Opinion: How Splatoon should do voice chat.

We've all experienced this before in public shooter matches; you're doing your own thing when suddenly someone pops into the match you're in, and this person either has a foul mouth you'd rather not listen to, or has a lot of distracting background noise going on.

So now, you have to spend precious seconds, in a match with a time limit, either delaying a respawn or finding a safe place to hide, so you can go into the menu and mute them.
No one likes that, but we put up with it.
Now, we COULD just turn off the chat.
Many, in fact, do just that, in order to avoid the negative elements altogether.
But it's a fact that chat CAN make matches more fun, with the right people, so it's a detriment that these people feel there isn't a solid way of finding those worthwhile people in public matches. People that you'd like to add to your friends list so you can play with them rather than the slathering hoards of public match trolls.

Recently, an article popped up that explained why the devs didn't want VC in Splatoon.
It was precisely because of the vicious \ annoying elements making VC un-fun, that he decided to take it out.

While I get where the dev is coming from, I do not believe that taking out VC entirely is right, so it got me to thinking about it...

I believe I've stumbled upon a fairly decent solution to this problem, so I wanted to put this out there for your consideration.

The solution:
Public matches = pre and post game chat only: no mid-match chat.
Friend matches = all forms of chat, pre, mid, and post-game.

Bare with me for a moment while i explain why I feel this would work best:
By keeping public chat to pre and post match, while making mid-game chat exclusive to friend matches, this does two BENEFICIAL things of note:

#1 You never have to take time out of your public matches to mute people again, resulting in less frustration and more play time.
#2 It allows public games to function as an "interview process" for friend matches.
When you're in a lobby instead of in-game, there's no time wasted in muting others because there's nothing else going on other than chat, so you've got the time you need to pay attention to how people chat and behave both before a match, and afterwards when tempers may be flaring.

This environment, where chat doesn't distract from gameplay, lets you decide which players in those public matches might be worth adding to friend matches, where mid-match chat would be a norm.

It gives players the chance to pick and choose the best out of the players they meet online, and since many players are going to WANT to be invited into those matches with mid-game chat enabled, you'll naturally, hopefully, see more people in public matches minding their behavior, both before being invited to get that invitation, and afterwards so that they aren't kicked from friend lists and forced to rely just on public matches again.

This system basically uses mid-game chat as a REWARD for those that are well behaved enough to earn their way into many people's friend lists, and we all know that when there's a good reward on the line, people normally try to act more like decent human beings to earn it, in situations like this.

There is one thing I'd like to cover in conclusion, that I know people will mention as a counterpoint to not having mid-game chat in public games:
Team coordination.
I understand where you're coming from on that point.
However, let me ask something, then point out why Splatoon is an exception to this need.
My question to you, dear reader, is this: How often, compared to trash talking and general off-topic chat, do you see people in public matches using VC to coordinate with others?
If most of us are being honest, likely not very often, by comparison.
Splatoon, unlike other shooters, doesn't actually require VC for team coordination.
Why?
Because the game works differently from other shooters.
The map displayed on the game pad constantly updates and keeps track of your team mates and the amount of territory your side owns.
So, simply by staying aware of their team's position and periodically checking their maps, a good team will naturally coordinate and converge upon the areas that need the most work, after seeing the situation, as it changes, on the game pad.

So....what do you all think?

[Concertoine]

There's not any good reason it shouldn't have friend chat, that's what it all comes down to.

[freshslicepizza]

totally agree. to me it makes no sense at all to leave voice chat out all-together because of some people and their conduct. the player should be able to decide just like how they decide whether to buy the game or not.

i always found people's responses that support no voice chat to be off the wall. they act like they have to play with voice chat if its there.

i like the idea of the topic creator. you can reward the player with voice chat and at the very least make it available to friends, kind of like a party chat. that is because if there is one negative aspect to having voice chat and somebody does decide not to use it you could run into the host booting you from the game. that is the possible flipside where the host thinks you're not a team player and cannot talk to you and some teammates getting frustrated because they too cannot communicate. i guess a remedy to this is a button press genral response built in.

needless to say voice chat has far more pros than cons by making it available. this is yet another case of nintendo not getting it and trying to play guardian instead.

[wonderfulmonkeyman]

I agreed with that in my post, basically.
The one pro no VC has is that it makes those that only play for the sake of trashing on others not want to play, but those who would use it benevolently suffer as a result.

[Clown_Syndr0me]

I disagree majorly.
I mainly play on xbox and playstation and since party chat was introduced it's been impossible to make new friends. Every game is silent and it sucks. I still still play with those I met pre-party chat in games like Cod4. If it wasn't for chatting, cooperating etc we would never have met.