Patent ID: 8875026

Claim:
A method for providing directed communication between avatars in a virtual environment, comprising: determining a relative location of a first avatar and a second avatar in a virtual environment, wherein the determining of the relative location comprises determining a facial direction of the first avatar relative to the second avatar; adjusting aspects of a voice communication between the first avatar and the second avatar based on the relative location, wherein the aspects comprise audio characteristics of the voice communication including volume and at least one of pitch, gender, voice rate and accent, and wherein the audio characteristics of the voice communication are adjusted based on the facial direction of the first avatar relative to the second avatar; referring to a list of avatars whose audio characteristics are to be portrayed differently in a voice communication, the list containing types of audio characteristics to be portrayed for each avatar on the list, wherein the list and the types of audio characteristics to be portrayed for each avatar on the list are detected and generated automatically from audio characteristics that the avatars have used in past interactions within the virtual environment including in a social networking context; and further adjusting the audio characteristics of one of the first avatar and the second avatar in accordance with the types of audio characteristics set forth in the automatically generated list of avatars whose detected audio characteristics are to be portrayed differently in a voice communication in response to determining that one of the first avatar and the second avatar is in the automatically generated list of avatars whose detected audio characteristics are to be portrayed differently in a voice communication.