Voice control sucks. Fight me! :)

Voice controlled gadgets have been growing in quantity for many years now, as have the number of backflips George Orwell performs in his grave.

This method of interacting with unflinching databases has been gradually wriggling its way into every room and every gadget possible, as people flock en masse to partake.

And every time, I wonder: why?

Why do you need something connected to the Internet to constantly listen to you? In case you decide you want to order a 5KG bag of porridge oats without the arduous task of looking and tapping at a screen for 19 seconds?

Well, we live in a world where more people know of Kim Kardashian than Stephen Hawking, so maybe I should stop staring into this abyss. But it's also been writhing its way into my hobby, my one escape from the great madness of mankind: gaming.

And that's where I'd like to centre this thread: voice control in games, and its worth.

It seems to be fairly useful for navigating menus. It was great for spoiling a friend's playthrough of the Halo remaster on the X360 by shouting "grenade" at the least convenient moment.

Is there anything, in terms of gameplay, that could be better handled by voice control?

Are there inherent shortcomings to voice control, or is current technology to blame?

Personally, I'm of the opinion that voice control is a weird invasion of privacy, and that it's always like interacting with someone who's blind, partially deaf, and afflicted with severe learning difficulties. I spend enough of my day having to speak to idiots, and I'd rather not do the same when I sit down to stab dragons to death.

Where do others stand on this issue?
 
I liked the concept of dragonshouts in Skyrim via voice control. No need to navigate through options or limited to whatever shout is equipped, you could use whichever shout you needed at the time by learning the word combinations.

Outside of games, I like the voice controls in my home. I can play music, control lights, turn off a bunch of devices in command when I go to bed. And I use very little of my smarthome potential so far.
 
There are vast differences in voice control quality and implementations. Some rock and some suck.
  1. The Kinect One Voice Controls on the early Xbox One dashboards worked over 99% of the time for me. They never required internet connection to work. This voice control rocks.
  2. The "Hey Cortana" Voice Controls on the current Xbox One dashboards works 5-10% of the time for me. They require constant internet connection to work. This voice control sucks.
  3. The "Alexa" Voice Controls integration on the current Xbox One dashboards works a little over 95% of the time for me. They require constant internet connection to work. This voice control is great.
The Skyrim voice control was unique and fun. The other game that I recall with some inherent voice control is Forza Horizon 2, where you can tell ANNA to set routes for you.

Voice control for lights, entertainment console, music, television, movies, and game launching is nice.
 
Voice controls in games can be very helpful if used correctly. They can speed up quite a few processes.

In one of my first Xbox games, Need for Speed: Rivals, they helped me a lot to bring up the map.

Some tedious stuff with a controller, like switching weapons, can work like a charm with voice controls.

Ryse also had some voice controls iirc.

If you cussed you got a technical foul in NBA 2k14 -stupid, but there it was, although I never tried it, but it could be very cool to switch formations and tactics mid game-.
 
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