On Tue, 8 Apr 2008, Mark Mielke wrote:

> We're getting somewhere. You admit that reading messages is hard.

Everything in netrek is hard.

> The important question, though, is whether reading messages is truly a fun 
> part of the game, and whether the learning curve is justified as an 
> investment.

The team aspect of netrek is what makes it great. It's the best team game 
ever made. The communication is a big part of the team aspect of netrek 
and as such the netrek communication system with macros will always be 
unsurpassed in efficiency simply because sending macros will always be 
faster than talking and reading macros will always be faster than 
listening to someone talk.

> It's easily observable that Netrek is dying.

Sure. It has been for the past ten years. I don't think that has anything 
to do with this discussion though. I keep saying it's a good idea to add a 
voice channel so that people can chat, teach newbies, etc. However, a 
voice channel will not do much for game play. That doesn't matter much 
though. I entered this thread just to point out that it's not a good idea 
to think that voice will revolutionize netrek game play, or something like 
that.

> I suspect that even experts would be more efficient using voice

I keep telling you this is false. I keep giving you reasons why this is 
false (macros are faster, clues can read messages from the corner of their 
eye, RCD's let clues decide what information they receive, etc). Yet you 
keep banging your head into that wall. I guess I'll have to accept that 
you will never learn.

>>> My experience is that experienced players already do voice chat - 
>>> whether via VoIP or whether sitting in the same room swearing at each 
>>> other for screwing up over a monitor in the same room.
>> 
>> Please give examples of clued players that use voice chat on a regular 
>> basis today.
>
> I would be hard pressed to give you a list of clued players that exist 
> today that play on a regular basis. I think you are missing the point.

Okay. Give a list of experienced players who have played with voice 
communication in the past and think that form of communication is superior 
to RCD's.

-- 
Niclas