“Get out of the fire! What are you doing? I called the move!” Jessica was leaning forward in her chair, her ribcage pressed to the edge of her desk. “Pillar: move.” Her voice was more even as she called the mechanic out to her raid team in to her headset. She shifted, sitting more comfortably. Her right hand was resting on her computer mouse - a 14-button gaming model - and she was clicking rapidly with all of her fingers. Finally she stopped, leaning further back, “Yeah! That’s how it should be done.”
Multiple voices cut in to her headset, cheering and getting excited about the loot they received.
“And so the big orange worm goes down again,” one voice said, garnering chuckles from the rest of the team.
“You wish that happened every night,” Jessica responded, taking a sip of her juice while she moved her character through the on-screen environment.
The same person responded - a guy in his early twenties with a very slight southern accent - by saying “I’m not denying that,” although the words lacked any seriousness.
Another voice - a guy in his early twenties as well, except he had a very thick Australian accent - responded with humor in his voice. “He wishes it was with you though.”
There were more chuckles, but neither Jessica nor the first guy to have spoken responded, and the joke dropped the channel in to momentary silence. The raid continued, the chatter light-hearted and the boss farming successful. At the end of the two hour raid time they had downed five of the bosses, only getting one failed attempt in on the sixth.
Many of their team members logged off, needing to wake up for work in just a few hours. The remaining five of them stayed on Ventrillo, continuing to voice chat as they went about other business in the game. They evaluated the fights, specific player strategies and skills, and just generally chatted.
Through this time Jessica and the guy with the southern accent were chatting in-game via whispers as well, sometimes reflecting on what was happening in voice chat and often just general conversation with each other.
“Well, it’s getting late,” Jessica said, rubbing her eyes as she read 4:30 am on her computer’s clock. “I’m going to head to bed.” She typed a quick response and good night in-game as well as the other four remaining bade her good night on voice chat. “Goodnight guys.”
