Well, in terms of any compliance, this should simply be a matter of an 
addition to the EULA of the client.  It is no longer the case that 
having voice communication in a game is an exotic feature; nearly every 
game either supports it directly, or the players require the other 
players to use ventrilo/teamspeak servers to remain competitive.  Many 
MMOs have voice communication built into groups these days.  These 
things are self policing, and this is fairly effective.  You deal with 
vulgur voice the same way you deal with vulgar chat: via the ignore 
function.  Additionally, many have a mute feature, allowing a team 
leader to mute offending players, although I don't think this particular 
mechanic will translate to pickup netrek.

In my experience (and I have quite a bit with using voice 
communication), people are far less likely to abuse it in the manner 
described  than they are text chat, mostly because its a little less 
anonymous, and people can directly and quickly tell them to stop.  In 
any event, avoiding putting something like this in because of these 
concerns is, I think, short-sighted.

As for which players opt-in, once voice communication is in the game, 
most players will require other players to use it, or at least have the 
ability to hear commands as they are relayed.  It is just so much faster 
and more effective.  You can have it be opt-in, but the player who is 
not using voice will be at a severe tactical disadvantage to the players 
who do, and so will his team.  This will take care of itself naturally 
as the players and teams using voice communication respond more 
quickly.  Noobs not reading will become less important, because every 
noob can hear.  This is a good thing.

Anyways, thanks again for all of the responses!

Zachary Uram wrote:
> Ideally it would meet COPPA compliance or else server admins may find
> themselves under criminal and civil suits. As John mentioned parents
> will freak out if they walk into their child's room and hear some
> player shouting certain things. In Pennsylvania it is a crime to
> knowingly say sexual content at a minor. The law has more leeway on
> printed speech but laws governing voice abuses are much more long
> established and clearly codified. Also how do you deal with general
> abuse such as someone yelling a vulgar insult or even SHUT UP etc. It
> is very different hearing someone's voice with emotional content
> rather than just seeing the text. If implemented it should only
> broadcast to player's who explicitly opt-in.
>
> Zach
>
> <>< http://www.fidei.org ><>
>
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> netrek-dev mailing list
> netrek-dev at us.netrek.org
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>
>   


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