Playing games is an almost indispensable thing in modern life. Many people can get a sense of accomplishment in the game world that they can’t get in reality because everything is virtual. Some voice interactive systems appear to be in a dilemma. The advantage is that you can communicate with people on the same team in real-time to have a higher chance of victory, but some will cause the player to be disgusted because it is connected to the microphone and can hear the voice of the opponent player. It will pull the player back to the real world and it is still missing privacy especially for players with a shy personality.
Since ancient times, the audience of voice interactive games has always been a minority, so it is difficult to enter the public’s field of vision. However, it has a long history and has been used by game designers for various experiments. It is precise because the audience is small that designers can better improve it in the game according to the preferences of the small ethnic groups.
Nowadays, people are slowly changing voice interactive games for two reasons: 1. The previous games were mostly single-player, no matter where they were, it was a one-person adventure. Now the popular games all require real-time teamwork and a great deal of tacit understanding. And there is also a random matching mechanism such as in “PUBG” and “Overwatch”, players need to facing completely strange teammates, therefore the communication is needed for the win. 2. It is precisely because the game designer considered the privacy and shyness mentioned earlier, that a new way of voice interaction was created, which is to create some quick reply sentences like shortcut keys. When the player does not want to speak, click on the small icon that can represent what they want to say, then the ai in the game will help them to say it so that their teammates can hear it. Furthermore, it is more simple and clear than talk in person, and it is less troublesome with noise and accent. This not only solves the problem of user loss caused by the disadvantages of voice interaction but also wins the love of the public more efficiently. Isn’t this a milestone in the entire interactive game!
Bibliography
University, Stefanie Shriver Carnegie Mellon, et al. “A Unified Design for Human-Machine Voice Interaction.” A Unified Design for Human-Machine Voice Interaction | CHI ’01 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 1 Mar. 2001, dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/634067.634214.
Melbourne, Fraser Allison University of, et al. “Design Patterns for Voice Interaction in Games.” Design Patterns for Voice Interaction in Games | Proceedings of the 2018 Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play, 1 Oct. 2018, dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/3242671.3242712.
Fraser Allison, Marcus Carter. “Word Play: A History of Voice Interaction in Digital Games – Fraser Allison, Marcus Carter, Martin Gibbs, 2020.” SAGE Journals, 14 Dec. 2017, journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1555412017746305?casa_token=6BeuUtpv1I0AAAAA%3Aj1wTJlWgR-OsBFCwY6dBRq3dSHVHIyEn0zr2erBZdqjAKnYlw6SfMZRHi9vpdGfwo5bYToVifBVV.
Allison, Fraser John. “Voice Interaction Game Design and Gameplay.” Minerva Access, 1 Jan. 1970, minerva-access.unimelb.edu.au/handle/11343/240857.
Fraser Allison The University of Melbourne, et al. “Frame Analysis of Voice Interaction Gameplay.” Frame Analysis of Voice Interaction Gameplay | Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 1 May 2019, dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/3290605.3300623.
love your interesting topic! It’s interesting to learn about the voice used in games.
Interesting observations – I wouldn’t say “since ancient times” related to digital game unless you consider 20-30-40 years in the past ancient. ; )
Being a game lover myself, I thought you pointed out some interesting things about the use of voice in them. For the most part with multiplayer games that require teamwork, it is crucial to have some means of communicating between each other, whether it be through voice or text.