Ventrilo: Did it progress or destroy the MMORPG experience?

[Snaggles]

I remember downloading Vent for the first time back on live for guild raids.

Through Velious we did all raiding just by typing into the chat window and it seemed to work fine. Post Luclin the GM decided all officers should be plugged in for strategy. I remember the first time I finally got the setting configured and noise started coming through the headset: I didn't like it.

For me the ability to coordinate in real-time (or close to it) was overshadowed by that problem I was matching a voice to a character. Even EQ's horrible models did a good job masking the identity into a true role play game environment. Hearing a squeaky voiced player as an Ogre or a loud crass person as a high elf spoiled the air a bit.

I'm not a RPG geek, LARP fanatic, or the kind of person who dresses up for movie premiers. It's just odd to put a voice with a character who isn't supposed to be talking (especially if it's nowhere fucking close to the class/race combo).

Thoughts?