VOIP is great. People misusing VOIP are bad.
Spartanovka, we lost the church. We had commander on channel and our squad leader left so I took over, because I had headset and microphone too. Commander demanded to hold ground behind the church (house buildings 1 or something like that):
[C]ommander: - Hold your ground!
[M]e: - I am trying, but I can't do it on my own! I've good position to cover the church. I need machinegun on left flank!
[M]e: - Machinegun to me on left flank!
Some time after that machine gun guy and I were holding ground and shooting down any German who wanted to get out of the church right into us.
[C]ommander: - Put artillery coordinates on the church!
I crawl out to get better position to place marker, check out the area for possible shooters, quickly put coordinates right before the church and crawl back again.
[M]e: - I put coordinates on the church! I request artillery strike, now!
Soon after that artillery has spoken - some explosions were very close to us, but we managed to survive entire bombardment - and after that the German finally managed to kill the two of us.
It was strict and clear use of VOIP that was far more effective than any in-game panel or text chat. I hope that with time more people will play this way. Machine gunner did the right thing: he followed orders he has been given and I did what I had to when my commander asked for it. We lost match point-wise, but Axis reinforcements ended quicker than ours, so it was close call.
In fact only squad leaders and commander NEEDS VOIP to coordinate everything. Other team members can give useful intel, but aren't as vital as main chain of command.
Other side of VOIP are people doing "comm chatter", spamming that useful tool with useless gossips. There are also people who doesn't follow orders no matter what and people who doesn't want to hear other people talking even if they're trying to bring some order into the battle which is easier, faster and more effective done by VOIP rather than command panel.
If you want to play in silence, be the lone wolf or simply chat then you chose the wrong game.
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