There has been a lot of discussion since Linden Labs announced that voice will be added to Second Life. Akela Talamasca made some interesting points about that person didn’t sound like I expected them to. There is of course the point about the handicapped or the socially challenged having issues with voice. What I think it will really come down to is two major points, at least for me. Privacy and usability.

Information can not be un-given. Once it’s out, it cannot be taken back. Text is text, my voice is my voice and distinctly my voice. I don’t want to have what I say used against me sometime in the future, perhaps far in the future, when I’m not an being an avatar. I’ve considered using some voice cloaking software, but that seems extreme. I’d more inclined to use it if a voice was a generated part of the avatar. Makes sense, everything else on an avatar is an artificial computer construct, except who is behind it controlling the avatar. And that follows into the my next thinking.

Usability. When you’re talking with someone you are either talking or waiting to talk. Unless your trying to talk over someone, only one person can talk at a time. When texting is going on, there are multiple conversations going on at the same time. I can actually queue up what I am going to say, and I get the great advantage of being able to have a moment to reflect on what I am about to “text” before I hit enter. It’s pretty hard to remove your foot from your mouth once you have planted it firmly between your teeth.

You can also be IM’ing people left and right while chatting. We all do it. You can usually tell when someone is doing it. This would be something very hard, if not impossible to do with voice.

Oh, and let’s not forget about the possible annoyance factor…. I have not seen any real comments about how annoying voice could actually be. Think about how annoying howling and yowling in a club is as text and some basic audio is now, can you hardly wait for it to come live over streaming audio? Oh, and let’s not consider the possibilities for griefing. I will make a prognostication right here, right now. Some griefer will figure out a way to blow a 90+ decibel sound through the system and right into the headphones people are wearing. I can hardly wait for the news flash on that one.

Audio spamming, err, advertising. You think ugly spinning billboards are a problem now? Wait until they start yelling at you at 90 decibels. Buy my 16m lot next to yours for an extortionists price to stop the screaming…. I’m not naive enough to think that this will not happen. I’m sure Linden Labs has some smug plan to prevent this from happening and will be shocked when someone smarter than they are figures away around them. Or worse they have taken on the usual laissez-faire attitude and stuck their head in sand pretending that none of this will actually happen.

Lastly, two other minor points for me. I spend all day at work talking to people. When I get home to play on Second Life, the last thing I want to do is keep on talking. I also rarely turn on the steaming audio in Second Life. I like the peace and quiet at home.

Finally, I feel the immersion factor of Second Life I so enjoy might be ruined with voice. The people’s avatars I see and meet I feel are real to me. Just like the places. I feel voice might break the spell.

Within a year or so once the voice option is mainline in the Second Life software, I expect their to be a bifurcation of the user base. The percentage, and probably large at that, of older avatars will not be using voice, while the newer avatars, not knowing anything else, will be yammering away with voice. The two groups will look at each other with puzzlement…. Then the next wave will be live streaming video, but then at that point, what is Second Life? Skype?

Call me a Luddite, but text it to me baby….

-Veyron