Blizzard has recently announced that it will begin adding additional functionality to World of Warcraft with built-in voice communication. Previously, if players wanted to communicate to coordinate raids, PVP content or just socialize they had to turn to third party programs such as Ventrilo and Teamspeak.

The announcement was originally made by Nethaera at WorldofWarcraft.com and has been a hot topic of discussion in the Testing community since. The development team has added that they will not release version 2.2 until voice chat is implemented, and that it will work fully for both the Windows and Mac versions of the game when launched.

But will players make use of the new functionality over their existing Ventrilo and Teamspeak options?

The quality of the built-in voice chat has not been released or tested by the public yet, so that could be a sticking point for many current players. Another issue is the convenience factor of being able to check who is online in a guild and chat without being actively logged into the game. And would Blizzard voice chat allow you to talk on multiple levels, such as 'Guild', 'Party' and 'Personal', at the same time?

Ventrilo and Teamspeak have another perk in that they allow for cross-faction communication, allowing players to socialize with the other side and get around the normal language wall that is placed between Alliance and Horde. It is doubtful that Blizzard would drop their policy of this communication barrier for in-game voice chat, which could also potentially limit it's widespread use.

Still, it provides an easy answer for the average player looking to communicate with his party or compete on an more even ground in a Battle Ground or Arena. It could also help to alleviate technical issues for some players; for instance, it can be difficult for Linux users to run both WoW and Ventrilo optimally at the same time and Alt-Tabbing in Windows to change programs has given many players problems with memory-leak crashes.

If Blizzard can add some in game functionality to the idea, showing which player is speaking by highlighting their character or display in the party window, they can go beyond what the current solutions offer. This would be especially appealing for pick-up groups where matching random voices to newly met players can be a chore.

Blizzard sounds confident that they will have it up and running with the next content patch, so be ready to hear the World of Warcraft in a way you haven't before.