Talk Talk

By Victoria Wheeler

It’s My Second Life
Since the main grid was down for a while today, and since it’s true that everyone is entitled to my opinion, I decided it was high time I hiked my buns over to the SL Voice Beta grid and give someone a piece of my mind.

I have an Altec (not a plug) interactive stereo headset with a mic, purchased for online classes I took last year. It set me back a few bucks ($30 at an office supply store, since seen on the web for $20). I attach it to my laptop when I’m at a SL dance club, and don’t wish to interfere as the not-so-subliminal tv commercials blast my entranced husband into complete submission.

Somewhat trepidaciously, I downloaded the Voice Beta Mac app and ventured onto the Voice Beta grid. I expected an immediate cacophony of vocal input, a veritable riot of yakking that rivaled Times Square at midnight on New Year’s Eve.

What I heard was surprising. Silence. Total, complete, and really dead silence.

You aren’t informed that the Voice Beta grid and the ‘regular’ Beta grid are actually the same place, the difference being the Voice beta application, which provides you the wherewithal to speak. Since it is a separate app, you get the impression the Voice Beta grid is dedicated to voice beta testers only. Nope, there are folk on the Beta grid who don’t have the ability to speak. They also don’t know if you can speak. There’s something very close to my real life experience about standing in front of someone in SL, speaking to them, yet they don’t answer. It’s heartening to know these avatars don’t respond not because they don’t care, but because they really can’t hear you, and can’t tell you they can’t hear you.

Talking Colours
I flitted about a few sims for five minutes, approaching a handful of lone, skulking avi’s I’d homed in on through the Map. They were hard to find, none responded to speech, and a couple had Profiles which made me decide not to approach them.

This is where RTFM comes in handy. If I’d read the fine Release Notes doc that came with the app download, beyond my cursory scan to learn where the Voice UI tab with the Speak button is (lower right center of your screen), I’d have known about the “voice intensity indicator”. The “intensity indicator” appears above an avatar’s name label. It’s a small, white dot framed by double parentheses which increase in thickness and number, light up and turn green to represent ‘broadcasting’, as you speak through your avatar. Once you’re hip to the intensity indicator, you start looking for it. No one I encountered in the first few minutes had the telltale indicator.

My problem was how to find someone with whom I could converse. I recalled from past regular Beta grid visits a sim called “Web Page”, where a helpful, eponymously-named avatar resides. When I arrived, Mr. Web Page was Away on break, so I quickly rechecked the map for anyone in the vicinity. To my right, behind a free-standing staircase which imprisoned the head of an anatomically correct prim bull (there’s lots of ephemera like that on the Beta grid), stood a Furry labeled, “Voice Mentor”. Excellent! I’d found a guru. I knew I could speak to this avatar, and perhaps even get some answers.

That Ain’t Me, Babe
This foxy gentleman seemed anxious to be my first-ever SL speaking partner. We began with a simultaneous, “Hello!” What a shock to hear live, human speech in SL, especially from a Furry. It was exciting, surprising and oh-so ‘real’.

The Voice Mentor said my input volume was too low, I should click the microphone icon in the lower right corner of my screen to adjust it. Hmm, no such icon for me. “You must be using a Mac,” he said (story of my life). “Sorry, can’t help you with a Mac. You’ll just have to figure out how to increase your output volume”. I know how to do so (System Prefs> Sound> Output Volume), but instead, having overcome my initial shyness, I simply spoke louder.

Apparently, anyone can join the “Voice Mentor” group, so noobs beware. Beyond his inability to help with my Mac set up, this Voice Mentor wasn’t too chatty and didn’t volunteer much general insight. I asked if he were a Linden, one of those concierges, or a volunteer. No, he just liked helping people on the Voice grid. I was pleased to have met this charming, though inscrutable beast, who so gently relieved me of my SL vocal virginity. Hey, I’d done it! I’d spoken with my very own voice in Second Life. I was really impressed with myself.

Hooked, and hungry for more, I wildly scanned the Map for multiple speaking partners. There seemed precious few avatars on the beta grid. Then, I remembered Luskwood, a sim that’s a Beta grid noob (aren’t we all?) meeting place. I’d only been on the regular Beta grid twice, and both times Luskwood was the most populated area I’d seen.

What the hell is a Lusk, anyway?
As I approached Luskwood’s raised, central platform, I heard several voices; not many, but enough to be distracting, and it was difficult to follow any one conversation. The most prominent voices were two women speaking French. I also heard an ambient ‘zap’ sound, reminiscent of someone’s security shield being bumped. With the French voices and zapping droning in the background, I could distinguish the louder speech of a couple of young men. I hadn’t yet read about the intensity indicator, and even with stereo headphones, couldn’t determine who owned those voices. There were perhaps a dozen avi’s on the platform, speakers and non-speakers intermixed. So, I just asked aloud in my native English who was speaking.

To my left, a male avatar’s intensity indicator suddenly rezzed for me, and his voice became more distinct as he turned in my direction. As he approached me in his black Aikido pants and matching Coolie hat, he began to address me directly, and I realized that proximity counts in the Voice world.

As I moved toward him, the French voices subsided and the approaching avatar’s voice became loud and clear. The Aikido-clad av informed me of the intensity indicator. I thanked him, and told him the Anglicized Japanese spelling of his avi’s first name was a mismatch with its Hindi surname (that of a famous Bollywood actress). He’d said it was about as Asian as he could find. Such details began to flow easily in our Voice conversation, and I was getting comfortable with the novelty and pace of it, too.

An avi walked over and asked aloud if there was an option to toggle Voice on and off, the Push-to-Talk feature, its called. Someone volunteered that Edit> Preferences> Voice settings let you toggle speaking with a single character key. The two Preference choices for this confused me. I activated them both, and selected the letter t (for talk) as my speech switch. I immediately logged several t’s in my Chat bar, and even though it worked on cue, I soon unchecked the Push-to-Talk options, and left Voice Active as default.

In the UI HUD tab, the “Speak” button has a lock icon within it, which presumably overrides your Preferences. Beside the Speak button is a Speakers button that is not currently active.

The zapping sound continued as four speakers and a break dancing, non-speaking avi gathered in a small circle on the Luskwood platform. Suddenly, a speaking female avatar we’ll call TootSweet landed in the midst of us. She announced her SL name, provided her real age and her past and present rl locations, among other details. As her security bubble rezzed, TootSweet explained she was unable turn it off. Those of us within ‘speaking distance’ fired suggestions at her, and whether or not we were helpful, she soon managed to turn off her shield.

TootSweet disclosed she was glad to finally speak in her own voice, and to hear the voices of other avatars. She thought this made for a more authentic SL experience. A few people in our circle, myself included, felt it would upset those who switched their avatar’s gender to one other than their own. Another person argued that voice-changing technology was available, so that might not be a concern for the fantasy-gender avi’s, but it could be for the rest of us.

A male voice then greeted our group. He appeared to be an I, Robot or Borg-type sci fi character. I asked where he acquired his unusual shape, with its exposed metal skeletal frame. He explained he’d made his avatar from parts, and that he used ‘invisi-scripts’, all of which I found quite interesting. I struggled to hear him, however, as his voice was marred by static. I was alone in hearing the static, another YMMV caveat.

A Furry with a buff but hairy human shape joined us. He brought a new feature to our experience – voice-activated, expressive Hand Gestures (in his case, paw). When he spoke, his arms bent at the elbow and his paws rose, palms upward, in an almost supplicating bicep curl that coordinated with his vocal input.

Our new Fuzzy friend informed us that the Release Notes outlined the Inventory pathway to these Gestures, Library> Gestures> Speech Gestures. You Wear them by dragging The Speech Gestures folder over your avi. Lag aside, when they do manifest, the nine general-issue Speech Gestures are randomly played from a cluster of three sets of three different types. You deactivate them individually with the Take Off Items command. These Gestures seem like a nice idea, but IMHO, not entirely necessary. Although they emphasize the ‘appearance’ of speech, TootSweet swore Mr. Furry was really just trying to cop a sneaky feel of her posterior. I believe she was right, but he was kinda hawt, so in her place, I wouldn’t have minded too much.

Eventually, a Romance language speaking couple began chatting beside our group at an unnecessarily high volume. Three of our party retreated at a distance from them, behind a make-your-own Furry vendor sign. Our further socializing in spite of the loud talk revealed that not all Beta sims have Voice capability. One that does is Abbotts, home of an airport and skydiving facility, so, you’re likely to find a few av’s there, too.

Such A Shame
A guide for SL Voice social protocol is non-existent. You’re at the mercy of the courtesy of other players. Most residents I heard ignored the proximity factor, and their chatter caused a distracting din. The same is true for other in-game voice systems such as Ventrilo, TeamSpeak and Skype. However, those systems, several years more mature than SL Voice, have ways around such problems. For instance, they provide one-on-one or group private conversations. Those other systems sell server space for you to create permanent voice channels to one or more other players, another feature not apparent in SL’s Voice Beta.

While on any voice com system there’s always some knucklehead waiting for his or her 15 minutes of high decibel fame, existing voice services are private, so spammers and griefers are rare, if non-existent. Surely our Linden leaders will follow their example and protect our privacy, since speakers are, by default, listeners. But, many SL residents anticipate SL’s Voice undertaking will fall victim to hi-jinx by legitimate in-game players, as well as vandals, on its publicly accessible servers, and safeguards may not be imposed until after such attacks have made our second lives miserable.

The Typing Party’s Not Over
I see more challenges for SL Voice. What chance does speech have competing with music at in-game clubs? Typing will be the only way to enjoy both the music and the group socializing. While there are general and individual Voice Mute functions in SL Voice Beta, back in your first life, your rl family and friends don’t need or want to hear you as you chat up that sexy new 3-D acquaintance. Soon-to-come voice eavesdropping tools may be helpful if you can’t figure out how to do that with the camera tools. I predict SL will forever remain a ‘mixed usage’ system of voice and typing.

Rumors
Two different, supposedly in-the-know avi’s in that Luskwood circle had distinct opinions on when Voice capability would be released for the Main SL grid. One said soon, by May 15th. The other said some time this coming September. Both named the SL Voice Beta blog as their information source. I couldn’t find any release dates there. If you know what’s been announced, please post it below this article, thanks.

The primary problem with a shortly impending release of the Voice feature was voiced by TootSweet. Justifiably, she’d rather the Lindens fixed issues that already plague SL, such as mysterious Inventory loss, before introducing such an important, paradigm-changing feature. A brief, but spirited conversation about the next day’s Town Meeting, and the open letter (which I was lucky enough to sign) that sparked the meeting, ensued in our circle. Hello, Lindens! We residents are talking. Can you hear us?

A side benefit of my jaunt onto the Voice Beta grid was that I made a couple of new friends, whom I later contacted on the Main grid. Although I feel it’ll take me some time to get used to SL Voice, I already miss not being able to speak to those new friends on the Main grid. Hearing their voices and speaking to them added a very special and distinctive dimension to our connection.
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Save yourself some trouble and get all the above SL Voice Beta usage info and more at
http://secondlife.com/community/bhear.php
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Avatar names used in this article have been changed to protect their identities. We at the SLTribune hold it as our duty to honor the privacy of those we represent in print. However, should you wish to know the real names of these avatars, they will be revealed to you if you send an IM request, along with 500$L to Caviat Emptor.

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