I’ve been seeing a growing discussion taking place online lately about the status of game chat in various multiplayer games. A lot of people who enjoy having their voice heard, are complaining that many games are too quiet these days. It’s taken a while, but the more I see this “issue” brought up, the more I’m shocked that people are surprised this is happening. Voice chat has always been awful in video games. That’s not talking about quality, but instead how the experience of jumping into a voice chat in any game is a coin toss as to whether or not you will have even a normal human conversation.
Voice chat toxicity ruins communities
As is the case with anything that has to do with the internet, voice chat is about as toxic of a place as you can be. Players get to hide behind usernames and might get a small ban from the game they’re playing when reported, but it never derails them much. People screaming at teammates, blasting music over their headsets that sound horrible, or the usual racist or sexist comments have made lobbies the ghost town they are today. For a medium that is supposed to give you a chance to wind down after a tough day, who wants to jump into a channel filled with people being assholes willingly?
As a straight white man, I haven’t nearly dealt with as many awful things directed my way as many women, colored, and LGBTQ gamers. That said, I’ve definitely heard my fair share of stories where these people are just trying to enjoy the game, and they are voraciously attacked. The idea is to jump into voice chat to communicate and hopefully push their team to victory or maybe even make a new friend, only to be met by someone telling them to go back to the kitchen or throwing slurs their way. How are we surprised that people don’t want to jump into voice chat anymore?
This rampant toxicity has done a number on gaming communities that can’t be easily or quickly repaired. With fewer people jumping into voice chat, we may see a future where more games release without the feature enabled, making gamers rely on party chats and Discord. In a 2023 report, Speechly found out that nearly one-third of all gamers never touch voice chat. Of the people that do, 72% reported toxicity in either being harassed personally or seeing it towards others. No one deserves or wants to deal with this anymore.
Will general voice chat ever come back?
The big problem with voice chat toxicity is the problem is only getting worse, not better. With all of the mild-mannered people leaving voice chat, only the toxic remain. You may have less time with other people in the chat overall, but the percentage of times that you do will likely be with a toxic player. This leads to a dead land that can’t bring in more people because of the rotten underbelly that remains.
Simply put, voice chat in a general space doesn’t look to ever come back in a big way, and it doesn’t deserve to. Speaking from a personal sense, I am completely content with turning off voice chat in every new game and enjoying things by myself. Even Overwatch, which I play very regularly, I have no interest in dealing with people over the last few years. I turned off both the voice and text chat systems shortly after Overwatch 2 was released, and I find it to be one of the best decisions of my gaming career. It helped me enjoy the game again after years of dealing with awful circumstances years prior. Ping systems have grown to be a great substitute for putting info out to teammates, and if there is anyone I want to talk with in a game, I jump into a private party or call with friends.
Final thoughts
General voice channels in video games had their day, but it’s time to stop putting yourself through hell trying to communicate with toxic players. Anyone who talks up some “glory days” of lobbies in old Call of Duty games is likely someone who has made life a living hell for someone just trying to enjoy themselves and play a game. The minuscule chance that you will have a positive experience and make a new friend cannot outweigh the many horrible times you will likely have before that happens.
People need to protect their peace. No one should go into any video game and be harassed the way just about everyone has seen at some point in the past. It just really might be time for voice chat to die out for good.
