Comments on: Second Life to Add Voice Morphing Controls, Voice Mail and Avatar Phone Numbers

By: kaylee west

kaylee west — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 13:33:26 +0000

hi dusan! i just wanted to say that i have been using voice morphing ever since voice came in. like all things with voice there are good days and bad ones, but on the whole my experience with voice and morphing has been good. some of the other new enhancements sound exciting, and for me as a language educator the recording of voice will be a huge bonus.
whatyas doing made a comment about sl’loosing its audience. are there any hard stats to back that up? i have noticed a lot of sims populated by avi-bots that are totally unresponsive, which is quite worrying as some times you don’t run into a single live person for hours.

by the way i am sending this o my daughter’s nintendo dsi – amazing!

kaylee

By: Business in Virtual Worlds News - May 18-24 2009 « Caleb Booker

Business in Virtual Worlds News - May 18-24 2009 « Caleb Booker — Sun, 24 May 2009 22:37:00 +0000

[...] Second Life to Add Voice Morphing Controls, Voice Mail and Avatar Phone Numbers That voice morphing function is going to cause more problems than it solves. [...]

By: Hélène

Hélène — Sat, 23 May 2009 10:05:19 +0000

When voice came into SL and I could suddenly realte it to the idea I cognitively had of my friends, I was fascinated. Because actually, their voices sounded exactly as i thought it would. At start, it was like a gadget for most of us and many went back to typing as if nothing happened. I think a lot of people like this “hidden-shown possibility”. But the new “generation” who came after voice was possible into SL, are much less inhibited. I am not sure this is the correct word, but I am sure the feeling some expressed about voice features, has to do with “showing” a real part of you into virtuality. Like if the intrusion of voice into virtuality was putting them uncomfortable, like kind of breaking the dream. I have noticed a lot of people voice when they are shopping with friends in my shops. A lot of them ask me if I can voice when they have specific questions about work, or a technical point. And some people are just unatease with typing all they want to express. And what about the conferences we attend into SL, that would be impossible withouth voice. I think it is just fantastic to have the choice. And those functionnalities which are coming, like to be able to receive a phone call inworld, make it even better. It is just part of the flow… And for my part, I trust each of us can make this flow something that fits its own conception of second life.

By: Jane2

Jane2 — Thu, 21 May 2009 03:23:16 +0000

Cripes, SL voice is an inferior product. This sounds like more of the same.

By: Prokofy Neva

Prokofy Neva — Thu, 21 May 2009 01:41:52 +0000

I can’t imagine using the voice fonts. It’s too far-fetched.

I don’t like voice, it’s an immersion killer, and an augmentation hobbler, too many dials to work.

Great news to hear they will have taping of voice inworld, but what would really be great is if that were billed on demand, and that you didn’t have to sign up for a service you wouldn’t use just to have a meeting once a week.

By: Rai Fargis

Rai Fargis — Wed, 20 May 2009 23:02:08 +0000

Hi there. My experience with the Xbox Live platform is that people try voice morphing once and then never touch it again – even the kids. So there is no need to be afraid of it, Dusan ^_^
I think it’s interesting you switch from SL Voice to Skype sometimes for better sound quality. Ever since I did a radio interview with Tom Boellstorff and found voice quality much better than on Skype, I thought I’d stick with SL voice for future interviews. Maybe I was just lucky that one time. And Skype for sure is getting better with every update.

By: AnomyNo

AnomyNo — Wed, 20 May 2009 14:18:22 +0000

Gaa, sorry I can’t even type properly. I meant outside of SL.

Anyway: I am a big fan of the idea of pre-loading sims while teleporting there. Maybe you could read the rules while tp-ing or be tp-d into an empty sim where other passer-bys are too waiting for their tp.

And you could config your client to pre-cache favorite sims. Of course, supposing there is an even very basic version control system that notifies your client ‘X sim has been updated to v 1.132′ initiating a pull-like update.

By: AnomyNo

AnomyNo — Wed, 20 May 2009 14:10:00 +0000

I wrote zillions of chars, but deleted them. The most important would be a custom SL client for RPG-s. Not just the oh-so-dramatic ones, but the RPGs like ye old D&D was and/or is.

The oh-so-dramatic-ones are much less popular because those require people who like to act.

The game types like WoW base on the very nature of man: greed and curiosity.

For a story-driven rpg you need preparations, lotsa npcs and in a computer world…noone has the time for this. Thats why MUSHes werent half as popular as MUDs.

I think the mixture between two are the best, but SL is not the platform for that. And they are losing their audience just now. Without established communities (adult, rp) SL will be nothing more than a startup.

They have to take steps: release an alternate viewer for rpgs (estate-driven rules like no minimap, force windlight settings on clients, check client authenticity) maybe with a builtin turnbased combat system.

They also have to rethink about their server-maintenance, they shouldn’t operate abandoned sims, that would save a lot of $$ (turning them on per user tp request effectively), also cache needs to be reorganized.

AAAAND regions color-coded based upon build quality measured in Kilobytes!!!! Damn those eye-candy sims that pollutes your cache!! Have you realized how much trash you get when visiting a site like Insilico?

These ‘builders’ know nothing about nothing, gaaaaa…

And Dusan, did you know ARC is called shame in the SL source code? People should be reminded of this.

Also… why dont we get proper basic animations??? You know the ‘lag cost’ of a single AO? It’s terrible.

These are the issues…. and not SMS-ing OUT! Why would I want to SMS OUT OF SL when I’m sitting OUT of SL with a mobile next to my hand, with msn/skype/whatever open on my desktop…

Sometimes it feels like managers ran over Second Life. And the initiative folks.. like the ones at Google Labs are just opressed.

By: 50,000 Megaloogies per Centon « Whatcha’s Doings

50,000 Megaloogies per Centon « Whatcha’s Doings — Wed, 20 May 2009 14:04:27 +0000

[...] packs” (whatever the hell that is), and the ability to record voice conversations. Go read Dusan’s post for that. I’m tired from all this typing. Perhaps I should have just recorded an mp3. [...]

By: Kate Miranda

Kate Miranda — Wed, 20 May 2009 11:33:24 +0000

The beauty of roleplay is in the quality of the WRITING. I hate voice generally in SL. Voice in RP is an abomination. Cartoon voices?