separate parts of the same building or in separate offices entirely have been known to
teleconference themselves together in order to recreate a space where they can social-
ize via voice. This also explains the burgeoning popularity of headset support for online
games on the consoles; players really want to be able to talk to each other while playing.
The largest downside to adding voice support to your game is the negative impact it can
have on the sense of immersion you get from playing the game. Despite its simplistic
“Indiana Jones” version of World War II, playingBattlefield 1942can often be an
extremely immersive experience with its combination of planes flying overhead, explo-
sions going off all around, and battles for control points truly seeming like important
skirmishes in an epic struggle. This immersion can be dashed if you hear a
twelve-year-old on the other side of the headset screaming complete nonsense or non-
stop obscenities. In the end, though, most players are likely to find the loss of
immersion to be well worth it for the improved ability to communicate and play cooper-
atively, as well as the sheer pleasure of hearing their fellow players screaming their way
through the battle.
Another important part of facilitating player communication is giving players time
where they feel safe enough that they can talk without being killed. This is particularly
true in intense death-match style games, where there is hardly enough time to com-
pose a five-word sentence before a grenade lands in your lap. Of course, including voice
support will help this, but anyone who has played a truly intense action game can testify
to how mesmerizing and frantic it can become, often to the point where talking and
playing may be too much to ask. Thus the importance of pacing the game such that play-
ers have opportunities to talk. Similarly, the higher the glory to shame ratio in your
experience, the less likely players are to be willing to talk, since each defeat is so tre-
mendously humiliating, particularly when the winner will not stop bragging about it.
Just adding the ability for players to talk via text or even full voice support and mak-
ing sure players have free moments in which to compose at least partial sentences will
not guarantee a social play experience. A large part of the reason why players enjoy
playing non-computer board games or RPGs is that they are playing with friends that
250 Chapter 13: Multi-Player
At times, waging multi-
player war inBattlefield
1942 can be extremely
immersive.