Is Ventrilo Cheating?

[redruM_13 17]

Just asking...

I had a conversation with a friend of mine yesterday and he said that it was. Surprisingly enough, there is almost no threads on this if you google it. There is one archive thread on steam, which I was able to read through cached. It wasn't very informative though, it was just a bunch of young jackasses slamming on each other. (like usual)

It seems like cheating to me. I run external applications while playing TF2, but it is just to listen to music that I want to hear. It does not conflict with the ingame mechanics of the game. If you run an external application that lets you override parameters that everyone else has to obey... it seems like cheating. It gives an unfair advantage to other people.

EXAMPLE.

I am a blue medic and the person I am healing killed someone on Ventilo. The person that is dead, if he was not using Ventrilo would be silent for the respawn time... lets say 10 seconds. Instead, he tells his teammates that are on Ventrilo that he was just killed by a medic and demo and the medic has an uber. Two of his teammates, lets say medic and soldier with a kritz are listening to this over vent and back off their attack and can relate this message to people ingame. This is just one example of the advantages that can be gained by using this external application ingame.

I could sit here all day long and think up others that would be beneficial to people who are venting. What if the people are on different teams?

If Ventrilo is not cheating... then would it not be an exploit?

[Graedus 9]

If that's the case then All Talk would be cheating too.

TANGENT:

I was playing L4D2 this weekend, and a server I was on had a weird setting where if you got attacked by the infected, it opened a chat channel with the infected/survivor that were interacting. That was interesting.

[Spartan_0214 18]

As one who plays EVE Online, Vent can never be cheating. If you wanna work more as a team, then great. If you're gonna have one person be on the other team to be a "spy," well, that's metagaming for ya. I don't particularly like it, but one person reporting on the goings-on of their team to another team should not affect a good team.

[The Computer Geek 6]

Eh for TF2 its not cheating in my book. Unsporting yeah it is a little bit. But I really doubt it would make a game winning difference. Me and Killer3k are almost always in Steam Chat when we play because we like to talk about non game shit, while not bothering the other people who play.

[Oww My Nose 19]

I'm saying it's not cheating because it's available for everyone to use. To me, it's like asking if having speakers is cheating, since that's not something everyone can use all the time (late night gaming when you don't want to wake anyone up, for example)

[FunkyFresh 68]

Not when the majority of servers I come across happen to have deadchat/ALLTALK enabled.

On another note, it's always funny to see/hear the informed kids come to the Lotus servers whining about

WHERE'S MY DEADCHAT? WHY ARE PEOPLE IGNORING ME? I TOLD YOU ABOUT THAT SPY RIGHT AFTER I DIED HURRRRR

Edit: For those who don't already know, you can edit server parameters to be able to talk to teammates while dead (deadchat/death chat) and to talk to EVERYONE while dead/alive (alltalk). Most include some form of either of these being enabled instead of just off. Though I could be wrong..

[LunchBox 10]

Cheating? Really? C'mon, It's Team Fortress.

[redruM_13 17]

Not when the majority of servers I come across happen to have deadchat/ALLTALK enabled.

On another note, it's always funny to see/hear the informed kids come to the Lotus servers whining about

Edit: For those who don't already know, you can edit server parameters to be able to talk to teammates while dead (deadchat/death chat) and to talk to EVERYONE while dead/alive (alltalk). Most include some form of either of these being enabled instead of just off. Though I could be wrong..

So... if what you are saying is true, this would even the field for people ingame.

Let me be more specific. Let's say that you have four people who are good at TF2. They vent together on the same team and are able to communicate all the time (assuming that dead chat is off). Do you think this cell of good players could change the server? Do you think that this gives them an unfair advantage?

[+Henry Spencer 117]

If people want to do it that way, go for it. Is it kinda cheap? Yes.

[Melissia 7]

Ventrillo isn't cheating, but if you're using it to exclude other players on your team or even coordinate with the other team on a server without alltalk, it does make you an asshole.

[TheKiller3K 0]

Eh for TF2 its not cheating in my book. Unsporting yeah it is a little bit. But I really doubt it would make a game winning difference. Me and Killer3k are almost always in Steam Chat when we play because we like to talk about non game shit, while not bothering the other people who play.

This basically explains it and if you are using ventrilo it provides such a small advantage that it really doesn't matter. Besides a good team would be communicating just as much as if they were in ventrilo

VENTRILO = Steam chat and or team chat

[Spartan_0214 18]

VENTRILO > Steam chat and/or team chat

Fixed.

[FunkyFresh 68]

So... if what you are saying is true, this would even the field for people ingame.

Let me be more specific. Let's say that you have four people who are good at TF2. They vent together on the same team and are able to communicate all the time (assuming that dead chat is off). Do you think this cell of good players could change the server? Do you think that this gives them an unfair advantage?

An advantage, yes. An unfair advantage, no. Then again..you've seen the results from 4 (or however small a group) of friends/players working together. Communication can definitely change the tide of the battle.

Cheap? A bit. You also run into a problem if the other kids using vent aren't also relaying info through voice chat to their team AS WELL as the people on vent..so if you 'n your friends are on vent but I'm not, WELL THAT HELPS A LOT HURR.

[+Henry Spencer 117]

Cheap? A bit. You also run into a problem if the other kids using vent aren't also relaying info through voice chat to their team AS WELL as the people on vent..so if you 'n your friends are on vent but I'm not, WELL THAT HELPS A LOT HURR.

I'm guilty of this. :x When I'm playing with people on TeamSpeak, it's like... I'll tell THEM everything that's going on, but never tell the team as a whole. >.>

[ScarletRose 1]

I'm guilty of this. :x When I'm playing with people on TeamSpeak, it's like... I'll tell THEM everything that's going on, but never tell the team as a whole. >.>

I'm also guilty of this considering it's my TeamSpeak server. But as someone stated previously my friends and I mostly do it so we can have banter and spam without the negative consequences. Most unfair advantage is saying "Pyro is a spy behind you." 'Bout it really.

[Melissia 7]

Which most people don't listen to anyway.

[Brokkoly 11]

Seems like as long as its for fun and not some sort of tournament game, it would be nice just as long as anyone not on vent actually gets information about the game, that would kinda suck, to be the one person not in the loop because they're not on vent.

[ScarletRose 1]

Which most people don't listen to anyway.

This.

[Brokkoly 11]

good point

[Oww My Nose 19]

Seems like as long as its for fun and not some sort of tournament game, it would be nice just as long as anyone not on vent actually gets information about the game, that would kinda suck, to be the one person not in the loop because they're not on vent.

You're required to use vent to play in PUG games, and it's very strongly suggested that you have vent if you play competetively

[DrkEagle 15]

Cheating? Nah. But I have seen Vent split and even ruin communities before. Vent sometimes is also a team stacker problem too. You get people in Vent all the time that get comfortable with each other and always talk on it, even while not playing, and you end up wanting to always play with them most of the time and it can ruin a community.

[Paul Bunyan 13]

Yeah playing with friends is total bull shit. Anyone who does that should be banned.

[Paul Bunyan 13]

Shit, I double posted. D:

[Brokkoly 11]

Wait, you double posted in order to say you double posted ???

[Paul Bunyan 13]

No, I edited the double post to say that I double posted.