Posted by pixiestixy on Tuesday, May 12th, 2009 - 55 Comments
Tags: accent, diversity, perceptions, project lore fan guild, reflections, sound, teamspeak, Vent, ventrilo, voice, voice chat
A few nights ago I was on WoW, not unlike a lot of other nights that I play. But unlike most other nights, I was in a particularly reflective mood.
It had been at least a week since my previous jaunt around with Pixiestixy, my alt draenei hunter on Executus, in the alliance Project Lore fan guild. So I logged on to get a quick level or two and to chatter with whoever was online. While running a couple of questlines on Bloodmyst Isle, I noticed someone spamming guild chat with information for logging onto a Ventrilo server. Personally, me and my main character guildies prefer Teamspeak. But a while back, I DLed vent for just such occasions. So I input the info, connected to the server and listened in for a couple minutes.
I realized right away that these were not the voices that I had imagined I might hear. One person clearly spoke with a Spanish accent. Another had a boyish, high-pitched voice. I heard a kid screaming in the background of one player’s audio. And while I’m used to hearing east coast, and often southern drawl common in Virginia, I picked up from those few short moments of just listening that we were a diverse group. I’m not listing our differences to poke fun or to point out what separated us. I rather enjoy the idea of playing with people from all over the world. But I suppose my perception of their character names didn’t match up to what I heard. I could compare it to meeting a giant, rustic Tauren druid who opens his mouth and sounds like an irritated 6-year-old girl.
I stopped thinking so much about it and finally introduced myself (and immediately heard exclamations that I was a RL girl.) Apparently, I broke their perceptions, too; They assumed that I would be a guy. A couple minutes later, one of them whispered me, asking how old I am. 26, I replied. Then I realized something. My voice makes me sound much younger than I really am. Or, so I’ve been told. Another misconception. I’m still unsure whether that’s a good thing.
I don’t usually think that any of this would matter; it’s a game, and what someone sounds like doesn’t change how the game is played. Unless maybe you’re roleplaying through Vent.
But it does make me curious - how many of you have ever connected to voice chat and been surprised by what you heard on the other end? Or are you the one providing surprises, if your voice doesn’t match up with your character?
Related Posts: Hitting The Mute Button, A Friendly Bet, Backfired?, New Map/Quest Interface Tour [Video], Alting - and Starting All Over Again, Treachery on Vent: Infiltrating Enemy Tactics,
By Kuzzie on Tuesday, May 12th, 2009 at 11:35 am
every once in a while ill log onto vent and a wow buddy of mine will finally get a mic. ill hear his/her voice and go, “didnt see that comin o.o”
first btw =)
By Carlos on Tuesday, May 12th, 2009 at 11:56 am
Oh yeah, I remember that time the Ventrilo Info was spammed.
I’m usually the one providing surprises.
I’m from Madrid, Spain so as soon as I start talking, almost everyone asks ”Dude, where are you from? Mexico?”
So yeah, Ventrilo is pretty cool. Makes the gaming experience more enjoyable.
By Random_Tangent on Tuesday, May 12th, 2009 at 12:00 pm
I Pugged Malygos at 1am the other night. I was a bit surprised to hear that my Raid was comprised of 4 women and a handful of Australians.
They were surprised that anyone playing a toon named Twinklëtoes was a man. =/
By teddy on Tuesday, May 12th, 2009 at 12:04 pm
first time i was ever in vent, aparently my voice sounded like a 7yearold, mind you that was 2years ago. but now aparently i sound like a 40year old man with an extreemly deep voice O.o
Osku (shu’halo) 80 dwarf warrior
By Coxy on Tuesday, May 12th, 2009 at 12:07 pm
You should have said to the person asking:
Why do you want to know my age? If i were a guy you wouldnt care, why does my being female make a difference?
By Babyeater on Tuesday, May 12th, 2009 at 12:09 pm
the first time i went on a guild raid back in the days of kara my guild asked me to go on vent. i did and immediatly after saying helling i got bombarded by my guildies asking me if i was a geardie (im frm england as you may have guess by the geardie remark)
i told i was frm near newcastle and since then i was kind of made a guild beating pole wen it came to accents and the areas they live in
By PatrickD on Tuesday, May 12th, 2009 at 12:11 pm
You know when you listen to a radio station for a long time and then come across a photo of the DJ, host, or announcer and they’re nothing like you pictured?
Same for WoW. People’s voices don’t sound like you expect.
When you meet them at BlizzCon, they don’t look like you expect either.
It’s not a bad thing and I’m not saying people sound bad or look bad…just different.
By Stormdragon on Tuesday, May 12th, 2009 at 12:30 pm
I occasionally get dragged onto Vent, but I avoid it if I can.
Transgender voices throw me off a little, but what REALLY gets me is the chit-chat that can go one during gameplay.
Two people having a conversation totally unrelated to anything going on, especially when it’s a subject matter you have no interest in, can get annoying. Or people talking over each other, so you can’t understand ANYone.
Keeping it in Chat just simplifies things for me…
By Zang on Tuesday, May 12th, 2009 at 12:35 pm
Hi Pixiestixy!
I was on when the vent info was spammed in guild chat. And yeah most of the people don’t sound like I imagine them sounding. I don’t know what I was expecting really but it happens. Southern twang in Virginia? You must be further south of me. I’m up in NOVA.
By Gerolden on Tuesday, May 12th, 2009 at 12:47 pm
once i was in a Nax raid and this Female Gnome lock was asking me for the Focus Magic buff and typed like a girl and winked, but when i went on vent it was a black dude with a REALLY deep voice
By Cuppincakes on Tuesday, May 12th, 2009 at 12:49 pm
I’d imagine that at least some adults might change what they’re talking about if someone told them they were 11. This is not a save the childrens!!11 rant, but yeah… I tend to think everyone is my age and at the very least some jokes don’t go over well if I’m reminiscing about hammer pants and double tongue Reeboks with people who weren’t around then. And I’m all about the funny.
By Raethos on Tuesday, May 12th, 2009 at 12:50 pm
I remember, 1st time I raided, I was with the best tank I’ve ever seen. He had all the gear, knew all the strats, and generally was an expert player. When I heard him in vent, turned out to be some 10 year old. Go figure.
In an unrelated note, PL should have a fan vent server available to people who are too active on mains to spend much time on the fan-guild toon.
By Shnoo on Tuesday, May 12th, 2009 at 1:02 pm
I remember pugging 10 man naxx a few weeks back, our tauren druid tank had a scrawny (not high pitched just, edged) and our pally tank has this deep voice and i always assumed the guy with the deep voice was the tauren, until they said their char name…
By Alayea on Tuesday, May 12th, 2009 at 1:25 pm
It was a rather strange experience for me when I first used Ventrilo. Sure, some of the voices were different than what I could’ve reasonably expected. But what really got me was the fact that I was actually hearing other people. It sure adds another aspect to WoW.
By Eddie T on Tuesday, May 12th, 2009 at 1:36 pm
In my guild there’s a dranei shammy that is amazing at dps and an excellent healer. The first time I heard him speak I was shocked… he sounded like he was 12. I know what you mean.
By icedtrip on Tuesday, May 12th, 2009 at 2:04 pm
I remember years ago hopping on Socom for the first time to hear nothing but foul mouthed 12-14 year olds. Gave up the idea of voice chatting on video games for awhile.
Tried a few years later with a linkshell on FFXI to a much better experience. Now I prefer it, but have friends that tend to be too lazy to get mics.
Also, I agree with @Zang
Virginia? Southern? Where do you live? Granted, I too am in NOVA, but Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, etc would have been better choices. I lived in MS for 11 years, and am now in NOVA and so far have not heard anything close to what the real south accents are like.
By Pitchpine on Tuesday, May 12th, 2009 at 2:10 pm
Ventrilo/TeamSpeak/skype or whatever you use makes instance grinding so much easier imo. You can joke around with your guildies and just chat about stuff. All in all much better game experience!
Abut strange voices I was in grp with a DK from my guild when he asked me to come on vent with him and some others, i joined and the Undead DK with full tier 7,5 gear armageddon and 3.2k DPS sounds like a girl(which was not funny until he finally convinced me he was a boy lol)!
-Pitchpine
By Barugaara on Tuesday, May 12th, 2009 at 2:29 pm
Did you just say I have a high pitched voice? I am slightly offended
By Kimeghale on Tuesday, May 12th, 2009 at 2:46 pm
When i first heard my Gm speak in vent, I though he was a chick, and needless to say I got the demote in guild rank joke played on me for making fun of him
By Alternate on Tuesday, May 12th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
Back during my novice years of Kara, I would very rarely talk. I prefered talking via chat, so I could listen in, get used to everyone’s attitudes/personalities, and such. So when I started to talk, everyone was flipping surprised at my voice. I typed as if I was an educated English man from Harvard, but my voice (and I’ll proudly admit) was higher pitched and didn’t carry the “drawl of the S’s” they expected.
Same goes for me for another raider-friend. She typed … half text and half serious (i.e. “I’ll see you l8er! Don’t forget to look up what I told u about!”), but would correct you if you pronounced a word wrong (i.e. You SAY “Lose-iana” instead of “Loo-isiana”). We still joke around by saying words wrong to see if she tries to correct us
By Taskun on Tuesday, May 12th, 2009 at 3:10 pm
Just a few nights ago I was listening to someone I swore was 26ish, found out she was 13 or something like that…I was shocked.
By pixiestixy on Tuesday, May 12th, 2009 at 3:14 pm
@carlos, @barugaara I intentionally left names out of my post, so you guys called yourselves out on this one :). It wasn’t an insult, just an observation
@zang, @icedtrip I’m in Lynchburg. It’s not so much a twang as it is a drawl, I’d say. Like “about” is pronounced more like “aboot.” But I do hear some southern accent here, too. It’s a pretty rural area, not like NOVA
By Noal on Tuesday, May 12th, 2009 at 3:22 pm
Lol, I was on vent for the first few minutes of you talking I believe,
I logged because I was tired, but anyway, what I’m trying to say is that you dont sound too much like a child, but I wouldn’t say you sound 26, as for the guild, lets just say we dont have many girls. @_@
By Vayder on Tuesday, May 12th, 2009 at 3:37 pm
hey! im from Virginia. and yes we do have an odd accent. i dont use Vent or teamspeak. i just use the built in bliz system, granted its not as nice as the others,but in all honesty…i have no idea where to go to DL either one! lol. so i just make due with what i got
By Talcoya on Tuesday, May 12th, 2009 at 4:22 pm
haha yea recently i got into a new guild and just talked to people over typing and never really thought much of a voice for people then i got into a ventrillo server for a guild run and over half the people in the guild run have a very heavy boston accent at first i was alittle stunned by it because i live and texas so that boston accent is something i never really hear and it really makes you realize that yes this game is played by people everwhere in the world.
By jimbob on Tuesday, May 12th, 2009 at 4:52 pm
Never done voice chat, ever. Firstly don’t see the need for it (not a hardcore raider), and secondly, don’t wan’t to spoil allusions. Like i said in previous posts, i always play female characters. I don’t play on that fact like some others have said they do, and my guild knows i’m a male, but that is not the point. I play female characters, so ‘in-game’ i’m a female, voice chat negates that.
Anyway, i guess my point is that unless you are a raiding guild that needs instant voice communication, give voice chat a miss, there is no real need for it and it will mess up your own preconceived ideas about those you are playing with, and who does that help? No-one.
Wow is a world of fantasy, and fantasy is best left in the world of imagination!
By jimbob on Tuesday, May 12th, 2009 at 4:56 pm
Oh, and btw, gz pixy on another incisive post< seems like i@m becoming a bit of a fanboi :s
By Baek on Tuesday, May 12th, 2009 at 6:23 pm
There have been a few times where a new person’s voice has thrown me off for a bit, mostly when it is a very young person playing the game. There are times where you assume someone is very young and when you hear them on vent it’s no big deal cause you expected it, but when someone who seems very mature and all that talks for the first time on vent and sounds like they are 10 (and aren’t far off from it) it does make you raise an eyebrow.
I come from a guild though with an Australian, tons of ppl from the South, Canadians and North Westerners and a pretty big mix so not a whole lot throws us off.
By brandywine on Tuesday, May 12th, 2009 at 7:34 pm
I just wanted to randomly comment and say hello to my fellow Virginians out there. Who knew there seem to be so many with this post! I’m from Richmond and have to agree that there’s not much of a twang in central VA but I went to school out in Amherst where you do catch it on certain words. As for vent, I sound like I’m 10, but that’s what I get for being soft spoken I suppose.
By Shoogs on Tuesday, May 12th, 2009 at 7:59 pm
I can’t do Vent, too many prepubescent middle schoolers spamming the channel with high pitched chaos and stupidity
By Rok on Tuesday, May 12th, 2009 at 8:51 pm
When we were raiding with a shaman level 80 he was probably the funniest dude ever response to his voice.
Basically he would cuss and say the “n word” alot of times, so we kinda assumed he was black.
He DLs vent and gets in the raid with his mic and says “Hey, wat-a-you up-a-to?” Hes a chinaman xD
By Janus on Tuesday, May 12th, 2009 at 10:02 pm
I had quite a surprise some time ago when I first heard another paladin in my guild speaking in vent after having posted a picture of himself. He looked like a guy in his mid teens, but his voice was like that of a 40 year old man.
After not having had a microphone for a long time, long enough for the people in my guild to forget how I sound like, I yesterday got a new one. Much to the amazement of my guildies I apparently sound very young over vent - despite being on the heavy end of the guilds agescale.
By Stu on Tuesday, May 12th, 2009 at 10:34 pm
I am also one of those that surprises others.. I am from the UK and play on the US servers… that normaly throws people off and the female players love it… which is cool by me
lol
By Illigetimi on Tuesday, May 12th, 2009 at 11:26 pm
My accent has the stability of Uranium (or Element 115 if you prefer) and may skip from british to american to god knows where from.
Yeah, I surprise people.
By Trial on Wednesday, May 13th, 2009 at 12:25 am
biggest part of my guild is dutch.
im portuguese,others are polish,americans,italians,etc..its really funny to listen to everyone trying to speak right english xD.
we laugh at each others and nobody is ofended..
but..
wait,what..your a girl ._.?
By Farsythe on Wednesday, May 13th, 2009 at 12:41 am
Well i know what you mean, i’ve heard plenty of people on vent and went “Wtf”. Most of my guildies that use vent are american and i’m dutch, so i usally only talk when needed because i’m ashamed of my horrible accent.. eventhough my english is pretty good imo.
(And i’ve got a pretty low voice compared to most of them so i guess i suprised them too lol.)
By Lil ole me on Wednesday, May 13th, 2009 at 2:25 am
Back in the days, when I played EQ2, I logged into the Teamspeak server of my guild and have a little chat. The entire channel went silent. I thought I had said something wrong. Turned out that apparently all the guys in the channel were silently oohing and aaaahing my accent. I have a British-Norwegian accent, and apparently my voice is nice to listen to. They’d keep asking a friend of mine to keep asking me questions so I would not log off Teamspeak. I dread to think what went on when their hands were not on the keyboards. Ofcourse, I did not find out about this until I moved over to the US to live with my now husband. (Whom I met through EQ1 and 2) Did I feel dirty? Somewhat. Also somewhat flattered.
When I then logged onto my WoW-guilds vent, I kind of expected the reactions I got, and they did not disappoint. A lot of oohing and aahing over my accent. It tickles me that people react the way they do, because to me, I feel I sound like a 10 year old with a bad cold. ;o)
Does this have it’s downside? Yes. I have been harassed by people who obviously know whom I am, and log on alts and try to “talk dirty” to me. But, the majority of people have been really good fun to talk to and hang with on Vent.
By Reeves - Terokkar EU on Wednesday, May 13th, 2009 at 5:02 am
Everyone knows in my guild what to expect when they hear me talk, since i’m from liverpool (UK) they all take the mick out of my accent
I’ve had a few surprises too, usually the transgender characters. you expect them to be female, and then they come out with this big deep foreign voice. Fun times!
By cocopuff on Wednesday, May 13th, 2009 at 6:36 am
i have vent but not a mike i often liek to log on vent and listen to my guild mates talk and i get a few laughs once in a while my guild jsut got new info to me they sound real grown up i never asked if they were really old as tehy sound but this got me thinking maybe i whould next often when i talk on trade or general chat i see “bove” or if i am playing on my main “littlewarrio how old are you they are suprised when i tell them i am 16 just becasue once in a while make a fel splling mistakes to them i sound like a 12 year old
By Bveryon on Wednesday, May 13th, 2009 at 9:03 am
Yeh its a bit wierd, one of my ingame friends that i quest/raid and talk to alot went onto VC and spoke like a 12 yeard old girl. Never really asked him his age before so i was really suprised that i was having fun with a 12 year old girl when im nearly 19 xD
By Rikaku on Wednesday, May 13th, 2009 at 9:15 am
I don’t think we’ve ever really had surprises on out Vent. Though, I may be the one providing surprises. As being one of the few girls in our guild and being the only one from the West Coast (as our guild is primarily EST), usually my voice and accent surprises anyone who hears me for the first time cause judging from my character (NE F Hunter) they probably assumed I was a guy lol
By Kalgorn on Wednesday, May 13th, 2009 at 11:10 am
Haha. As soon as he found out you’re a girl he was suddenly interested in your age. That’s hilarious. But i can’t say how people on vent react when they hear my voice because i don’t have a mic. I’ve got vent for guild raids. But that’s the only time i use it. Sometimes i’ll leave it on channels and just listen to the conversation every now and then. Sometimes that’s more interesting than the in-game music.
Learned alot about playing a DK and a Rouge doing that. lol. I plan on getting a mic someday so i can acctually participate in vent conversations vocally rather than typing as fast as i can to say something i wanna add to chat, such as my idea for a way to tackle a boss when we’ve wiped constantly.
But yea, what kind of voice do you imagine a Blood Elf Hunter named Kalgorn would have?
By Kalgorn on Wednesday, May 13th, 2009 at 11:22 am
because of my lack of having a mic, im unable to talk in vent, but regardless, i’ve had alot of fun in vent sometimes.
A few months back i joined a PUG group for some old BC raids i’d never gotten to see, since i hit 70 the day WotLK came out, and joined their vent channel. There were alot of diverse people in the group. We had a bunch of guys on that sounded to be in their mid teens, which would make since because this was a late late weekend night, there was a kid that sounded really young. Maybe 12 or 13. Then we had some adults who didn’t speak up much. But our raid leaders were constantly joking around with sarcasm and joking around.
Even though i gained no gear or anything useful from the raids apart from the achievements, it was the BEST time i’ve ever had on WoW. I laughed so much that my DPS was crap at times.
We first tried to clear the Eye but couldn’t down a single boss. Still, good times in there…
After a few dropped we moved over to ZA (with no healers BTW) and spent half an hour trying to get the gong right. I’ll never forget that night. lol
By Jaceman on Wednesday, May 13th, 2009 at 3:25 pm
im 14 here i don’t get why people think that if your young you cant or dont know how to play, i always end up getting completements or people asking for advice since i can pull great deeps.
But i just still hate how people think that like teenagers or younger = can’t play…
By cocopuff on Wednesday, May 13th, 2009 at 3:58 pm
lol i dont you can guass someones gender by thier class though one class you done see is a female hunter i am a male and all my characters are male my cousn how ever is allso a male and he has a 2 female characters so the best way to guass a characters gender is by how they chat usualy a women whould not curse as much a men owcurse that has exceptions
By Nebyula on Wednesday, May 13th, 2009 at 4:36 pm
I’m a girl IRL also, and I sound at least 5 years younger than I really am. I give a few surprises.
I love listening to my guildmates talk, I wasnt expecting a few english accents, or the extremely deep voice of the tauren shaman raid leader. Oor, the southern accents of a few of my friends.
By churchill on Wednesday, May 13th, 2009 at 5:11 pm
i would like to quote from my response to my guilds questions over my voice on vent “no! i’m not British!”
Churchill lvl 80 human DK of the Bronzebeard realm
By Dulica on Wednesday, May 13th, 2009 at 7:06 pm
I always feel like I do sound like a man over the phone/teamspeak, but my guildies don’t seem to think so. I play with my sister a lot (she’s the GM) and they all think we sound alike. I enjoy hearing other people talk, though I haven’t been really surprised with anyones voice. but, we’ve got a few people in Canada that don’t have mics yet
By Cuppincakes on Wednesday, May 13th, 2009 at 7:23 pm
LOL I don’t see how altering your preconceived ideas to reflect the facts of reality is somehow a horrible thing. If you want to play in your own private fantasy land in your head, then by all means. But the very nature of the game is to play with or against other people. While it might be surprising to actually hear who is on the other end, it’s not a bad thing.
I don’t have a mic, but I love listening and have the computer render my text to speech. It makes me sound like Stephen Hawking, which makes me seem smart.
By cocopuff on Wednesday, May 13th, 2009 at 8:23 pm
lol churchill i dont think it is your excent taht brought up if your birtish or not i think its your name
By Wonocva on Wednesday, May 13th, 2009 at 11:57 pm
Surprisingly, this is not true.
I connected to Ventrilo for the first time recently, having started running raids (old ones specifically, a tiny bit of the WotLK ones).
No one really surprised me at all honestly. They all seemed “normal” to me, besides the few Blood Elf females that I already knew from OOC chats were actually males in real life.
By Sean on Thursday, May 14th, 2009 at 12:26 pm
@Random_Tangent:
OH MAH GAWD!
My pet Ironhide Devilsaur is called Twinkletoes! :O
By macbethy on Friday, May 15th, 2009 at 5:10 pm
I once was invited to a friends guild run and discovered when i logged onto the vent server was that all the members were female, didn’t go well.
By Veppy on Friday, May 29th, 2009 at 10:46 pm
Ha!
How often am I surprised when I connect to voice chat and hear the voices of my new guildies? Every single time! And then I log onto our forums, see pictures of them, connect the voices to the pictures and am surprised again!
By Phukha on Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009 at 11:34 am
I’ve never done any in-game voice chat but I’ve seen times when it would have been handy. That being said….
1) I’m somewhat in agreement with jimbob’s comment that it is fantasy and voice chat would take away some of that feeling; to hear a 13yr old’s voice come out of a lvl 80 Tauren Warrior is a bit of a reconcile.
2) As for surprises, I get the same shock about age of players just from regular chat. I had an in-game friend that I played with from time to time for a couple of months, a female hunter (and a kick-ass one too). I always assumed she was early/mid 20’s, maybe late teens at the youngest; then I found out she was only 12 or 13 yrs old…can you say WOW!?
This game is a wild trip and a lot of the fun is playing with ppl from all over. I believe I would enjoy it either way (w/voice or w/out), but for now I think I’ll stay voice free. +)
FOR THE HORDE!