Comments on: Playing Deaf

By: Oilcan

Oilcan — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 01:15:39 +0000

In the summer of ’07, Blizz changed some coding on sound, so that their software handled more of the sound, and your hardware, less. My sound card was one the 0.5% or so worldwide that didn’t deal well with the change (a .wtf edit eventually fixed it).

So I’m in Nagrand with no sound – actually, just a continuous buzzing sounds – figuring that I’ll just keep on playing until I find a fix.

Well…it felt like I had three thumbs, backwards knees, and was blind in on eye and cross-eyed in the other. My shot rotation (a real rotation back in those days) was blown to hell, I found myself continually checking action bars and the keyboard to see if I actually did shoot something off….all because I couldn’t hear my shots going off.

I had, pretty much unconsciously, been training myself to use audio cues for rotations and stuff…to the point that without sound, I was…practically useless…

By: Misscritalot

Misscritalot — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 09:38:58 +0000

Strangely, I raided for hte first time last night with sounds, Teamspeak and Winamp all coming through my headset. It took a bit of balancing, but once I’d adjusted everything, it was great. I always turn off music and ambient sounds anyway: and ska compilations seem to give the best dps boost
Misscritalot´s last blog ..Heroics for Dummy Hunters (a guide for the rest of us!) – part 2

By: Lyraat

Lyraat — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 16:47:17 +0000

I play muted. I can hear game sounds on my wife’s computer, but I can’t listen to vent and the game on my headset. Not having extra noise helps me focus on my raid leader and on my screen. If I ever clean my desk and get some decent speakers, I might turn sound back on.
Lyraat´s last blog ..We’re leaving ground. Will things ever be the same again?

By: Poneria

Poneria — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 21:01:48 +0000

“Next challenge: Play with my monitor turned off and use only audio signals.”
I want to try this now. o.O Though…how would you steer?

@gmazeroth
I play with music a lot. I’d raid with it if it weren’t for Vent. Can hardly hear most music to enjoyable levels with Vent & quiet RLs demanding attention. It was also almost more background or “mood” music than anything I’d get up and dance to.

On the flip side, I started playing Peggle in WoW, except I had the sound off for a while. The first time I turned the sound on and finished a level, I went “oh holy crap, Peggle sounds awesome! I should do this more often” and my bf then went “… YOU SHOULD ALWAYS PLAY PEGGLE WITH THE SOUND ON! >.<" Oops…

By: Chessier

Chessier — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 16:52:16 +0000

I have to play on mute occasionally and it is, well just less of an experience as well as being harder. I don’t suppose you could post your omen code for the threat warning?

By: gmazeroth

gmazeroth — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 16:12:53 +0000

I’m the same way. I hear about people who listen to music while they play and while they raid and I don’t know how they do it. The sound effects are pretty essential to the way I play. When I set up power auras and fight notifications, I set them up with sound because I’ll respond to that before I respond to a visual cue. I may not be looking where the visual cue happens when it happens, but I’ll always hear it! Plus, much of the in game music is awesome, and I rarely get tired of it.
gmazeroth´s last blog ..Shared Topic: The Coming Cataclysm