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Voice chat with people you've never met
Set the Feeling Dial on a voice chat and tell the difference between normal game talk and something to leave.
1Watch
Four lobbies
Four voice chats
Four short clips: a headset, a game on screen, a voice you cannot see. One: shouting about a missed shot. Two: a calm adult voice asking what year she is in at school. Three: a squad laughing at somebody's terrible name. Four: 'you sound cute, how old are you really'. It cuts before she answers any of them.
28 secondsTwo are normal. Two are not. You probably already know which, and that is the point.
2The idea
You know what normal sounds like
You have played with a thousand strangers. Most of them shouted, some were funny, a few were idiots. That is normal, and you do not need a lesson on it. Not normal is a voice that stops talking about the game and starts talking about you.
Age, school, where you live, what you look like, whether you are alone. In a game, nobody needs any of that to play. The moment a voice wants it, the game has stopped being the subject, and you are.
3The idea
The dial in a lobby, and the reply
Put the Feeling Dial on the voice, not the volume. Shouting about a missed shot: Fine, or Funny. A calm, friendly voice asking your school: Twitchy, even though it sounds nicer than the shouting. Calm and personal is the reading. Loud and about the game is not.
The reply is one line, said bored, and then you play on: Not telling you. Are we pushing or what? If it comes back a second time, that is your answer about them. Mute, finish the match, leave the party. Mention it at home the same day, in one sentence.
4The idea
Watch it work once
Kai is three matches into a squad with two randoms. One is loud and useless. The other is calm, decent, and asks: what school are you at, mate? Kai: not telling you, are we pushing or what. They push. Two minutes later: come on, I’m only asking, what year are you in?
That is the second time. Kai mutes him, finishes the match, and leaves the party. Nothing was lost. At tea he says: some guy in my squad kept asking my school, I muted him. His dad says good, and asks the name of the game. One sentence, and now two people know.
5Your turn
Dial each one
Four clips, four dials
Play each voice clip. Set the Feeling Dial for each: Fine, Funny, Twitchy, Scared, Angry. The card shows where you put the two that were not normal, and why Twitchy was the right reading even when the voice was calm.
The calm one is the one people get wrong.
6Decide
A calm, friendly, adult-sounding voice in your squad asks what school you go to. You:
Pick one to carry on.
7Say it
The answer that is not an event
Say it bored, like you have said it a hundred times
“Not telling you. Are we pushing or what?”
Half of it is the no. The other half is going straight back to the game, so the no is not an event.
8Find them
Which of these are normal in a game voice chat?
Tap the ones that count.
Find all 3.
9Look
Three buttons to know before you need them
The party menu
A game's party screen with three options circled: Mute, Leave Party, and Report Player.
Find these on your own game tonight. They are always within two taps. Knowing where they are is the difference between leaving and sitting there.
10Do it
Before you leave this page
Think about the last game you played with voice chat on. Count on your fingers how many of the people in it you have met in real life. Say the number out loud. That is how many of them needed to know anything about you.
Tick it when you have done it.
Lesson done.
Normal is loud, rude and about the game. Not normal is calm, personal and about you.
Next lesson: Free things aren'tBadge 4 · Games and Group Chats
4.1Voice chat with people you've never met4.2Free things aren't4.3The chat that turns★Badge Challenge