4 ms·

This seems really cool and I can see some great use cases. But the marketing is very odd to me. It says it will let me express myself in a voice that is truly m

This seems really cool and I can see some great use cases. But the marketing is very odd to me. It says it will let me express myself in a voice that is truly my own…but I can already do that with my natural voice. That seems more likely to be unique than what I would get by adjusting it in software.

themoonisachees 2y ago
I guess the wording is awkward, but as a trans person, I still resonate with it. I'm acutely aware it's not going to be "my voice", but neither is the one I have right now.
- michaelmior 2y ago
  Thanks for the explanation. This is definitely something I hadn't considered.
- mintplant 2y ago
  It's funny to me that we just had a big front-page thread full of HN users questioning the value of diversity, and then this thread where people struggle to figure out the obvious trans market for voice-changing software.
  - squigz 2y ago
    Non-verbal people might also be interested in such things
sdfgtr 2y ago
That particular line is definitely directed towards people with gender identity issues.
idiotsecant 2y ago
Pro tip: Some people do not consider their natural voice 'their' voice.
corytheboyd 2y ago
Outside of the trans use-case mentioned here, I could imagine some women gamers getting value out of this too. You kinda need voice comms to play some games properly, and not wanting to reveal yourself as a woman online, especially over voip, is completely reasonable. Because gamers are terrible. Something like this could make hiding that trivial, assuming the latency is accurate (would need to be very fast in some games)
- baobabKoodaa 2y ago
  Are gamers really more toxic towards women than men? I feel like switching gender will just switch one kind of toxicity to another.
  - corytheboyd 2y ago
    Less about toxicity, more about the barrage of creepy messages and cyber stalking. To be clear, I’m a man saying these things. I think it’s neat we’re able to do things like this now and it’s neat to think of what it can do to solve old problems. This is just one more hypothetical.
  - mintplant 2y ago
    Yes, unfortunately. It's not a rigorous scientific study, but one recent experiment that I think is illuminating: https://esports.gg/news/valorant/male-valorant-pros-face-sexism-in-voice-changing-experiment/ https://esports.gg/news/valorant/male-valorant-pros-face-sex... > The experiment showed just how drastically a woman’s voice can impact the score of a player. One male pro played with his normal voice and earned 15 kills with two deaths. When playing Valorant with a female voice, his score almost completely inversed with three kills and 16 deaths after the other players refused to cooperate in the game. > The pro players also endured being mocked and insulted with sexist slurs. Many will recognize this as the average experience of women in gaming. During their games, one male teammate told a pro to go back to the kitchen. Likewise, another teammate told the female-voiced pro that “all women should just die.”
  - renewiltord 2y ago
    Yeah, we used to play CS:GO quite a bit and the one girl we knew who played was both very good and constantly harassed. When we 4-queued, we'd just boot the other guy who was being annoying. The rest of the time it was mute and shun. I was GNM at my highest, she was GE but had to play on an alt to play with us (too high rank dispersion will fail to queue for matchmaking). Once or twice when we got higher (MG or so) there was less of it. I got maybe a few comments about competency (rightfully I suppose) but she got them all the time and she was way better. To help clarify: The Gold Nova Master rank is like 60th percentile. GE is 99th.
itishappy 2y ago
Salesperson: You test drive any car on the lot! You: Why? I already own a 2002 Ford Escape... I'm not trying to make fun of you, I think you actually have a unique and impressive perspective! I've always hated hearing my voice on answering machines, so if I could choose any voice I'd choose Chris Cornell or Morgan Freeman.

themoonisachees 2y ago

I guess the wording is awkward, but as a trans person, I still resonate with it. I'm acutely aware it's not going to be "my voice", but neither is the one I have right now.

michaelmior 2y ago
Thanks for the explanation. This is definitely something I hadn't considered.
mintplant 2y ago
It's funny to me that we just had a big front-page thread full of HN users questioning the value of diversity, and then this thread where people struggle to figure out the obvious trans market for voice-changing software.
- squigz 2y ago
  Non-verbal people might also be interested in such things

sdfgtr 2y ago

That particular line is definitely directed towards people with gender identity issues.

idiotsecant 2y ago

Pro tip: Some people do not consider their natural voice 'their' voice.

corytheboyd 2y ago

Outside of the trans use-case mentioned here, I could imagine some women gamers getting value out of this too. You kinda need voice comms to play some games properly, and not wanting to reveal yourself as a woman online, especially over voip, is completely reasonable. Because gamers are terrible. Something like this could make hiding that trivial, assuming the latency is accurate (would need to be very fast in some games)

baobabKoodaa 2y ago
Are gamers really more toxic towards women than men? I feel like switching gender will just switch one kind of toxicity to another.
- corytheboyd 2y ago
  Less about toxicity, more about the barrage of creepy messages and cyber stalking. To be clear, I’m a man saying these things. I think it’s neat we’re able to do things like this now and it’s neat to think of what it can do to solve old problems. This is just one more hypothetical.
- mintplant 2y ago
  Yes, unfortunately. It's not a rigorous scientific study, but one recent experiment that I think is illuminating: https://esports.gg/news/valorant/male-valorant-pros-face-sexism-in-voice-changing-experiment/ https://esports.gg/news/valorant/male-valorant-pros-face-sex... > The experiment showed just how drastically a woman’s voice can impact the score of a player. One male pro played with his normal voice and earned 15 kills with two deaths. When playing Valorant with a female voice, his score almost completely inversed with three kills and 16 deaths after the other players refused to cooperate in the game. > The pro players also endured being mocked and insulted with sexist slurs. Many will recognize this as the average experience of women in gaming. During their games, one male teammate told a pro to go back to the kitchen. Likewise, another teammate told the female-voiced pro that “all women should just die.”
- renewiltord 2y ago
  Yeah, we used to play CS:GO quite a bit and the one girl we knew who played was both very good and constantly harassed. When we 4-queued, we'd just boot the other guy who was being annoying. The rest of the time it was mute and shun. I was GNM at my highest, she was GE but had to play on an alt to play with us (too high rank dispersion will fail to queue for matchmaking). Once or twice when we got higher (MG or so) there was less of it. I got maybe a few comments about competency (rightfully I suppose) but she got them all the time and she was way better. To help clarify: The Gold Nova Master rank is like 60th percentile. GE is 99th.

itishappy 2y ago

Salesperson: You test drive any car on the lot! You: Why? I already own a 2002 Ford Escape... I'm not trying to make fun of you, I think you actually have a unique and impressive perspective! I've always hated hearing my voice on answering machines, so if I could choose any voice I'd choose Chris Cornell or Morgan Freeman.