Mic in online games

Besides just being used to old text communication back in the day, I have occasional bouts of massive paranoia about my real identity seeping into the internet, though in reality it's pretty meaningless (oh no, my Wikipedia edits will destroy my future political career!). I still feel weird about just talking to random people online with my actual voice, though I haven't played many games that have featured it heavily over last several years.

If you've ever played Gears of War with random strangers, you know why I don't use a mic.

I only use it when I need to, like Cops and Crooks in GTA4 or other team stuff. It is a major drawback, though.

Not too often. Usually if people are talking too much, or when I'm playing a game that doesn't require talk (like CoD5 just a minute ago) I'll mute everybody, because it gets on my nerves (wish you could do it with one button). On PC it doesn't bug me as much, because people tend to cut the chatter to what is useful. I always turn on my mike when playing TF2, but rarely, if ever, find myself having to use it anymore. Maybe all games should be push to talk. When drunkenly playing Counter-Strike at 2 or 3 a.m. I do find the crazy shit people go on about somewhat amusing.

really depends on the game. if co-op is important, yeah. otherwise i can deal without the obnoxious pubescent smack talkers.

Never use mics, feel embarrassed doing it with people I know, let alone strangers. And then there's the weird middle ground too: ILGers who are on my steam list or my XBL list or whatever, who I know from here but haven't ever spoken to irl - it'd feel very weird just saying hello to you in game. Not sure why.

Exception - online GTA while drunk. Then I turn into one of the irritating bastards who shout random insults at passing 13 year olds. But this has only happened once or twice ever.

never used mine, if i ever played a something with serious like minded players i might find it useful to actually win. But for a game of laughs I'll happily sit there and listen to other people waffle/sing/curse at each other

The french seem to be the worst for 'chatting endlessly'

Never, DO NOT WANT. Will avoid servers w/voice chat on, too many adenoidal-sounding teenagers - v v irritating "ohh my gaaahd i just ppeeeooowened you faggot" "someone take out that camper faggot so i can do the objective" "SHIT you're aimbotting (hint:try not standing still, idiort) someone kick the cheater" etc etc barf.

haha those shits are the best tho!

there was one guy who was really annoying on xbox live and so i started singing really badly down the thing and that annoyed the shit out of him it's funny = fuq

everybody sounds, at most, like a 13-year-old through that Xbox headset. I sound like an eight-year-old girl.

I kinda like it if there aren't too many arseholes or whiny kids and at least some decent sounding dudes. There was a guy on GTA who was chanting USA so I chanted U R GAY and everyone else lolled, lol.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

^^^It was really odd the other day to hear what sounded like an 11-year-old girl shout at me in Left 4 Dead, "stop motherfucking shooting me, motherfucker!"

I used to use them all the time though I wouldn't say much on public servers. Using private team speak channels with your friends while playing publics can be fun - everyone thinks you're looking through walls because someone they can't hear is telling you where bad guys are.

I play FPS games with speakers instead of headphones now, which is kinda stupid as it's really hard to work out where sounds are coming from.

I only use them when I play with my brother or others I know IRL, but sometimes we'll open up these sessions publicly and get some wild losers to join. It's usually good for a laugh, and in e.g. GTA4 they're way better than we are so it ends up working out.

I started using a mic when I started raiding in WoW. Also, when I had an arena team made up of coworkers, we would all chat while we got pwned (we all had awful specs for PvP and only one of us had real PvP experience).

i broke my headset, which means i now have to play gta online with my head turned slightly to one side, trapping the earpiece between my head and the pillow. i look like a less-drooly stephen hawking.

I only really use it when I am playing with people I know and actually want to talk to. I'll leave the headset on low volume and the mic off during other games, just in case I overhear some useful information.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

I had a WONDERFUL time with the mic for the first week or so I had XBL. I remember singing all of the Ignition remix with two other guys during a game of Halo. Then I got completely tired of it, and that was the end of that.