Players of online games have to make a choice of what communication method to use, and that choice is significantly colored by how much of themselves they want to present. The primary method of communication in most online games is synchronous text messaging. There typically is a window in the corner of the screen that functions as a chatroom and also allows private messages. The communication that occurs within the messages is often the bare minimum, filled with abbreviations and basic interactions like "Ready to go?" and "Where's the chest?" As the player is using both hands to control their avatar, textual communication is interruptive, hence its brevity. The solution to the limited dialogue in the text window is to use voice chat. In the past, a separate program allowed voice communication between players, although newer games have this function built in. Voice chat means the players can communicate and control their avatar simultaneously. From a gameplay standpoint, especially in the large and skilled groups that most frequently use voice chat, the richness of the voice chat channel makes it seam like the optimal match for the very equivocal tasks in online gaming.
Yet I've never once used any voice chat in the games I've played. Voice chat breaks the immersiveness of the games as it creates a strong impression of the person at the other end, far beyond their avatar. There's always the possibility that the female elf mage might really be a 14 year old boy, and that just strikes me as an uncomfortable situation. I'd rather maintain some ambiguity so I don't have to worry about my self-presentation as much.
Similarly, the other day I had to make a clarification to an email I had just sent to my parents. They are planning a visit to Ithaca next month and wanted to figure out what date would be best. I had to talk it over with my brother, as my parents hoped to visit him at Vassar for two days before driving here. After sending out an email with what I thought should be the 1st and 2nd best weekends, my brother told me the 2nd best was preferable. I had to choose a medium to let my parents know about the change. A phone call would have been easiest in terms of discussing all the possibilities, but I didn't want a complex discussion where the locus would probably be on myself with a negative valence. I chose to just send an instant message so I could communicate the basic information with a more in-depth discussion.
My choices in both these situations go against the Media Richness Theory as I chose the leaner channels despite tasks that might have required more equivocality. I cared more about the clarity of the information and didn't want to leave my preferences ambiguous. In the game, I just wanted the basic information without having to form a nuanced impression of the other players, or have them form an impression of me. In these situations, O'Sullivan's model definitely seemed to hold the most weight.
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I find the point you bring up about voice chat a very interesting one indeed. In the world of online gaming, Ventrilo, a third party voice chat program, is very common. First person shooter and real time strategy games use them all the time, especially for competitive gaming. It’s simply not worth the effort to take your hands off the keyboard, when that extra second may be the difference between winning and losing. For role playing games, however, you bring up an excellent point. The point of those games is to play different characters, and it makes perfect sense that voice chat would ruin the experience. Some games have selected voice messages for different characters, but even those aren’t use that often. In case you’ve ever watched the World of Warcraft video with Leory, I found it really odd to hear the party coordinate a boss battle with voice chat, simply because it’s not worth breaking character when text chat will do.
What Thomas said about voice chat is very interesting. I just got done playing a game with voice chat for a few hours. I agree that getting to speak to the person in voice chat diminishes the deceptive effect of having a personalized character. I think that voice chat while playing a multiplayer game counteracts the lack of cues normally associated with CMC. It becomes harder to perform selective self representation when voice communication is used. The media becomes richer because of the addition of voice chat. Impressions are also less exaggerated in my opinion because of the added cues, peoples personalities seem more genuine after speaking with them over ventrilo and other froms of voice communication.
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