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IGN: Splatoon's lack of voice chat is "cheap and lazy"

O

Oddduck

Member
Fran Mirabella wrote an article on IGN today about Splatoon's lack of voice chat.

He says Splatoon can still be enjoyable without voice chat, but he doesn't believe that the game will hold his attention for multiple months without community chat aspects.

Here are some snippets.

Are you kidding me? It's 2015. A voice chat option is standard in most online team-based games, and it doesn't have to be active with the entire map of tea-bagging grade-schoolers, but rather can just be limited to your team at will. We can have our cake and eat it too if Splatoon supports opt-in team voice chat. Nintendo has never been shy about prioritizing its family values, but the DNA of Wii and Wii U's online experiences have mostly suffered from the lack of online features.
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I believe Nintendo's lack of online experience and fear of unknown profanity is taking priority over the gameplay. I also believe it's cheap and lazy. Splatoon is a lot of fun and there's a ton of strategy that will go unrealized if you can't communicate.
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For me, this is a call to arms, because I continue to be driven further away from a game maker that's defined my career and view of games. How can such an innovative company continue to ignore something so important in gaming today? Splatoon's got potential, but I worry it might only hold my attention for weeks instead of months without the community chat aspects that are so crucially important in today's games.
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Link to article: http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/05/10/dear-nintendo-splatoon-needs-a-voice-chat-option
 
D

Dartastic

Member
Who chats on a console anymore? Serious question. I never do with randoms, and I don't play with friends a ton and even when I do we don't really chat.
James Scott said:
I didn't feel like it was necessary. You can tell by your surroundings that you need to help or branch out.
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This too.
 
S

Seth Enosh

Member
Destiny chat is default off in PvP. Even when I turn it on (which notifies my team), it's rare for someone else to turn it on and talk to me. Most of the time I don't bother though because I don't feel like talking to my teammates.

I don't really see the big deal but if voice chat is an essential feature in your online games, Splatoon isn't for you. I can't see voice chat being added to anything but custom games in the future given what the developer said about not wanting to turn off the crowd that hates voice chat (because they are afraid of people yelling slurs or just being angry)

Dartastic said:
Who chats on a console anymore? Serious question. I never do with randoms, and I don't play with friends a ton and even when I do we don't really chat.
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When I play halo or destiny with my friends we are always in a party chat on Xbox. Why wouldn't you be? Although a lot of times we end up talking about non-related things more than stuff relevant to the immediate game at hand.
 
V

VanWinkle

Member
Dartastic said:
Who chats on a console anymore? Serious question. I never do with randoms, and I don't play with friends a ton and even when I do we don't really chat.

This too.
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Lol surely you can't be serious? I don't play with friends a huge amount, but I can at least understand that a lot of people do and they like to communicate.
 
DOWN

DOWN

Banned
I'd say combined with how disappointing the launch content is for a multiplayer centered game, it's not surprising that their other shortcomings would appear cheap now.
 
T

The Xtortionist

Member
Seth Enosh said:
Destiny chat is default off in PvP. Even when I turn it on (which notifies my team), it's rare for someone else to turn it on and talk to me. Most of the time I don't bother though because I don't feel like talking to my teammates.

I don't really see the big deal but if voice chat is an essential feature in your online games, Splatoon isn't for you. I can't see voice chat being added to anything but custom games in the future given what the developer said about not wanting to turn off the crowd that hates voice chat (because they are afraid of people yelling slurs or just being angry)
Click to expand...

Three out of the four platforms Destiny is on support OS-level party chat.

If Wii U had party chat, I doubt this would be nearly as big of an issue.
 
G

Garrett Hawke

Member
Voice chat is kind of dead now anyways, thanks to party chat. Also, if they add it within parties when they add the party support I think that's as much as they need to do.
 
H

Hatchtag

Banned
Yeah, it's really god damn backwards and I agree with worries that it won't hold attention. It's even worse on the Wii U since there's no party chat system or anything.
 
D

Deleted member 126221

Unconfirmed Member
Call me crazy, but I appreciated the stress test more in part because of the lack of voice chat...
 
P

-Pyromaniac-

Member
Damn. Nice to see Fran is still around. And I agree that Nintendo goes too far in trying to avoid any kind of mature content. Even swear werdz possibly being said.
 
J

Jintor

Member
I would hesitate to say 'cheap and lazy' before asking the developers about its affect on latency because Splatoon feels goddamn sublime.
 
L

LegalEagleMike

Member
for shooters I rarely play the multiplayer part unless I am running with at least 1 friend. Chatting is very important IMO and adds to the enjoyment of the game.
 
O

OrbitalBeard

Member
Voice chat probably should have been an option but its omission isn't cheap and lazy. I think the fact that the game is releasing relatively bare-bones at $60 is a bigger deal than the lack of voice chat. Thankfully the game is an absolute blast to play, which is what matters most at the end of the day and at least the upcoming post-launch content will be free for users.
 
V

VanWinkle

Member
Garrett Hawke said:
Voice chat is kind of dead now anyways, thanks to party chat. Also, if they add it within parties when they add the party support I think that's as much as they need to do.
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Well, yeah, I don't think many people would be complaining if Wii U had party chat functionality. But it doesn't.
 
C

Crossing Eden

Hello, my name is Yves Guillemot, Vivendi S.A.'s Employee of the Month!
It is a seriously odd choice to exclude voice chat in a team focused shooter in 2015. Especially as an option. Options are good.
 
S

Seth Enosh

Member
punkmaggit said:
Has there been other titles on the WiiU that have online multiplayer and chat?
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Nintendo published monster hunter 3U in the west, that has voice chat online.

No Nintendo developed title has voice chat with randoms though. Xenoblade X is text chat only right? (Have been on blackout now that it's out in Japan)
 
U

Uhyve

Member
James Scott said:
I didn't feel like it was necessary. You can tell by your surroundings that you need to help or branch out.
Click to expand...
While true that it won't effect gameplay too much, what it will cause for me is this:

Oddduck said:
He says Splatoon can still be enjoyable without voice chat, but he doesn't believe that the game will hold his attention for multiple months without community chat aspects.
Click to expand...
Any multiplayer game I keep playing for the long haul, I'm playing with friends. If we can't talk then what's the point? I mean, that's assuming that the game is good enough for me to want to play it with my friends for a long period of time. Regardless, cheap and lazy is wrong, we all know that Nintendo is doing this to protect their child friendly image and it frustrates the hell out of me.
 
B

B4s5C

Member
Throughout my multiple matches, I caught myself cursing at my team or complaining about the other team out of frustration.

I'm glad there isn't a chat in this game. I doubt people want to hear me be a whiny asshole and I don't want to hear others be a whiny asshole. Especially over such a bitchin' game.
 
P

Pappasman

Member
Its pretty insane that Nintendo refuses to implement voice chat in their online games (or use it in incredibly stupid ways like MK and Smash).

Splatoon would greatly benefit from this. Its a damn shame.
 
F

FunkyMunkey

Banned
i agree. nintendo keeping our pure virgin ears from hearing any sorts of profanity online. apparently we are all 4 year-olds online, whether we choose to or not

Reebot said:
Yeah, it is cheap and lazy. People defend it for the most bizarre reason but really, what business does a multiplayer shooter in 2015 have not including voice chat?
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what would you do if someone said "fuck" or something else heinous to you online? nintendo knows you and everyone else would have a heart attack so they're just protecting you
 
R

Reebot

Member
Yeah, it is cheap and lazy. People defend it for the most bizarre reason but really, what business does a multiplayer shooter in 2015 have not including voice chat?
 
B

Burt

Member
Voice chat is by far (by far by far) the by far shittiest thing about PvZ Garden Warfare. By far. It almost makes the game unplayable just out of pure infuriation when you're loading a map and someone is spamming crap on the mic and you can't mute it because you're not in yet.

Whoever decided to let chat come in before you're even loaded into the game screwed up bad.

I'm okay with any game not prioritizing it after that.
 
J

jackissocool

Member
punkmaggit said:
Has there been other titles on the WiiU that have online multiplayer and chat?
Click to expand...
Nintendo's never made a game this focused on online versus team play before. It's what voice chat is for.

Ridiculous that Nintendo doesn't have it. Not to mention the general shit suite of modes and matchmaking features it will have at launch.
 
S

SatoAilDarko

Member
I mean yeah voice chat should absolutely be supported. At the very least for friend matches.

But the lack of voice chat will have no effect on the actual game or longevity unless you need to talk to people for enjoyment.

There really aren't any group strategies that could be applied to Splatoon. In fact in a lot of cases it's going to simply go to an area away from your teammates to cover with ink.

As for cheap I mean Nintendo doesn't charge for online play at all. This decision was part of someone's design philosophy not because of money.
 
V

VanWinkle

Member
B4s5C said:
Throughout my multiple matches, I caught myself cursing at my team or complaining about the other team out of frustration.

I'm glad there isn't a chat in this game. I doubt people want to hear me be a whiny asshole and I don't want to hear others be a whiny asshole. Especially over such a bitchin' game.
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It can be opt-in to listen and to talk.
 
B

BocoDragon

or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
It could probably use it, yeah. There is some strategy you'd like to communicate about in the game.

I also wanted to communicate to people after huge upset game matches... I was talking to myself like "oh shit!"
 
J

James Scott

Banned
Smoothice65 said:
That is where "the option" part comes in, problem solved.
Know everyone is going to keep leaning on voice chat for eternity.
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Well, if Voice Chat does actually give an advantage, anyone that doesn't use it would suffer for it and those that do use it might not learn to play in the way that I mentioned.
 
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