On the subject of voice chat: Blizzard has just released news that they will be incorporating VOIP into their game at some point in the future. And the boards are rife with debate on the subject. For myself, I suspect that this will be bad for the kind of immersion that I like in role playing games: The ability to be someone else for a while. The majority of gamers I suspect will not care or notice the lack, but by the same token, I suspect that I am not alone in my disappointment.

can be avoided relatively easily by current methods, such provided as “OPTIONS”.
You can select what type your voice will sound like, but the other end has the option to enable voice mod’ on his speaker. Thus I will be able to listen to your raw voice, while other 4 on the group will listen to you as a English speaking firedragon with a Deutsch accent.

For the game play sake, that “Option” should default to what you select. This should be enough to say that the developers have done their part.

My friend Tom Cadwell raises an excellent point: it’s unclear what the ethical, legal, and PR implications of virtual-voice technology would be if it were used, for example, by sexual predators to more effectively prey on children.

Roleplayers tend to be die-hard advocates. If you market an MMO game as a haven for roleplaying with all the trinkets and advancements, anyone discovered out of character will be quickly beat to death by the community.

Moreover, the "sexual predators can use it too" argument is as weak as the "serial killers can use it too" and the "those affected by HIV can use it too" arguments. Technology that facilitates social interaction facilitates social interaction. Participating in society automagically puts an individual at risk of contact with other people. That’s the big idea! Social networking software, such as MySpace, certainly increases the risk of an individual coming into contact with the wrong people too, but these are risks that are inherent to being human.

Ultimately, we are individually responsible for our own lives. Don’t blame the technology when mean, ugly orcs start raping gnomes. If an individual chooses to meet with someone they have never met whose voice is virtually masked, that individual is just plain stupid. Let’s just hope they don’t cancel their subscription because of their mistake.