TF2 Division and Vent

[WaterSnake]

See this? This is what our vent server should look like in a prime time hour, every day. Most divisions can say that, on a regular basis, they have over 20 people in their rooms at almost any given time. If you log on to vent, you will see that most divisions have a large vent population. TF2, however, has consistently been an exception to this rule. Why?

Some people attribute this to TF2's higher voice quality. I've never noticed any difference between TF2 and CS:S.

We need to get more people in vent. This is really important, especially with TF2's dwindling numbers and low player activity rates.

"But, WaterSnake, I think that ingame chat is just fine. I don't need 2 separate chats going on at the same time!"

True, sometimes it gets a little bit much during an event, but really using vent and being in game at the same time is not very hard on the ears, or brain. And something that I slowly learned about vent is that people are different in there. The main goal of vent is chitchat with people, and it doesn't always have to be relevant. The thing about talking in-game is that people might get annoyed about you talking about football or life or food or music or whatever, but vent servers are pretty relaxed. Plus, the voice quality is excellent!


"But, WaterSnake, I'm young/a girl/don't have a mic/have a weird or squeaky voice! I don't wanna get harassed or made fun of!"

First of all, if anyone makes fun of you based on you being young/a girl/voice, you should contact an advisor. Discrimination of ANY sort on eGO 'turf' is against the rules, and grounds for an immediate ban. Also, people don't really care. They're there to have fun and talk and hang out, don't get hung up on your voice. Also, if you don't have a mic, just come in and listen, it's usually interesting and people will notice that you're there.



But, somehow, this makes me feel like this isn't enough convincing. So, in order to sweeten the deal, I'm making a bounty:

If you can dominate me, I'll give you 5k casino cash under these conditions:

There are over 10 people in our vents rooms
You come into my vent room and call me out on the domination, and DEMAND casino cash.

EDIT: Ric is putting a 10k (holy smokes!) bounty on himself, except there have to be 13 people in our rooms instead of 10. Good luck!

Also, if anyone wants to help out and become a ventrillo target, please send me an PM. Our servers will thank you!



Also Also: If you don't like vent because you have to alt tab when you want to change rooms or change a button or whatever, Frank Booth made a post on how to speed up alt tabbing. I hope he doesn't mind me copying this:

Steam allows you to set launch options, meaning these commands you put in are executed when the games launches with different effects. These are the desired launch options: -windowed -noborder

-windowed allows you to run the game as a window

-noborder allows you to expand that window to fit your screen

To add launch options right-click on the game you need and select Properties. At the bottom you will see a button with SET LAUNCH OPTIONS...

Input your commands separated by space, do not forget the - without a space in front of the command. For example this is how i have mine: -novid -windowed -noborder -condebug

After you launch the game you may need to tweak your settings. You must have the right aspect ratio and resolution for your screen to fill it completely. For example i have a 16:10 ratio and 1920x1200 resolution, and your game video options should reflect those settings.

Alright? Is that good enough for you guys? Good. I'll see you in vent!


TL;DR: Vent is fun. You should try it. It's not required however.

 

[XXzz-Trauma-zzXX]

Good job. Very nice effort here to get people in vent. Keep up the work.

 

[s3rv0]

Well, to give your thread a response, I'll play devil's advocate:

I don't need two separate voice chats, but more than that, I don't want it. I do enjoy chatting with folks and shootin' the breeze, but when I'm gaming, I'm gaming. I don't wanna be getting distracted by someone talking or asking me a question, listen to some babble while I'm trying to draw a bead on someone's head playing sniper, while studder-stepping around behind enemy lines as spy, playing twitchy-as-hell scout, etc. It serves no useful purpose, though it can be fun and recreational. But, I'm in a game. That's my fun and recreation.

It is kind a personal thing, I get really, really annoyed in game when I have to shout "SPY BEHIND YOU MEDIC" over some guy talking about how his Pikachu evolved or he's got midterms in some really hard class or blah blah blah. You're interfering with teamwork, and when you have a team trying to get something done, you should try to avoid it. Chatter is cool for glory rounds, for times when it's low-stress (setup phase or whatever), or when a team just in general is ignoring voice chat.



As far as harassment or having a weird voice or whatever - Just because someone's not making fun of you doesn't mean you're not embarassed. I mean, walk into a crowded elevator and then accidentally fart. Lewd example, sure, but my point is this: Nobody may say anything, but I'm sure you'll feel a little embarassed even though nobody singled you out, because it's just human nature to get embarassed under certain circumstances.

And for that matter, some people are just shy. It's actually something I wrestled with for a very long time and still do to some degree. I have a "comfort zone," and consider myself a much better communicator in text than voice. Take this post. I could never articulate this out loud because I just don't work like that; I need to sit down and think, write, read and revise. It's just my way, I like it, and feel I convey meaning best that way. Vent still makes me feel uncomfortable a bit sometimes, or oftentimes annoyed.

One last thing: I've used eGO vent with non-eGO friends to play games. Vent etiquette is terrible. People come into our channel where we're alone, playing League of Legends (quick rundown: imagine a game full of micro and that relies on heavily on communication and teamplay...i.e. voice is practically necessary, or at least a huge advantage). We'd ask quickly but politely for them to come back later, that we were busy, and it would rarely if ever work at getting people to let us be. Sometimes they'd be really rude, harassing us while we're trying to talk to each other, trying to find out what we're doing, make conversation, in some cases some strangers would start cursing at us or just harassing us and then leaving before we could figure out exactly who it was. Experiences like that make me avoid Vent because, again, it gets me really annoyed. We'd put "Do not disturb" tags on our name and that only seemed to attract more people literally griefing us on our vent server. Ridiculous. I know you might say "Oh well report them then." Well, when you're in a heated game and trying your best to communicate and play, alt-tabbing an unpausable game (and doing so surely resulting in your team either falling behind and losing or being at a severe disadvantage for the duration), just to get a name to report.

Anywho, just one final disclaimer: I'm not a huge vent guy, but mostly I'm just trying to play devil's advocate here. There are many reasons people might not want to go onto Vent, and constantly saying "You should be on vent" is only going to make them feel uncomfortable.


Edit: And this is just personal curiosity, I'm not trying to single you out. But I do want to know, you say "We need more people in Vent." Why exactly? We do want to remedy low activity and such, but how is people getting people into vent going to do that? I feel like focusing on attracting pubs with our great servers and positive attitude and high standards has much more to do with that than vent activity. We populate our servers with pubs, and how many pubs do you see in vent?

 

[mrcool]

It's 4 AM so I'm not going to read all that ATM.

Basically, Vent w/friends is fun.
Vent with friends + people you don't know can be fun.
Vent with friends + people you don't know who are trying to get tech support or do trivia or read you a book while you're in game is not fun.

Result: private vent.

 

[WaterSnake]

Well, to give your thread a response, I'll play devil's advocate:

I don't need two separate voice chats, but more than that, I don't want it. I do enjoy chatting with folks and shootin' the breeze, but when I'm gaming, I'm gaming. I don't wanna be getting distracted by someone talking or asking me a question, listen to some babble while I'm trying to draw a bead on someone's head playing sniper, while studder-stepping around behind enemy lines as spy, playing twitchy-as-hell scout, etc. It serves no useful purpose, though it can be fun and recreational. But, I'm in a game. That's my fun and recreation.

It is kind a personal thing, I get really, really annoyed in game when I have to shout "SPY BEHIND YOU MEDIC" over some guy talking about how his Pikachu evolved or he's got midterms in some really hard class or blah blah blah. You're interfering with teamwork, and when you have a team trying to get something done, you should try to avoid it. Chatter is cool for glory rounds, for times when it's low-stress (setup phase or whatever), or when a team just in general is ignoring voice chat.



As far as harassment or having a weird voice or whatever - Just because someone's not making fun of you doesn't mean you're not embarassed. I mean, walk into a crowded elevator and then accidentally fart. Lewd example, sure, but my point is this: Nobody may say anything, but I'm sure you'll feel a little embarassed even though nobody singled you out, because it's just human nature to get embarassed under certain circumstances.

And for that matter, some people are just shy. It's actually something I wrestled with for a very long time and still do to some degree. I have a "comfort zone," and consider myself a much better communicator in text than voice. Take this post. I could never articulate this out loud because I just don't work like that; I need to sit down and think, write, read and revise. It's just my way, I like it, and feel I convey meaning best that way. Vent still makes me feel uncomfortable a bit sometimes, or oftentimes annoyed.

One last thing: I've used eGO vent with non-eGO friends to play games. Vent etiquette is terrible. People come into our channel where we're alone, playing League of Legends (quick rundown: imagine a game full of micro and that relies on heavily on communication and teamplay...i.e. voice is practically necessary, or at least a huge advantage). We'd ask quickly but politely for them to come back later, that we were busy, and it would rarely if ever work at getting people to let us be. Sometimes they'd be really rude, harassing us while we're trying to talk to each other, trying to find out what we're doing, make conversation, in some cases some strangers would start cursing at us or just harassing us and then leaving before we could figure out exactly who it was. Experiences like that make me avoid Vent because, again, it gets me really annoyed. We'd put "Do not disturb" tags on our name and that only seemed to attract more people literally griefing us on our vent server. Ridiculous. I know you might say "Oh well report them then." Well, when you're in a heated game and trying your best to communicate and play, alt-tabbing an unpausable game (and doing so surely resulting in your team either falling behind and losing or being at a severe disadvantage for the duration), just to get a name to report.

Anywho, just one final disclaimer: I'm not a huge vent guy, but mostly I'm just trying to play devil's advocate here. There are many reasons people might not want to go onto Vent, and constantly saying "You should be on vent" is only going to make them feel uncomfortable.


Edit: And this is just personal curiosity, I'm not trying to single you out. But I do want to know, you say "We need more people in Vent." Why exactly? We do want to remedy low activity and such, but how is people getting people into vent going to do that? I feel like focusing on attracting pubs with our great servers and positive attitude and high standards has much more to do with that than vent activity. We populate our servers with pubs, and how many pubs do you see in vent?

First I'd like to say that everything you said is completely valid, and I can see where you're coming from. Usually, if I'm doing something competitive like a TF2 lobby, then I'll mute vent.

However, the reason I made this post was because last night in the division meeting, Artimus stated a concern with TF2's vent numbers compared to other divisions. It's partially a retention thing, as it's another way to contribute and get noticed without playing the game. I'll often stay in vent while I'm surfing the web, just because I want to listen in.

Also, apparently vent numbers will help in recruiting because it allows a 3rd party voice chat system, where you can go to talk to other division members or the PSC for assistance with recruiting.

But I guess that I may have come off as a bit, um, overbearing? I cant think of the word, but I want to say, if I wasn't clear, that vent is optional. I think that it's very fun, and people are generally nice, but if you don't wish to be on by all means stay away.

It's 4 AM so I'm not going to read all that ATM.

Basically, Vent w/friends is fun.
Vent with friends + people you don't know can be fun.
Vent with friends + people you don't know who are trying to get tech support or do trivia or read you a book while you're in game is not fun.

Result: private vent.

If people are being annoying over vent, I'll typically move to another room. Usually I'm not the only one migrating.

 

[GreatNate]

I am on vent alot and honestly it's pretty great. One thing I do that allows me to separate my gaming from my vent is having the vent sound go through my headphones and the game voice go through my speakers, therefore I can easily differentiate between the two. I know a lot of people already do this and some can't, but it's just an idea. If vent is getting too loud or distracting at some point, i just take off my headphones. Plain, simple, and effective.

 

[Mental Buga]

I think you guys miss the bigger picture here, while your post is a good one Watersnake, it shows us a much deeper problem. Time was it that when there was a tf2 meeting ventrillo would be full to capacity and still more people trying to get in. But its been a long time since we had those kind of numbers. The attendance for a TF2 meeting is greatly diminished from those of last year.

There are a number of reasons for this one of them being, theres not much to attract players in there. We used to have charismatic leadership that were around a lot that played in servers, now it seems when people get advisor they vanish and dont get much game time. While I know from first hand experience what kind of responsibilities go with being an advisor one of the main qualities used to be that they would be visible and available. This just doesnt seem to be the case anymore and Tf2 has taken a very profound dive over the last year.

Now dont get me wrong I am not having a dig at anyone in particular, but theres no driving force, no direction and by all accounts not much interest. I fear that soon a lot of us that still hang on and play on a daily basis will be going to other servers, not because they are better but just because they are there. With constant outs on Mesa for example and servers not being updated in a timely fashion, we are losing some of our regular pubs to other servers which only hurts us more.


I still adore playing tf2 and I need my fix on a daily basis, while its true I tend to stick to one server, its become increasingly easy to just get on a play and not worry about much else. This is the result of not much input from leadership and when there is a problem or a question or even a concern with the exception of the drop box theres never anyone around or available or capable to solve it directly. This has only helped to promote a so what attitude. Also since the admining rules changed and a more lapse approach was adopted not many people even bother to admin anymore and sometimes I find it incredulous that they even bother to still wear the tags. Albeit some of this is also because they are just not sure any more of exactly how to deal with a situation. .. But I believe this to be the snowballing effect.. it starts at the top and gets bigger as it runs down the hill. Sadly it has seemed for a long time, that people just dont care enough anymore.

 

[Darth]

I think you guys miss the bigger picture here, while your post is a good one Watersnake, it shows us a much deeper problem. Time was it that when there was a tf2 meeting ventrillo would be full to capacity and still more people trying to get in. But its been a long time since we had those kind of numbers. The attendance for a TF2 meeting is greatly diminished from those of last year.

There are a number of reasons for this one of them being, theres not much to attract players in there. We used to have charismatic leadership that were around a lot that played in servers, now it seems when people get advisor they vanish and dont get much game time. While I know from first hand experience what kind of responsibilities go with being an advisor one of the main qualities used to be that they would be visible and available. This just doesnt seem to be the case anymore and Tf2 has taken a very profound dive over the last year.

Now dont get me wrong I am not having a dig at anyone in particular, but theres no driving force, no direction and by all accounts not much interest. I fear that soon a lot of us that still hang on and play on a daily basis will be going to other servers, not because they are better but just because they are there. With constant outs on Mesa for example and servers not being updated in a timely fashion, we are losing some of our regular pubs to other servers which only hurts us more.


I still adore playing tf2 and I need my fix on a daily basis, while its true I tend to stick to one server, its become increasingly easy to just get on a play and not worry about much else. This is the result of not much input from leadership and when there is a problem or a question or even a concern with the exception of the drop box theres never anyone around or available or capable to solve it directly. This has only helped to promote a so what attitude. Also since the admining rules changed and a more lapse approach was adopted not many people even bother to admin anymore and sometimes I find it incredulous that they even bother to still wear the tags. Albeit some of this is also because they are just not sure any more of exactly how to deal with a situation. .. But I believe this to be the snowballing effect.. it starts at the top and gets bigger as it runs down the hill. Sadly it has seemed for a long time, that people just dont care enough anymore.

I agree with this post I remember the good old times when tf2 used to be so fun and exciting its just not there anymore.

I myself are not talking about any of the leaders either I just feel that everybody runs it differently and I liked how the old guys were running it.

 

[Neo Omega]

I see me!

 

[Tag You're It]

I can agree with mental buga on the admining part as of the rest about the leadership i do not know.
However i do not think its really necessary to recruit people for vent even if it can be fun, but i only spend time there while not in game.

 

[Kamon]

I think you guys miss the bigger picture here, while your post is a good one Watersnake, it shows us a much deeper problem. Time was it that when there was a tf2 meeting ventrillo would be full to capacity and still more people trying to get in. But its been a long time since we had those kind of numbers. The attendance for a TF2 meeting is greatly diminished from those of last year.

There are a number of reasons for this one of them being, theres not much to attract players in there. We used to have charismatic leadership that were around a lot that played in servers, now it seems when people get advisor they vanish and dont get much game time. While I know from first hand experience what kind of responsibilities go with being an advisor one of the main qualities used to be that they would be visible and available. This just doesnt seem to be the case anymore and Tf2 has taken a very profound dive over the last year.

Now dont get me wrong I am not having a dig at anyone in particular, but theres no driving force, no direction and by all accounts not much interest. I fear that soon a lot of us that still hang on and play on a daily basis will be going to other servers, not because they are better but just because they are there. With constant outs on Mesa for example and servers not being updated in a timely fashion, we are losing some of our regular pubs to other servers which only hurts us more.


I still adore playing tf2 and I need my fix on a daily basis, while its true I tend to stick to one server, its become increasingly easy to just get on a play and not worry about much else. This is the result of not much input from leadership and when there is a problem or a question or even a concern with the exception of the drop box theres never anyone around or available or capable to solve it directly. This has only helped to promote a so what attitude. Also since the admining rules changed and a more lapse approach was adopted not many people even bother to admin anymore and sometimes I find it incredulous that they even bother to still wear the tags. Albeit some of this is also because they are just not sure any more of exactly how to deal with a situation. .. But I believe this to be the snowballing effect.. it starts at the top and gets bigger as it runs down the hill. Sadly it has seemed for a long time, that people just dont care enough anymore.

I agree completely with you on this, Buga. I used to spend a lot of time in Vent, even if just to listen to you guys. But ever since we've become more lax about this kind of thing, the attitude has changed about these things entirely.

Granted, I don't have a mic or Vent installed currently (My old PC and etc. was damaged in a flood and I wasn't around for a bit), but even now, there's hardly any motivation for us to go into Vent. I think to myself, sure, I could, but how much exactly am I accomplishing?

Until I get a headset, or unless leadership is more available to us in Vent (I know you all have busy lives, don't worry), there's just so very few motivation to go into Vent when I could just message another leadership member more directly on Steam with my problem(s).

 

[a pet rock]

I typically don't use vent anymore because I hate having multiple conversations going at the same time. Can't stand it. So either I'm in vent and it's empty giving me no reason to be in vent, or I'm in vent listening to two conversations. I just use my mic for in-game voice chat.

Now, what I would really absolutely love is for certain servers to just have all-talk on all the time. "Oh, but TF2 is a team-based game and we need to use teamwork and strategize without the other team listening in." Yeah, maybe on a PL or CP map. But especially for 2fort that's a load of hooey. It's a have fun and mess around kind of game.


Oh, and I feel you Darth. Tiddy and Purple were quite.... visible.

 

[Bonecrusher]

Im on vent usually but this was like 1AM to me...

 

[Prisoner416]

Our vents are dirty. Dirty, as in "Wow, is this really an eGO vent?" dirty.

Of course, I'm talking mainly about CS:S vent, pretty sure TF2 is more clean.

But at the same time, I don't like being distracted while I game. Vent is a distraction, I can't focus on two or three voices at one time.

 

[Ezekiel]

Our vents are dirty. Dirty, as in "Wow, is this really an eGO vent?" dirty.

Of course, I'm talking mainly about CS:S vent, pretty sure TF2 is more clean.

Actually that's the main reason I don't like being in Vent.

I was showing a new recruit what Ventrilo was a month or two ago, and he commented to me that he didn't like the language he heard in one of the rooms.

 

[Neo Omega]

what about IRC? there isnt much discussion on that.

 

[Thereven]

what about IRC? there isnt much discussion on that.

Indeed, and what of our woefully underutilized telegraph system? I remember fondly the hours spent at the register sending wonderful japes and jests to the fine fellows on the other end of the line. Until that blasted Alexander Bell ruined it all with his newfangled telephone.

 

[Neo Omega]

Indeed, and what of our woefully underutilized telegraph system? I remember fondly the hours spent at the register sending wonderful japes and jests to the fine fellows on the other end of the line. Until that blasted Alexander Bell ruined it all with his newfangled telephone.

well, as was discussed last night ... activity, pick up games, scrims, et cetera ... #findpug #findscrim is pretty effective. So what if there are 4 ego's, there are always ringers.

 

[Darth]

Actually that's the main reason I don't like being in Vent.

I was showing a new recruit what Ventrilo was a month or two ago, and he commented to me that he didn't like the language he heard in one of the rooms.

If this is true then this is dispicable behaviour. It should not happen in vent. I know we are a little more lenient but if a new recruit doesnt like it then it needs to be reported.

 

[WaterSnake]

We do have rated R rooms, but the rules clearly state 'dropping your favorite flavor of the f-bomb every minute is not allowed' or something like that. It needs to stop.


Also, lets keep the topic to vent only. I know at the meeting last night, we mentioned something about leadership members, but that's not directly vent related.