About
Many online multiplayer video games feature a voice chat system, in an effort to foster greater communication and teamwork between players. However, such a system can be frequently abused for entertaining purposes, commonly known as mic spam. Mic spam is defined by the Urban Dictionary as “Annoying, entertaining, or just out right stupid sounds, music, and such,” and can be performed either by a player making noise into their computer’s physical microphone or by using third party software as an internal microphone. The latter is used to broadcast sound files or music.
Mic spam is generally received negatively by other players, and as such is frequently performed solely for the entertainment of the spammer. However, mic spam can also be used for practical purposes: one common practice is to use a soundbite of Nope.avi as a negative response in-game.
Background
Games based on Valve’s Source Engine, such as Team Fortress 2 and Counter-Strike, are among the most popular for mic spam. The Source Engine made its debut with the 2004 releases of Counter-Strike: Source and Half Life 2, and remains under active development. Several third party programs have been designed with mic spamming on the Source Engine in mind, such as Half Life Sound Selector and Half Life DJ.
Team Fortress 2 was released on October 10, 2007. The game received widespread acclaim for its graphical style and balanced and entertaining gameplay, as well as its dedication to coordinated teamwork, and the game continues to maintain a large fan base, which has only grown since the game was made available as a free-to-play title on June 11, 2011. Team Fortress has become so popular for mic spam that entire servers have been dedicated to its practice, with players taking turns spamming music or other audio files.
Mic spam can also be seen on console titles, such as Call of Duty and Battlefield, as well as those games’ PC counterparts.
Examples
Google Search Trends
Google Trends show a lack of interest until early 2008, shortly after the release of Team Fortress 2, with search volume peaking in July 2011, the same month Team Fortress was released as a free-to-play title.