Voice Chat

I was reading Zen of Design's Voice Chat Ready To Come Of Age? article and then Raph Koster's Voice vs text article. They are both interesting reads about using voice chat though I would state that Raph's list, though good, seems to fail to pick up on voice being able to happen concurrently with actually being able to continue to control your character whereas, generally, typing takes you away from the ability to control your character. Damion's list of myths and problems is well worth a read too. Of course they both cover it with regards to MMOs rather than FPSs which tend to be slightly more critical in terms of relaying information (I say slightly because it is still critical in MMOs too).

Voice Chat has vastly increased my enjoyment of online gaming through using Teamspeak for a lot of the games I play and my experience of XBox Live. First it makes games with friends feel more like LAN parties with real time abuse and comments coming in. It makes tactical games much easier, trying to short hand enemy locations in America's Army was a pain when, by the time you've given the information it became irrelevant; playing Enemy Territory with Teamspeak meant we could quickly provide information about the enemy. Finally just on a play social aspect my first experience of Project Gotham Racing 2 on XBox Live was wonderful. Just socialising while playing, chatting to people in some surreal Sunday drive experience was great (it's a shame my experience went down hill from there).

I think integration in games is fantastic too. Though some people might use Teamspeak to gain an advantage having the absence of Officer Corpses (where a dead player uses their situational awareness to advise their living counterparts) in Enemy Territory changes your tactics (for the better). Having a party in Halo 2 and playing a game and then floating away from the rest of the players to be left with your own friends again is really good for some post match chat (while you are waiting to connect to the next game).