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Rant: Voice chat


TrishaCat
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Every day for several hours a day, usually at night around the time when I become active since I'm either sleeping or working during the day, I have to listen to voice chat. I hate voice chat. I've hated voice chat since the first time I ever heard of it playing multiplayer games online. Low quality microphone caught voices that distract from the game and break immersion....I don't like it.

I grew up an only child in a sheltered home with no internet access for the majority of my childhood. I didn't gain internet access of any kind until I was like 14. Multiplayer gaming in general is a relatively new thing for me. I have a roommate. My roommate, almost exclusively plays are Heroes of the Swarm and Hearthstone, and he always does so while playing online with friends and using voice chat to discuss various strategies and give orders to each other to coordinate their attacks better. He plays these games competitively, especially Heroes of the Swarm, and I get that this all is helpful for being better players together. But despite that, it REALLY gets on my nerves. 

I can't tune it out; putting on headphones and doing something else does not blot it out, as he plays right next to me and I'm on a desktop computer. I can't just tell him to not play these games and enjoy himself, and I've discussed this with him before. He knows it bothers me but there's not really anything we can do about it. I otherwise LOVE rooming with him, as he's a great friend and one of the coolest roommates I've had. But for a few hours each day, I'm agitated to downright angry and I can't enjoy myself doing anything. I've tried distracting myself by playing games of my own, or watching TV shows, or just going and lying down and waiting for it to stop, but no matter the case I cringe in aggravation every time I hear a game term. I mean, for hours I listen to half of conversations of people telling each other what to do using game-specific video game terms that are neither relevant to me nor known to me nor directed at me (sometimes even breaking into near yelling with things like "GO GO GO! OH NO!"). Its like a never-ending conversation right next to you where someone is on the phone with someone you don't know for a few hours.  I've tried other approaches, like getting into the same games he is so that I have the full context. But I can't get into MOBAs, and I don't like multiplayer-centric games, as they lack a sense of purpose to me. I need an end goal, an ending where credits appear after I've beaten the last thing at the end of the game. So I can't get into the games he's into and be a part of it, which I had hoped would alleviate my aggravation.

The worst part of all this is that he does this around the same time that I do things, so I can't enjoy myself or even really get anything done. Occasionally I'll decide to do homework but then quit and just wait until he's done playing to do it, but he's usually done playing around like 3AM after starting at around 11PM, and by that point he's ready for bed. He basically plays until he goes to sleep, and I can't find a way to enjoy myself during this time, get work done, or anything. I suppose for homework I could take my laptop elsewhere and work, but leaving my room to do homework is less than ideal.

I don't know what to do, but every time I hear words that while he plays this and I hear things like "I'm more worried about bottom. There's siege giants there" or any other online game specific terms, I get frustrated and angry. But I can't do anything about it, so I just hold it in and sit there, trying and failing to enjoy myself doing something else.

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You need a good pair of headphones that have enough volume to shut out the world around you but not be loud enough for other people to hear. Noise-cancelling is just a bonus feature.

Sony MDR-V150 studio monitor headphones are cheap, have incredible sound, and do not have noise canceling; however they're loud enough with a proper pre-amp that you won't hear anything.

If you don't like cans and prefer IEMs, go with the Sony MDR-NC13, and those come with noise canceling as well.

I don't like listening to loud music and don't want to damage my ears for this.

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I don't like listening to loud music and don't want to damage my ears for this.

Active Noise Cancelers might work. They work better with low, repetitive noises from engines and heavy machinery, but they'll still dull most human speech. Whether that's sufficient for your situation depends on your own tolerance and how loud the voices are.

Noise isolating in-ear headphones would almost certainly do the trick, but they tend to be expensive and depending on your ears you may need them custom-fitted for comfort.

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Most of the time, hating other people using voice chat is simply because you feel left out. You have no idea what they're talking about. You don't know why they're excited. You're jealous that you're not part of the circle.

It happens to everyone and especially to girls (because let's be real, they suck at gaming competitively and can only support). The solution? Learn the game. When you can start to strategize along with everyone, voice chat becomes funnier and funnier.

"Why are you taking Ignite on the Nigga gunner?"

"It's called Arsonist and I need it because my char is black and I need to commit crimes."

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Hm, I prefer text chat. That is a problem is most games. Everyone wants voice, voice, voice!
I'm not a competitive gamer at all, though, so it doesn't bother me too much. I enjoy listening to the osts, npcs talking, that kind of stuff. To a lowly casual like me, having some people constantly talking over everything would be aggravating :T

I do have to work up the courage to voice chat in English though... Never tried it ~

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Most of the time, hating other people using voice chat is simply because you feel left out. You have no idea what they're talking about. You don't know why they're excited. You're jealous that you're not part of the circle.

It happens to everyone and especially to girls (because let's be real, they suck at gaming competitively and can only support). The solution? Learn the game. When you can start to strategize along with everyone, voice chat becomes funnier and funnier.

"Why are you taking Ignite on the Nigga gunner?"

"It's called Arsonist and I need it because my char is black and I need to commit crimes."

But I already gave the games he plays a try and didn't like them.

So your roommate can't wear headphones? Even my xbox limits voice chat to the headphones and lets the game sounds play through the tv. If he is using pc, there should definitely be an option to trap chat into headphones.

He wears headphones but that doesn't stop me from hearing his voice when he's talking into the chat.

You won't be damaging your ears. The design of both mentioned sets of monitors does a good job of cutting out outside noise without needing noise canceling. Add in some music or other distractive noise at a reasonable level and you don't hear the voice chat happening right next to you unless he screams.

The key phrase I use is "Enough volume." I only have one pair of headphones that are ear-shatteringly loud when worn, and I built those myself for use in an environment with heavy background noise.

I'll keep an eye out for the pairs of MDRV150s should I ever need a new pair of headphones. They seem decent enough and if they'd help blocking out noise they sound lovely.

No thanks on the MDRMC13s though. I don't like IEMs.

Edited by Battlechili
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I'll keep an eye out for the pairs of MDRV150s should I ever need a new pair of headphones. They seem decent enough and if they'd help blocking out noise they sound lovely.

People have widely varying volume tolerances, and one person's idea of acceptable will be another's head shattering pain level. You would definitely want to test how well they do in noise reduction relative to your volume tolerance.

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