from Asian regions. So English would be a barrier anyway.
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That's partially BHVR's reasoning, not mine. I have discord to play swf with so I couldn't care less.
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