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The following is the result of what was originally a thought experiment for my own benefit.
I started with the statement "The purpose of VoIP for team games is to efficiently convey information and coordinate actions". Then, by generating and examining a number of theoretical examples and examples from record gameplay, tried to determine how a players communication needs to be structured to conform to that statement. Note that creating and executing strategies, coordinating map movement, and team organization are not covered.
Hopefully this will generate some useful discussion.
1: DO NOT POLLUTE THE CHANNEL
- Whenever possible try to keep all communication concise, relevant and calm.
- Do not talk over your teammates unless what you have to say is significantly more urgent or relevant.
- Avoid speaking constantly: this will provide a steady stream of incomplete information and may discourage other players from providing useful information. One person speaking more can not compensate for other players talking less.
- Cussing about missed shots, hit reg, or your opponents, as well as banter irrelevant to the match are technically not harmful, but they should not drown out other communication and they should not be distracting. Best to avoid them entirely. See 3.2 for more on this.
- Do not disparage teammates or discuss “what went wrong”. That can happen after the match. Focus on what is happening right now and what to do next.
- Communication regarding map movement of both teams is generally the most useful and most important, and should be treated as such.
2: PROVIDE COMPLETE INFORMATION
- Provide a location whenever possible, especially when calling low health targets. For example, stating that “player X is low” with no further qualifier is only useful to teammates who know where player X is, and thus probably know his health status already.
- Calls should be clear as to which to players they are relevant too. Statements like “watch out!” or “behind you!” are only relevant to one player, but it is unclear which of the players in the channel that is. Calls that have a location included are implicitly clear as to who they are relevant to, as each player is expected to know where they are on the map.
- If you need to call for help, specify the strength of the force you need help against, lest the team over or under react to the threat. It is often better to simply call out numbers and location without a directive, then trust your team to react with what may be more complete information
3: COMMUNICATE WITH TONE
- The urgency of your tone should reflect the urgency of the statement you are making. Calls that affect major objectives or the large majority of the team (usually these go hand in hand) should be stated forcefully and possibly repeated a few times, while micro calls like “player X is half at place” should be said much more passively.
- VoiP carries emotion with remarkable efficacy. Try to keep frustration out of the channel as much as possible, as it can do nothing but degrade the team’s focus.
- Speak in absolutes when delegating tasks around the map. Rather than posing a request to the team as a whole, issue specific orders to specific people. For example, instead of saying “someone should cap the side point”, say “[Player], cap the side point” or “I’m capping the side point”.
Edited by Hyginos, 19 December 2015 - 08:39 AM.
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