Ventrillo Chat Protocol – Are there rules among friends?

My Carrie Bradshaw question of the week is, “How far is too far in a Vent conversation among adult friends?”

Last night was definitely one of the funniest evenings I’ve spent in Vent chat – like EVER.  I kid you not, I was doubled over laughing.  I had a couple of fits where I couldn’t talk, was crying and my stomach hurt from laughing so hard so long.  I had to go get a napkin twice to wipe my eyes from laughing so much.  It was one of those classic, why the hell isn’t it Friday moments, so this can go on all night long?

The evening started out quiet enough.  I was surprised to find no one down in Order chat when I logged in around 7 PM ET, so I joined the "general chat" room.  It had four people in it but it was silent.  Shortly after I was logged into the game, a couple of others joined Vent and the inevitable question was asked, “Any guild <insert Tier> going?”  There wasn’t at the time but once the few of us that were on all piped up, “I’m in if there is,” we created a T3 party and set off.

Our T3 party elected to do Scenarios with Public Quests in between.  A decision was made to head over to Saphery to do the Chapter 14 influence that a couple of the members needed.  I wasn’t on Chapter 14 yet but that didn’t matter, you just bank the gear until you can use it. I lingered a bit behind the party not realizing that they couldn’t hear me asking where to go in Vent.  I had a couple of named mobs to find and kill in order to complete two quests in Avelorn so I did those while waiting to hear where they'd all gone.

After I worked out my microphone issues I made my way to them.  Other guild members were also logging into the game.  In general, everyone appeared to be in a good mood already.  Our party was having a blast farming the PQ, especially once the AOE class arrived.   Ta-da, that would be me, the Bright Wizard.  *Bows*

When I say good time, I mean REALLY GOOD TIME.  I mean Rip-roaring laughs when two members go off and pull a pack at the same time.  Hysterical laughter when no one realizes we’re in Stage II and we pull a pack that has multiple Champions but survive.  Riotous laughter when the Stage III is bugged and 3 heroes emerge all stuck on top of each other.  There is no game feeling like tanking the impossible, melting faces during the impossible and healing through what seemed impossible, but all turns out like sunshine and roses.

The Scenarios were going really great too.  We won many more than we lost.  Some of them were complete blow-outs, where the opposition was basically being farmed.  As a T3 group we have our strategies in place, excellent healers and we work as a team.  Unless we get off rhythm in the beginning or come up against a superior well orchestrated team or many that are higher in level, we can be an unstoppable force for long stretches of time.

I think all the fun and success started loosening up our conversation.  I don’t even know how it all started but the conversation descended way down into the gutter of innuendos and inferences.  Nothing explicit was ever said.  No profanity was used.  However, we were like waaaaaaaaaaay out there in some of the talk.  And things that were taking place in the game and being mentioned without an intention of adding fuel to the fire, just came at times when the mentioning, circumstances and phrasing, set itself up to be bastardized further into the gutter.

Personally, I had an amazingly good time.  It was like adults night out.  I’d had a Monday that wasn’t as stressful as usual.  My family had come over for dinner and left early of their own accord.  *clapped with glee* I have a 3-week vacation rapidly approaching and the weather is still nice.  So yeah, I was already in a good mood when I came online.  Then I found some of my favorite T3 people in the game and we were rocking the content.  I mean come on, it doesn’t get much better.  The only thing grander would have been to log in to find Order sacking the Inevitable City, and get there in time to see it going down in flames.  Barring that, what I was doing was a great next best thing.  I think this lent to the air of “possibly inappropriate” conversations that played out during the course of the evening.

I’m not easily offended when it comes to jokes and low-brow humor.  I enjoy sarcasm and puns.  I don’t like slap-stick.  Think Seinfeld and you know my humor base but hey, nonsense can be fun too.  About the only thing that can quickly offend me are sexist remarks and racial slurs.  Beyond that, I can withstand a wide variety of nonsensical talk and humor.  Of course not everyone is the same.  And we think we may have offended at least one guild member who left the channel.  I don’t use Vent Overlay so I have no idea how many people where in Vent. 

It sounded like most everyone was either chiming in or laughing.  However, I don’t know that to be the case.  Others might have been unhappy about the chat but stayed silent because this was where the majority of the Order guild members were chatting.  Who wants to be in a Vent channel all alone – kind of defeats the purpose, so they may have stayed only for that reason.  We have no way of knowing if others were offended.  Anyone who was offended, could have just as easily left the dirty lair and gone into one of the Order specific channels.  What do you all think?

Comments

[Khan]

I'm an officer in my kinship and a sometimes Vent cop. Generally, we keep the lobby / default channel to PG or PG-13. We're a fairly casual kinship and many of our members have young kids. We don't want them feeling like they can't be in Vent with everyone else if their kids are around.

In party or raid chat channels we leave it up to the people in the party or raid. We get in the gutter at times and I've been known to chime in on occasion (usually followed by gasps because I don't talk much on Vent in the first place).

I've been in guilds where there were no restrictions and another guild that had a special "no limits" channel where people could engage in whatever kinds of conversations they wanted to (that channel also seemed to become the default lobby for that particular guild).

I guess it really just depends on the CoW player base and what kind of discussions you want to allow / disallow.

[Saylah]

That's a good observation. It's possible that it might have been better to move down channels once the evening got rolling. It did come to a point where two parties were doing Scenarios/PQ combo but we all stayed in the same channel. Staying all lumped in a single channel is a common behavior I've noticed. It takes a lot of people being in chat for we segment ourselves off from each other. We just deal with the cross-talk which is usually pretty darn funny too. Staying together also lets people come online and join parties as spots free-up

[Winged Nazgul]

Dammit, was too busy watching the World Series last night to log into Vent. I always miss the good stuff. =(

But, yeah, when is it inappropriate? Whenever anyone gets offended, is when. Other than that, anything goes IMO.

[Khan]

Aye, the cross-channel shouting can get to be a bit much if we've got everyone in a channel at once.

Usually folks will segment themselves off into groups. Alternately, some groups actually prefer using the text chat over vent and will stay in the vent lobby (when they know the instance like the back of their hand and commands over vent aren't as much of an issue). We're hesitant to break off into groups in Vent but sometimes we really need to or the cross chatter would get out of hand.

Raid Leader: "Don't pull until the minstrels are set."

Group 1 Leader: "Pull now! Before we get the patrol!"

Group 1 Tank: "I thought you said not to pull."

Group 1 LM: "I have a question."

Raid Leader: "Dammit Khan!"

Me: "I'm not in any groups, I'm in the AH."

Group 1 LM: *mumble* *something* *mumble*

Raid Leader: "Sorry, wrong hobbit."

Me: "Yeah, we all look alike to you, don't we, Longshanks. Pthhhhhp!"

Group 1 Leader: "Ok, everyone quiet, I didn't hear the question."

Etc. :)

[Saylah]

HAHA! Classic funny. I often find that the moments of mass confusion in games are the most exciting and fun. We all do the by the numbers and behave in an orderly fashion thru out the day. It's nice to cut loose and be stupid in the evenings.

For those reasons my favorite Scenarios are the ones with the Baubles, Doomfist and Cemetary. Pew-pew, zerg-zerg, hide the healers, while running around like crazy chasing red-dots and killin' 'em.

[Pete S]

I've found chatter in the CoW Vent channel to be pretty funny generally, particularly if Phiz is around... he causes no end of laughter in my household (I have vent chat coming over the speakers).

That said, I dunno... maybe the wise course of action would've been to segregate yourselves, but that kindof implies a group decision of "Let's go somewhere where we can throw innuendo around!" which isn't too likely.

Sounds like my sense of humor is pretty close to yours, (though I'll add scatological humor to my 'do not enjoy' list) so it's hard for me to always understand when people are being offended.

All that said, I can't stay in a channel where two groups are doing two different things. It makes my head explode. But that has nothing to do with being offended. I'm just a person who prefers quiet to sound... I can't, for instance, read a book with a tv on in the background.

[Ysharros]

Innuendo is fine. A few people making tactical scenario decisions in a common channel where other people are also hanging out, that actually gets my goat and I'll move over.

Conversation, good. Endless streams of "kill the effing chosen," that's not conversation. It irks me a little that it happens all the time in CoW vent, but since it appears to only irk me... I just don't use Vent much anymore.

Note -- I am currently not in the best frame of mind and possibly a little cranky.

[Openedge1]

I do NOT use chat....

Simple really. I am playing with cartoon like avatars. I do not wish to have my idea of that person shattered by a squeeky geek voice or a girl character with a booming low key Barry White tone.
I still remember one time having our channel taken over by some giddy boy who then proceeded to fill the channel with Michael Jackson music..

No thanks.

And the above is another reason. I do not know you, and do not know your likes or dislikes.
I do not wish to be policed in my chat (and my mouth is very foul), yet, I am forced to feel stupid talking to strangers. I must walk on tippy toes and test the water...BAH!

Yea...I did the online chat thing in launch of Guild Wars, did it in LOTRO, yet, all it did was make for some really crappy gameplay (all goofing, no serious) and then some people take it wrong when you ask them to do something, and then it all falls apart.

Just say NO to Voice Chat!

[Relmstein]

I use Ventrilo constantly and just mute anyone who abuses my poor little ears. Then again it's mostly just my friends on my small vent server so its not realy a problem. When I was raiding it was more of a problem and I did have to mute people who either sounded like muppets or cursed like sailors with tourets.

[JoBildo]

I'm firmly in the Voice Chat YES! group.

It's grea for group coordination (typing is so passe :P), and to me it helps foster closeness in the guild even more.

Random PUG voice chat? Not so much. But for the guild? Hell yes.

I was too busy getting my butt kicked in Scenarios in Channel 7 at the time... why didn't you lot come grab us for some innuendo!

Saylah *tsk-tsk*, I thought you of all people would do that.

/runs off crying

[Khan]

I am a fan of voice chat in most circumstances. Usually if I'm soloing, I won't bother with it. I have guild chat to let me know what's going on. Sometimes though, on weekends, I'll hang in Vent with others to see what's going on. It really depends on my mood. Overall though, I find it does help build a community (within a guild, anyway) as chatting via push-to-talk is much more convenient than typing.

[Saylah]

All good feedback. It helps to remind us that not everyone is the same. I mean, we all know that but we can easily forget to practice it.

I have a cameleon-like personality. I don't follow the crowd but can easily adapt to situations because I recognize it's for the short term. So while I'm not normally a chatty-patty, if I fall in with people I like who are chatty, well I'll chat it up.

I would say that perhaps in COW vent we should move to the specific channels for specific activity. But I notice that most people don't bother. I think one reason is that they have characters in different Tiers and will often swap out depending on what spots are available in what groups. They jump on a T2 character while waiting for a T3 spot and vice versa. Everyone being lumped in one chat channel helps them stay abreast of what's going on and the options for grouping. Hmm.

I do like Khan when I want to be alone or solo. I just don't join Vent. Sometimes I'll join vent but not have my mic just in case something interesting comes along that just might coax me out of my solo-ness. Being in the chat but no mic still keeps me focused on what I'm doing while the Vent chat is just white noise in the background.

[*vlad*]

Yes, I have been chatting to people in Vent and only later realised that they aren't even in the raid group when I asked them to do something.

Quite often I forget I'm even in Vent. A raid or party finishes, I go off to get a drink or something, come back and do some solo stuff, and only after I log off do I suddenly realise I'm still in Channel C or whatever.

Our guild policy is no swearing in Vent, otherwise it just becomes the norm. Innuendo is fine.

[Winged Nazgul]

More innuendo and less complaining in Vent IMO.

[Khan]

Aww, Saylah. Don't think of them as knockbacks. Think of them as hugs ... with propellants behind them ... that knock you back.

See? Completely different!

*shifty eyes*

*dons squig armor and flees*

:P

[Saylah]

Okay, as long as you think of the BW Rain of Fire as Cinnamon Kiss from Above. *mwah*

[Khan]

LoL! Deal!

*holds up fire-proof umbrella*

:)

[Ceadricj]

I've been in CoW vent doing scenerios but seeing as I can't get the vent to work properly I can never talk. But I don't think its a problem, it wouldnt bother me as long as no one calls me an f'ing stunty all is good!!

[Capn John]

I almost always use a headset when chatting on Vent, just because we have everyone in the family room and it's a lot less intrusive to hear me quietly having a one-sided conversation, than to hear someone saying, "Ok, Group 1 go south-west. 2 go north-east. Healers take up 3, 6 and 9 o'clock. Everyone good? I'm doing an effing Raid Check here! Everyone ready? Let's do this!"
"Lleeeeeeerooooooooy Jeeeeeeeenkinnnnnssss!"
"Dude, it wasn't funny the first 100 times. Why would you think it's funny now?"
"Shut the hell up and DPS! Or Heal! Or...who was that?"

Yeah, non-MMO people don't need to hear that.

I often stay logged in Vent until I shut down for the night, and this one time (at Band Camp) when I made a Take-Out Run, my wife kept hearing quiet voices muttering away behind her. She didn't realize it was my headset until I got home and used it to tell everyone I was logging for dinner :P

[Ventrillo]

Oh noes!!# That was hilarious.