Voice-Chat Etiquette


"The new Voice Chat feature is now available in game. Players will need to go into the Options menu under Sound & Voice to activate it. Volume sliders are available for the microphone, speakers, and game-audio fade (which automatically lowers the game audio when a voice communication is received), as is a “push-to-talk” setting. Right-clicking on a player’s name now includes the option to mute or unmute that player. Muting another player blocks all voice chat from him or her; the ignore feature now blocks both voice chat and text chat from that player."

With the addition of Voice Chat to World of Warcraft, many will be heading for the first time into the realm of voice communication over an online game. Naturally, those in raiding guilds will have no issues or won't see the big deal behind this change, but for the casual player, it opens up a whole new realm of possibilities.

With those possibilities, we open this etiquette guide so you know what to expect, and how you should act if this is your first time listening to other players and sharing your voice with them over an online game!

- First in line, keep in mind text and voice are way different, and what you would sometimes type doesn't translate very well into voice communication. Internet abbreviations like 'lol', 'rofl', 'wtf', and so forth should be kept to a minimum lest you could possibly open yourself up to be made fun of by other players!

- If someone's talking try to not interrupt them by talking yourself, be respectful and try not to raise your voice over theirs, it's grounds to eventually make someone upset or cause confused over too many people talking at once.

- Don't shout over voice-chat! this is very important as others can and will possibly be startled should you do so earning you a bad reputation.

- Even if you don't like it, many will probably embrace this new feature for 5-man dungeons or co-operative questing, atleast enable the feature so you can listen in and not be the only one missing out on key information.

- Be respectful as you would (or even more so) over text to others, while text can be easily dismissed as silly, voice can sometimes be misconstrued and small problems could arise from miscommunications!

- If at all possible, use the push to talk option, not many will appreciate your microphone catching sudden loud noises you inadvertently have around you.

- Likewise, if someone is being annoying to you over voicechat, your best bet is to ignore that person instead of getting into an arguement with them; many griefers are looking to just harass or generally annoy people online, showing them any sort of attention will only make them continue.

- Very important! If you're a guy, try not to treat the opposite gender any differently than you would if you didn't know they were real females. Girl gamers who talk want to do just as guys do, and are generally not aiming for extra attention. Be courteous and treat them like another normal player, lest you end up annoying them.

There are many people out there and who will try to message them or talk to them just because they're actual girls, this is considered rude and will probably net you many bad points with both male and female players nearby. Remember, having fun and playing comes first and it's what we're all here to do!

- Always try to speak loud and clear. Mumbling will almost always make you have to talk again since people will seldom understand what you're trying to say. If you need to slow down your talking some so others can understand you, it saves you the precious seconds of you having to say it all all over again!

- Keep in mind you will be hearing a lot of different people should you enable voice-chat, including people with strange accents or hard-to-understand english; remember to always be polite and try to converse with them the best you can! if all else fails, just go back to text.

That's it! if you ever have doubts if you should say something or not over voice-chat, just think to yourself, "Would I like hearing about this if someone else were to talk about it?" Be courteous and considerate of what you say and you'll adapt nicely to this new feature Blizzard has provided for everyone.


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Last Updated: Mar 13, 2016

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