In-Game Voice
I know the idea of in-game voice has been suggested a billion times and rejected. Obviously people don't want the game to become audibly toxic as well as visually. But I've had a new perspective (possibly?) that could work.
The idea, basically, is that in-game voice is only available between DuoQ partners. It's only available actually in the game and only to DuoQ partners who are on your friends list. Pretty simple.
Why?
I actually believe that it could reduce toxicity to some extent. I used to be quite toxic myself, and it was only when I started DuoQ with people who became friends and then Skype/Mumble with them that my toxicity went down because I was able to communicate and talk to a friend and we could 'grumble about it' between ourselves, but also we played a better game while using voice. Analysis of human behaviour reveals that people are less likely to act like bogtrotters when they're in a more social setting and in front of friends. Nobody wants their friends to think they're a scumbag, so they generally behave better. This applies - largely - to people you DuoQ with and especially, it seems, when you voice with them.
But using 3rd party applications can always be a hassle for some people. Skype is a bandwidth hogger (unless you install a script to disable various nodes) due to the way it uses a p2p system. Mumble and Teamspeak have their own problems, too. So it would be easier and smoother all round to have an in-game voice chat that can be shared among DuoQ partners.
Thoughts?