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Mumble Policy?


Corbendallas
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This post is intended to lay prospective guidelines for a potential guild policy that if agreed upon would govern players names in Mumble.

First, to provide a little personal background on the matter, I will start by saying that I have a very very difficult time learning who is who by voice in Mumble. I have raided for months and months with members and try as I might, many male voices are still very confusing. To help rectify this I usually alt+tab to Mumble while someone I don't know is talking(say in raid with me), but then I look at who is talking and the name does not match any player from my raid. This further compounds the issue I have with learning players by voice and frustrates me greatly.

I would propose to make it mandatory, at least for raiders, to have their Mumble name match their main raider's name.

There are a few problems I forsee with this, and I can't really speculate on how difficult overcoming them would prove to be, because I do not know exactly how difficult it is to change things in Mumble, though I know Mumble likes to resist change. The first issue is a raider applying and being accepted to raid on one character, and then switching characters, leaving the raider name and Mumble name at odds. The second issue is players who name change often(I am guilty of this). Third is an existing player who is not on a raid team, with an existing Mumble name, bringing their character(who's name does not match Mumble) into a raid group. These three issues are all actually the same issue, in reality, being that the root cause of the problem comes from difficulty of name changing in Mumble.

Ashin, or anybody who is knowledgeable in the intricate language of Mumble, I would beg to hear your thoughts on how complex this problem could be.

Everybody, I would love to hear constructive feedback, negative or positive.

Edited by Corbendallas
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Mumble has a game overlay that if started before you start WoW will put everyone in your channel in Mumble on your WoW screen. The names that appear on your screen can moved to anywhere and re-sized from extremely small to extremely large. That is how I learned everyone's voice because when someone talks in Mumble with the overlay active, the names also light up on your WoW screen. I just had to learn who's Mumble named matched their WoW name for when the names light up on my WoW. Much easier than trying to alt tab during a raid while people are talking.

Not sure if this is the kind of help you were looking for but it helped me after I server transferred. I can take a SS of my UI and show what the overlay looks like after I moved it around and re-sized it to how I like it.

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First, I think raiding with the same 9 people every week for three or four months, it is reasonable to think you will learn their voices.

Second, we don't recommend the use of Mumble overlay because it has been known to cause performance issues for some people. Of course you are free to experiment on your own and, if it works for you, that's great.

Third, there is no difficulty changing names in Mumble. Mumble identifies you based on a unique certificate that is stored on your computer. But, when we register you, it links that name to that computer, and has trouble understanding that you might log in from different computers entirely. That is the primary problem we have run into.

When you log in from a different computer, trying to use a name which has already been associated with your previous computer, Mumble gets protective and says, "Wait a minute. I know who Sol is, and he doesn't log in from this laptop. You must be a fake!"

The problem wouldn't exist if I didn't use the registration system. Mumble is willing to behave blindly like vent and just limit access to channels via a password. That is something I have considered, but there are other kinds of features and structure that I will lose if I go that route.

The best solution is probably just for me to set up a variety of officers and vets with administrative rights. However, I never really finished setting up my "dream" mumble.

All of this is a tangent in clarifying how Mumble actually works. To go to your main point, I don't think it is practical to expect that everyone's voice server and forum name will always match the toon they are playing at any given moment. In fact I would say that is flat-out unreasonable to expect, especially in a game like WoW, or in a multi-game guild like SoH. The only thing I would say is that, if we were to know eachother by first names, instead of gaming tags, this would kind of become a non-issue. (Not for you, since you still wouldn't know anyone's voice, but for the rest of us.) However, that sort of thing is a complicated topic. And, while it is something that we have talked about internally, it's definitely not the kind of thing we would move on without a ton of roundtable discussion first.

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purple team is sort of already halfway to the first name thing, cos of the Mord->KT->LT->Mytra tangent =p

They all went by first names in their previous guild. I think I know the first names of all but 3 people on my team already :p

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This is always interesting. When I first joined SoH, it took me a bit to map even Forum names to WoW names. Then there was the layer of voices to Mumble names to WoW names to Forum names. After a while, the voices became very distinct and the mapping was clear.......then I joined Pink and I had to start all over again.

Using real names can be a bit......meh. Let's pick on Cal. Technically, Cal's real name is longer than his WoW name -- am I ever going to call him his real name? No. Why? B/c it's easier to say Cal.

Then, there are preferences -- perhaps, Ashin has a quirk where he doesn't want to be called Bob (it is Bob, right?!). So now, we all have to call him Bobster. I have to remember to say, "DI me, Bobster!" -- rather than seeing Warlock w/name Ashin and using that name.

The easiest way I've found to associate voices with players, is to focus in on a certain quality that creates a distinction. When I first joined Pink, I had a difficult time with Ashin v. Sol v. Feja (and don't bring up the solo Monitor detail!); on Purple, I had a Mord v. Luc confusion for a bit. I made myself focus on details:

  • Feja - sounds like he is driving by in a car while trying to say his sentence
  • Korrek - always very boisterous -- typically can hear Adele in the background
  • JJ - all twang, all the time; can hear a big grin on his face when he's pleased with himself (which is always :p)
  • Ashin - you can hear a furrowed brow
  • Sol - interesting slow/quick cadence
  • Hip - growl to twang
  • Cal - sentences usually punctuated with laughing/bit of an echo
  • Dev - soft-spoken, slight detection of a twang
  • Nen - at times, quick and forceful
  • Duke - crazy accent (still working on this one)

Totes helpful, right?

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Alright I appreciate the input.. Let's see if we can't come to a level of refinery that could make or break this possibly policy.

First, I think raiding with the same 9 people every week for three or four months, it is reasonable to think you will learn their voices.

This is one of the most common pieces of feedback I've heard on this. I agree, you would think that after so much time, this would be an easy matter... alas, no I still struggle quite badly in this area, and this is the genesis of this post. Most people are quick to say 'pay attention baddie' and try as I might, it really just is an area that is and always has been an issue for me.

Second, we don't recommend the use of Mumble overlay because it has been known to cause performance issues for some people. Of course you are free to experiment on your own and, if it works for you, that's great.

I did use the overlay VERY briefly(as in only one raid night). When I found out about it, I was thrilled to be honest. I'm not sure if it was paranoia or what, but I could swear WoW was just not performing right. Not performing badly, just not right. Could have been paranoia. I stopped using it after the team all said exactly what Jynks has said here; it can cause issues. Such a shame. I may try it again though.

The best solution is probably just for me to set up a variety of officers and vets with administrative rights. However, I never really finished setting up my "dream" mumble.

This is intriguing, and I understand that this is not something I should come to expect to happen in a hurry, as I know this is an extremely busy time for you now. Good info, though, either way. Perhaps one day though!

All of this is a tangent in clarifying how Mumble actually works. To go to your main point, I don't think it is practical to expect that everyone's voice server and forum name will always match the toon they are playing at any given moment. In fact I would say that is flat-out unreasonable to expect, especially in a game like WoW, or in a multi-game guild like SoH.

I absolutely agree here, and the main thing I could see being doable:

I would propose to make it mandatory, at least for raiders, to have their Mumble name match their main raider's name.

I figure if at least we were to have in-game main character for raiding members who are assigned a team for long-term match names with even just Mumble, it is a bold step in the right direction.

Getting everyone in the whole guild, and furthermore, everyone on our entire forums, to match? I'd never suggest it. as it would be a fool's errand to spend so many resources on something with such a large scope. However, I do feel that it is something that could be done for the raiders at least, and after the initial tinkering in Mumble, it could be as easy to maintain as routine maintenance.

Thoughts?

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  • 5 years later...
On 3/9/2012 at 2:00 PM, Inedit said:

This is always interesting. When I first joined SoH, it took me a bit to map even Forum names to WoW names. Then there was the layer of voices to Mumble names to WoW names to Forum names. After a while, the voices became very distinct and the mapping was clear.......then I joined Pink and I had to start all over again.

Using real names can be a bit......meh. Let's pick on Cal. Technically, Cal's real name is longer than his WoW name -- am I ever going to call him his real name? No. Why? B/c it's easier to say Cal.

Then, there are preferences -- perhaps, Ashin has a quirk where he doesn't want to be called Bob (it is Bob, right?!). So now, we all have to call him Bobster. I have to remember to say, "DI me, Bobster!" -- rather than seeing Warlock w/name Ashin and using that name.

The easiest way I've found to associate voices with players, is to focus in on a certain quality that creates a distinction. When I first joined Pink, I had a difficult time with Ashin v. Sol v. Feja (and don't bring up the solo Monitor detail!); on Purple, I had a Mord v. Luc confusion for a bit. I made myself focus on details:

  • Feja - sounds like he is driving by in a car while trying to say his sentence
  • Korrek - always very boisterous -- typically can hear Adele in the background
  • JJ - all twang, all the time; can hear a big grin on his face when he's pleased with himself (which is always :p)
  • Ashin - you can hear a furrowed brow
  • Sol - interesting slow/quick cadence
  • Hip - growl to twang
  • Cal - sentences usually punctuated with laughing/bit of an echo
  • Dev - soft-spoken, slight detection of a twang
  • Nen - at times, quick and forceful
  • Duke - crazy accent (still working on this one)

 

Totes helpful, right?

 

I just re-read this thread while in the process of archive / cleanup / re-org.

 

First, I was impressed by what a dick I was in my initial response to Corben.

 

But then I found this gem. I LOVE that Korrek's memory prompt was "typically can hear Adele in the background" ! :lol:

 

@Inedit @Fiz

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