"Voice Chat"

by Matthew C.
2008.04.25

Until Nintendo gives us a VOICE CHAT solution on the Wii, I've taken it upon myself to apply something from my PC gaming experience to my console gaming world. It's voice chat, plain and simple. I setup a Ventrilo server to use while playing console video games. While this does necessitate a computer and therefore complicates my console video gaming experience, Nintendo hasn't yet provided a simple "Xbox Live" kind of experience. So... my solution isn't as seemless as Microsoft's process, but using a computer and an application like Ventrilo makes the voice chat cross-title and cross-platform! Imagine playing Metal Gear Solid on the Playstation 3 and chatting with people playing F-Zero on the Wii's Virtual Console.

A few friends and I were chatting last night and everything worked smoothly. EVERY VIDEO GAME NOW HAS VOICE CHAT.
 

• Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii)? Voice chat.
• Wii Sports (Wii)? Voice chat.
• Chip's Challenge (PC)? Voice chat.
• Rock Band (PS3)? Voice chat.
• Surfing the web? Voice chat.
• Guitar Hero III between a PS3 and a Wii? (It would probably never happen, but it would have voice chat!)

Ok, maybe I'm a little too excited about voice chat. (I just know it increases the fun of an online video game...exponentially.)

A voice chat server like this can also be used for a variety of uses OTHER than gaming. You could talk with people from all over the world FOR FREE. No need to call them on the telephone and run up huge bills. Speak with one person in Minnesohda, another in Maine, a third in California...all at the same time. You could even swap brownie recipes with friends from around the globe.

While the possibilities seem endless there are some...limitations, but we'll burn that bridge while we're standing on it.

(You can view the 'structure' of the voice chat server below. I've created some rooms based on what I think we might use, but we're always tweaking. Oh, and the graphic next to an indentation is a dog bowl... even though it looks like a cup of coffee.)