Communication

[So Uncivilized]

I agree with Shifty's sentiments, above. People call me ma'am at the drive thru speaker all the time..

The whole reason for this thread was to up awareness of the importance of communication, really, and to hear from the people who are out there and are good at it. I knew you would all respond.

I could have done the Kreskin thing and written names down and sealed them in an envelope, and predicted who would have responded in this thread with good advice. My hope is that everyone else reading will take the suggestions and particularly the observations to heart.

[LadeeeDuke]

I tend to talk quite a bit, if I don't, then something is up. I really do like being on teams that work together in a positive way to encourage team work. I loathe teams that shout demands at you and expect you to know something you didn't or to take the blame for their stupidity. I would prefer silence to hostile blaming interactions, on the whole.
I have gotten alot of mixed reactions to my talking. Some reactions soley because I REALLY AM A WOMAN! Some don't like it that a woman is on, some see it as an opportunity to "hook-up", or some are very pleasantly surprised. No matter what the case, I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt first.
If I am with talkers, I talk. If I am with a silent crowd, I talk less. I make sure I say please or thank you and try to point out the positive things others do. I also try to graciously accept when other praise me or point something out.
Where I have difficultly is when you get an arse hat on an he is slamming his team for losing. I tend to make a joke about it or act dumb. If he is too much of an arse, I either leave or I counter his behaviour with pointing out he is welcome to leave at any point.
On the whole, I have found that you can draw people out just by treating them with kindness and consistency. If they mention they don't like it that I talk so much, I apologize and tone it down. But, there are even those out there who just hate the sound of anyone's voice or laughter. Believe me, I've gotten lambasted for no apparent reason other than saying hi in my womanly voice or just laughing. For those moments, rolling eyes and letting loose of the mic gives me some momentary sanity. For everything else . . . there is jelly beans!

[Gizanked]

i try to be as helpful as possible... but i also have a sense of humor so i'd say 90% of what i say is meant for the gameplay, and occasionally i make jokes.

I really hope that noodge realizes i was poking fun at his "mic spamming" last night...

i try to point out spies and sentries and even if i don't kill the sentry myself i pay close attention to the top right ofg my screen and call it out if i see one go down.

most times if soemthing needs done i try to do it myself and as a last resort ask someone else to do it. It anoys the hell out of me when i'm on a team of 4 demos( myself included) with no medics and someone keeps complaining about the no heals...

[Tickles]

You always have me laughin when im on your team.

[Raketemensch]

For those of ya who don't talk because of how your voice sounds (or gender ID reluctance) you might want to check out MorphVox. There is a free version that just has generic adult male and adult female voices (and a squeaky pixie voice that might be good for scary phone calls but i dunno what else lol) - you go through an adaptive process with your voice and the software learns to make you sound like the selected voice. Works pretty well actually. It installs a separate sound driver to Windoze so you can select it in your game software.

Link to MorphVOX Junior

[LadeeeDuke]

LOL! So you are saying I can sound like a guy! That sounds scary to me.

[Reipin]

[quote="LadeeeDuke";p="95915"]LOL! So you are saying I can sound like a guy! That sounds scary to me.[/quote]

No, that would sound scary to me.

[MMX]

oh, if everyone starts using the voice cloaking software we could even not trust our own mates :p
you wold also not be able to recognize your mates anymore as they could change their voice.

everyone would mutate into spy's who is using that software as cloaks him/herself.

[Omelette]

I yell at everyone and tell them to do what I think they should do. That might be considered communication, mainly I just quite enjoy bossing people around

[kookoo275]

[quote="Alizée Fan";p="94887"]Pretty much leading by example is the best way I know to get people to communicate. Start voice-chatting even if they're not responding, giving location of foes, assessments of situations, and thanks/encouragement as warranted. Keep it up long enough, and usually a couple other people will start using their mics too, and then a few more, until everybody who has one is at least occasionally jumping in with a "spy!" or "point!" to help out.

Some people simply won't talk, but never let that get in the way of doing so yourself.[/quote]
I personally LOVE Alizee calling out "Sentry sapped". I've gotten many a sg kill from that

[quote="[tLD] Optimus Prime";p="95150"]I don't have a mike, something most of the regulars on dust have been yelling at me for. I tend to chat a lot, to either team, and it's pretty hard to stop mid-uber and type in "THERE'S A SOLDIER RIGHT BEHIND ME WAITING FOR THE UBER TO END, PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY TURN AROUND!" to the heavy i'm healing...

Also just plain chatting with other people is fun. TF2 is a lot more fun playing with decent people than it is playing with randoms. Which is the main reason I play on theville.

/end shameless advertising

So yeah. I need to get a mike. One that works. Any suggestions? Low price range is good as i'm damn near broke...[/quote]
Heh... <<< has been known to yell at Opti for not having a mic... and letting him burn to death seconds after an uber

[quote="BroomNinja";p="95461"]TEAM fortress. Most Definitely! Yeah comm is key. I joined the dustbowl server the other day we were attacking stage 2, and were unable to break their defense. I went medic and myself and another medic ran 2 sequential ubers. I ubered a demo and we cleared 1 sg as the other ubered pyro or demo (can't remember which) cleared the other sg. We won that in the last 10 seconds because of excellent coordination and comm. it was EPIC, so yeah get talking m8's[/quote]
I think that demo was me. You're quite fun to play with, broom. Welcome to the forums!
[quote="Illu";p="95685"]Its not too uncommon that I'll be playing on a team that is totally uncoordinated. Several times when I've found myself on a team like that I just start making different suggestions depending on the situation, and often time a few minutes later the team goes from not getting anything done to winning the round, just because of a bit of coordination, especially when I'm on the attacking team. Its amazing how a bit of communication can turn a team around in a heartbeat.

Like L3eeron, I tend to be more vocal when I'm a Medic. This seems true with most people, they're more vocal when they play Medic.[/quote]
Man, all the awesome new dust people are signing up! Welcome to the forums Illu! You're a great addition to my (and anyone's) team

[NoodgeVader]

[quote="Plinko";p="95855"]Anyway, while communication is very important, I think that aside from a big gap in talent between the teams, the biggest factor in winning/losing is class makeup. If the team is too heavy on support or specialty (snipes, spies, scouts, medics and engies) they have no ability to actually hold against a decent rush and no ability to break a decently-planned defense. I think it's critically important to be able to play 3 or more classes well, regularly look at your team makeup and swap if you think your team has a big weakness you can fill.
[/quote]
Brilliant. I've never heard it said better.

[quote="ShiftyDevil";p="95881"]
Don't worry bout it Noodge those TBARGZ guys tend to be....uh, less than savory? (I mean seriously, read the clan tag)[/quote]
Thanks. I'm just new to internet rudeness. I've heard that in big cities people call each other names often, as if it were nothing. But I was raised in rural Northern California where personal insults were immediately settled with violence. "Them's fightin' words!"

Don't ask me where. It's changed since the L.A. retiree invasion. They've turned in their sixguns and belt buckles for hybrids and lattes.

[quote="LadeeeDuke";p="95906"]Believe me, I've gotten lambasted for no apparent reason other than saying hi in my womanly voice or just laughing.
[/quote]
I want their names!

[So Uncivilized]

[quote="kookoo275";p="95934"]
I personally LOVE Alizee calling out "Sentry sapped". I've gotten many a sg kill from that
[/quote]


INdeed! The spy I think is the least understood class when it comes to communication! Always let your team know when you are about to do something that will disrupt defenses. Maybe that uber can hold an extra second to come in right after you sap, &c. I also have been fortunate enough to hit hardware after it has just been sapped. As the demo would say, that kind of coordination is..

BLOODY BRILLIANT!!

[LadeeeDuke]

Awww, thx!

[Masakari]

I'm pretty sure everyone knows that I'm a big talker. I try my best to stay on focus and simply talk to things relating to the game, but I usually end up failing. But certainly, having a nice chatty team makes the game much more enjoyable. Heck, I think that most of the people I've friended have been people I've played with who voice chatted and lended me a very pleasant game experience.

And by the way, I love having alltalk on CS:S. Having a couple villuns on there makes the game actually enjoyable. *wink wink*

[TheCarpe]

I never shut up when I'm in game. I'm always warning of incoming enemies, alerting that sentries are down, telling everyone to follow me in when I'm ubered, what's on the point, "SPY!!!" etc.

I also make it a personal hobby to annoy people who are not being good players. Last night in fact we had an unsavory person on our team who said that "you guys f---in' suck!", to which I replied, "Nice teamwork, guys". Another one of my favorite standby lines for people like that is "Maybe it was your positive attitude"