Firmware 2.41 available... *
- Thread starter patsu
- Start date
It'll obviously, in my ideal implementation, be like a virtual phone where you can opt to redirect incoming calls rather than be forced to answer/hear them
For some reason, I don't feel like talking even when playing MP games. I don't mind typing though. I know people who play at late night and can't talk loudly too.
The ideal solution for me is a multi-mode communication service where people can communicate using a mix of text and voice chat. PS Home seems to have that capability but it may only be accessible in the "game lobby".
Heh... now we can have up to 100 friends, official Bluetooth headset, PS Eye, SingStar mic, MGS branded headset, Warhawk headset, etc. but many people still don't talk
I noticed only regular players within a clan talk more. The rest grunted and shouted occasionally.
I just dont get why they dont take the same implementation as Live and give it for free. That is EXACTLY what is needed.
I dont play many MP games, as I'm sure a lot of people don't. I just don't get what they big hold up is of not allowing me to chat to others that aren't playing the same game as me, or are playing no game at all.
You can have multiple chat channels as is implemented in live you can switch between your buddy, the game chat, clan chat, whatever chat. Sony needs to step up and offer some type of functionality.
Someone else said that PSN is like a social handicapper. I don't want to be sitting in HOME to chat with someone either. It needs to be at the XMB level.
Might want to wait until 2.4 is here since the list we have right now is only a rumor.
As for not having it by default, they may not have found a way to do it for free yet. I am not sure if there's any absolute technical reasons why it can't be done. The only other possibility off the top of my head is MS's patents (if any) in this area. Sony may need to workaround them.
Does it allow text + voice chat ? (i.e, my clan mates can talk but I type to reply).
To be clear, you can chat with someone using the in-game voice chat.
It's definitely more flexible if users have total control over who they want to talk to. Right now, most people just talk to their in-game partners while they play. On the flip side, I'd probably hate to play with someone who's not paying attention to the current game.
Resistance lobby was great. It allowed talking and textchat at the same time. Talking was usually limited to the more louder players and the rest could still get some attention through textchat. Although they did spam a lot. I'm also one of the quieter players usually limiting my self to focusing on the objectives in game.
Chatting in the XMB works pretty good. They should definitely make it available in game. Although I probably wont use it much because I usually focus on one online game at a time.
Chatting in the XMB works pretty good. They should definitely make it available in game. Although I probably wont use it much because I usually focus on one online game at a time.
You can have up to 4 separate out of game private voice chats that you can switch between. This is separate from the in game voice chat. However, only one of these voice channels(in game or out of game) can be active at one time. Text messages can be sent at any time to any user regardless of voice chat or what you're doing. Support for MSN/Live Messenger friends gives you the ability to do real-time text chat overlay on whatever you're doing too. I haven't done much with that even though I bought the keyboard kit. Their site says up to 6 multiparty chats at a time. Sounds cool if you have a lot of Messenger friends, but I don't. So far, I think Microsoft has done outstanding work in this area. The only thing left is to enable multi-user voice chats. Hopefully it will make it in a future update.
Tommy McClain
As long as there is text chat for me, everything is well. Many people probably want hands free voice chat though (I have a full-sized PS3 keyboard). I didn't know you can't have multi-user voice chat in-game. If there is enough concern over this, I'm sure Sony will add it over time since the technology is available on PS3 too.
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I keep telling myself that. But here we are 20 months after release and there is barely a functional chat feature.
I know, I know....just wait for 2.40. But I have this funny feeling it's going to end up short, and I'm going to need to wait til 2.50.
It still kills me I can't listen to music anywhere other then XMB. I don't like to just put a CD on my stereo as then I lose ALL sound. I really like to here the game but 97.5% of all in game music is terrible.
Don't really have much of a choice as PS3 is at this current time my sole console, so I'm going to do why I have been doing the whole time with my PS3....wait some more.
You can have multi-user voice chat in game. Anybody in the game or your team can have voice chat(depends on the game). The multi-user voice chat I was talking about was the private out of game kind. If you talk to a person out of the game, then you can't chat with people in the game and vice versa. You set up the channels prior to going into your game. So I could conceivably have 4 different people on 4 separate channels. I could only talk to one of those at a time, but I can switch to any of them whenever I want just by going to the Xbox Guide. Microsoft has dedicated a portion of the network stream to private voice chat outside the game and I believe that the portion they have dedicated can only accommodate a one-on-one chat.
Tommy McClain
Beats me ! My guess is they have many components and parties to tie together (PSN is open, which may require significantly more engineering effort to make sure things are layered properly and secure).As archie4oz mentioned, there are behind the scene features that we are not privy to.
I don't have a strong communication need (The GAF guys sometimes do 6-person chat before the clan meet, but I am not that close to them). I tend to agree with someone above that I'll get annoyed if someone ring me up in the middle of a RFOM game. An audible chime for an incoming XMB message is sufficient for me.
For in-game communication, I think RFOM does it best (Open mic -- everyone talks to everyone else).
For music listening, I play a lot of music and slideshow from my DLNA server (while I work). When I play a game, I tend to use the in-game music. The MGS4 soundtrack is wonderful (!).
In general, I am more concerned about cluttering and complications. Missing features will be here eventually since they are pretty good at listening.
Absolutely! I wasn't saying all comms should be voice only! Just that we need a cross-game voice chat if we're going to have proper voice chat.
Yeah, i think people don't like talking much with strangers online. Voice chat is there IMO to chat with people you know in RL, or have met up with as real friends/team-mates online in clans etc. Is this different across different platforms?Heh... now we can have up to 100 friends, official Bluetooth headset, PS Eye, SingStar mic, MGS branded headset, Warhawk headset, etc. but many people still don't talk
I haven't found that to be the case on the 360. People talk with strangers all the time. I think most people enjoy it since they're always looking to make new friends. I think having the headset standard has a lot to do with it. Yeah, there is trash talking too, but in my experience it's not a big problem. When it does happen, it's easy to fix so that you don't have to deal with them again by muting/rating player.
BTW, you should play a game of UNO online. It's an excellent social game and excellent use of the camera. I've played over a 1000 games on it. I chat via audio and video every time I play. The majority of my friends on my friends list were added from UNO and I got some friends there that I would now consider friends in RL(real life). Great people and great times.
From the comments I've seen here from the PS3 users, I can tell the social interactivity differences between the 2 are like night and day. I don't think I would have as much fun with real people online with a PS3.
Tommy McClain
People talk all the time on PC games and on Xbox Live. I think your basing this only on your PSN experience. In general, people will talk to anybody that will listen. But when the people dont have microphones, nobody will listen...
Talking doesn't happen much on the PS3 because there is no standart headset that 90% of the usersbase has. The amount of people that have headsets on PSN is low, which results to little to no talking, because in most games, there is no-one to talk to, as nobody has a microphone.
The standart headset was very important imo, for microsoft to achieve good online with the X360. Virtually everybody can talk, and if you didn't buy the premium pack, you can for $20. And people talk all the time, to anybody who will listen, not just their friends.
If we look aside from all the clumsiness needed to communicate or play with your friends on the PS3 compared to the X360, the lack of microphones really kills online in a lot of games for me.
Try playing Battlefield: Bad Company on the X360 and on PSN. On the X360 the MP experience in this game is imo much better (after you mute all the 8 year old halo kids), because "everybody" talks. People communicate, you get a real sense teamwork and whatnot.
On the PSN, it feels allmost as if your playing a singleplayer game, because very few people have microphones and since there is so few people that can talk, talking with your team, is more like talking to 2-3 guys on the team, as the rest dont have mics.
People would do the same on the PS3, if people had microphones.
My online experience on the PS3 so far has been completely different that on the X360. People dont talk or interact with eachother, im sure somebody is going to say that "i talk with my friends all the time, or talk with my clan", but thats completely different. On the X360, people talk all day long, i got like 30 friends request the first 2 weeks online on the X360, from people i talked with while playing games. On the PS3, communication is dead, AND playing with your friends usually is A LOT harder than on the X360.
I dont get why we got so much clumsiness with PSN, Sony has a whole division that only makes MMO games, surely they are competent enough to just ripp off all the good stuff XBL has to offer.
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This clearly comes from your lack of experience with XBL. On the 360, it's actually a surprise when people don't have their mics plugged in and thus not talking. Voice communcations add a whole new level of immersion to games and is essential for teamwork. It often does translate to the difference between winning and losing in FPS games. It's actually weird when people are not talking.
A little off topic. While Xbox live gets a bad rap for having e-thugs, it's simply a matter of numbers. Every console comes with a headset and majority of the people use thus you're going to that on any such system. Personally I found my years of playing Counter Strike and BF2 on the PC much more abusive!
Yes, enough people will talk if they have free mics. The number is respectable based on my experiences on the net.
I think XBL's simplicity and convenience may encourage/lead people to talk too (e.g., One thing lead to another, before they know it, someone was already talking to them when they join in a game). This is one aspect Sony will need to build up once Home is integrated with game launching.
Personally, I prefer any mechanism for the silent crowd to cooperate with the talkative group seamlessly (e.g., People are not forced to talk if they cannot for whatever reasons -- I am a quiet dude and I game in the office man). In my experiences, "talkers" felt frustrated because they thought no one responded to them. When someone acknowleged their request (e.g., by following their orders, or respond via text), they would usually utter a *sigh* of relief)).
Things like pre-canned voice responses, in-game gestures (Pointing direction, showing "OK" sign or middle finger), or even feedback icons above the game character (e.g. thumbs up/down) may also be worthwhile. Perhaps these can be new application for SIXAXIS.
I think XBL's simplicity and convenience may encourage/lead people to talk too (e.g., One thing lead to another, before they know it, someone was already talking to them when they join in a game). This is one aspect Sony will need to build up once Home is integrated with game launching.
Personally, I prefer any mechanism for the silent crowd to cooperate with the talkative group seamlessly (e.g., People are not forced to talk if they cannot for whatever reasons -- I am a quiet dude and I game in the office man). In my experiences, "talkers" felt frustrated because they thought no one responded to them. When someone acknowleged their request (e.g., by following their orders, or respond via text), they would usually utter a *sigh* of relief
)). Things like pre-canned voice responses, in-game gestures (Pointing direction, showing "OK" sign or middle finger
), or even feedback icons above the game character (e.g. thumbs up/down) may also be worthwhile. Perhaps these can be new application for SIXAXIS.
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Ostepop, AzBat, etc summarized it nice, all I can suggest Shifty is that you give XBLive a try someday. It's so far ahead of psn in terms of social interactivity, content, etc, that I think you may be startled at the difference. Chatting is the norm in 360 online play and it's a total blast because you never know who you'll be talking with, it might someone young, old, female, from Italy, or where ever. Sometimes the strangest of conversations will develop during a game and its hilarious, you just never know what will happen. Without chatting, the online opponents may as well be AI bots, it's not much of a social experience at all.
While I am sure the community enriches gaming, I think their most important contribution is "AI". Chatting has nothing to do with that though.
If socializing is such a big part of the network experiences, then we will see interesting sidetracks in Playstation Home and most importantly, the rumored social features in R2.
Actually, we should also see more social extensions in XBL moving forward.
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