Project Lore

A few nights ago I was on WoW, not unlike a lot of other nights that I play. But unlike most other nights, I was in a particularly reflective mood.

It had been at least a week since my previous jaunt around with Pixiestixy, my alt draenei hunter on Executus, in the alliance Project Lore fan guild. So I logged on to get a quick level or two and to chatter with whoever was online. While running a couple of questlines on Bloodmyst Isle, I noticed someone spamming guild chat with information for logging onto a Ventrilo server. Personally, me and my main character guildies prefer Teamspeak. But a while back, I DLed vent for just such occasions. So I input the info, connected to the server and listened in for a couple minutes.

I realized right away that these were not the voices that I had imagined I might hear. One person clearly spoke with a Spanish accent. Another had a boyish, high-pitched voice. I heard a kid screaming in the background of one player's audio. And while I'm used to hearing east coast, and often southern drawl common in Virginia, I picked up from those few short moments of just listening that we were a diverse group. I'm not listing our differences to poke fun or to point out what separated us. I rather enjoy the idea of playing with people from all over the world. But I suppose my perception of their character names didn't match up to what I heard. I could compare it to meeting a giant, rustic Tauren druid who opens his mouth and sounds like an irritated 6-year-old girl.

I stopped thinking so much about it and finally introduced myself (and immediately heard exclamations that I was a RL girl.) Apparently, I broke their perceptions, too; They assumed that I would be a guy. A couple minutes later, one of them whispered me, asking how old I am. 26, I replied. Then I realized something. My voice makes me sound much younger than I really am. Or, so I've been told. Another misconception. I'm still unsure whether that's a good thing.

I don't usually think that any of this would matter; it's a game, and what someone sounds like doesn't change how the game is played. Unless maybe you're roleplaying through Vent.

But it does make me curious - how many of you have ever connected to voice chat and been surprised by what you heard on the other end? Or are you the one providing surprises, if your voice doesn't match up with your character?