17:07 by FoxTwo
It seems suddenly everybody I know is using Skype, and I have been using it a long time before they even knew about it. Well technically I can’t say I have been ”using” it since I rarely have it running. I play a lot of games so I don’t like being interrupted while I’m gaming. The only IM software I have running when playing games now is Xfire (http://www.xfire.com/), and get this - it has voice too! The only problem is that it’s still too new to compete with established VOIP products like Teamspeak and Ventrilo, plus it’s not really geared for team-based speech like TS and Vent are.Xfire voice is still more of a one to one kind of thing, like Skype :D
The trouble is, gamers like me have been using voice over IP software since like last century. Yes, surprised eh? A long time ago, back before the modern internet, we had games that - gasp! - allows multiplayer! Diablo, back in 1998, allowed us to get onto Battle.Net and hook up with 3 other friends and we’d go off adventuring into the randomly-generated maps. Back then, we realised that typing in the chat was pretty slow compared to shouting into a mic - “WATCH OUT”. By the time you finished typing the warning your friend would be dead :) I remember playing the original CGA version of 688 (yes, the old 1993 game from EA) where we could go head to head over modem. We called each other on the phone, the real phone, and talked while we played.
So, voice apps started appearing. We had Roger Wilco, Battle Commander, Teamspeak etc. Years passed by and the current main staples of VOIP for gamers seem to be Teamspeak and Ventrilo. Everything we do, we “hop onto Teamspeak/Vent” before we do it. That usually means a big raid (in an MMO) or a big match (if in a clan). Some guys I know even have Teamspeak/Ventrilo running all day and they use it like a telephone to talk to people (read: Gamers) around the world.
To gamers, or at least to me, why the sudden fuss about VOIP? We’ve been using it for years... it’s all you other guys that didn’t even want to try it when we tried to tell you back in 1998! So now, I get friends telling me to get Skype... geesh! Talking on voice for me with a headset has been synonymous with my hands hitting WASD keys and clicking the mouse furiously. It would feel really weird for me if I started talking on Skype and my hands are..... doing nothing. I need to blast boss monsters or kill Nameds in a raid with a headset and mic on me!
By the way... all you gamers go get Xfire! *evil grin*
Technorati: VOIP, Internet Telephony, Telephony
