Do I need a voice to be real?

Via Brackish Waters I found Brent's (from Virginworlds) comment on Another Here about me saying: "These are things that CAN be done with the written word, but not nearly as effectively. Take Tobold and Van Hemlock, two notable gaming bloggers. Everyone knows their work, but do you feel like you know Tobold? Even after 1000 posts, he is still a disembodied (silent)voice in the blogosphere and readers have no idea of what he is all about, as a person. If he started podcasting, that would change overnight."

Now Brent is running what is probably the most popular MMO podcast out there, so I must forgive him a certain bias towards the spoken word. :) But I'd like to answer his comment with two points:

1) There are things you can do with the written word that you can't do with the spoken word. The written word doesn't suffer from accents, mumblings, or being either too fast or too slow. The written word is easier to edit for the writer, and for the reader easier to read in non-sequential ways, like reading diagonally, or jumping back to reread a previous phrase. Thus the written word often allows expressing more complicated concepts than the spoken word. The written word is easier to search through with Google. The written word can also be easily read on a computer screen at work without your boss noticing. My blog gets 30% more hits on weekdays than on weekends, and a good percentage of the mail I get is written on some company mail system. There is a reason why this site is silent and not too flashy. ;)

2) Half of the things I could possibly reveal by having a voice are things that I don't want to reveal. Not that it is very likely in my case, but people have been fired from their jobs after their employer found their photo on their blog, and a voice might be just as recognizable. The other thing podcasting would reveal is that I have a bad German accent, and that I am a better writer than I am a speaker. If blogging would suddenly be completely replaced by podcasting, I would probably be like the silent movie stars who lost their career when the talkies came. I'd say everybody should stick to the form of expression at which he is good at.

Do you think I am less real because I don't have a voice? That you have no idea of what I am all about, as a person? Or are you happier with me as a writer than as a talker?