Voice chat: good or bad?

[wreckedcarzz]

Figured this would come up sooner or later, so I might as well be the one to start it up.

Personally, I think it would be a good idea to setup a voice chat system to use during gameplay (and possibly non-gaming, like just general discussion?). But there is the whole thing of having to own a headset first of all, then making sure it works, then setting up the server to do chats on, and fixing bugs...

I would be all for voice chat, but I can't do much- except maybe find a good program (teamspeak and ventrillo are kinda...confusing (IMO)).


Any thoughts?

[Deozaan]

Xfire has voice chat built in. It's really simple. My brother and I were just doing it last night. And you don't need a headset. It's just useful.

Regular speakers and a microphone will work. But people will probably hate you because your microphone is likely to catch what's coming out of your speakers and you'll echo.

[wreckedcarzz]

Headset and microphone are one in the same, just different chassis. I wear a headset so thats what came to mind first.

But yea, Xfire chat will work, it is just the whole bandwidth issue...

[Deozaan]

Headset and microphone are one in the same, just different chassis. I wear a headset so thats what came to mind first.

-wreckedcarzz (February 29, 2008, 08:21 PM)

I disagree. A headset contains a microphone (otherwise the headset would be called headphones or earphones) but a microphone does not usually come with attached speakers. It can be purchased individually, and aside from a headset, isn't normally worn on the head. My webcam has a microphone. Many people have (or use to have) a microphone that stands on their desk. Microphones are used for all sorts of purposes, most of which have very little to do with headphones.

[iphigenie]

I can get a teamspeak server organised if desired

[wreckedcarzz]

That would be worth a try at the least- personally, I don't like TS; but it works.

I'll talk to a couple people on Hamachi in a little bit and see what they think.

[Deozaan]

My brother and I have successfully used XFire built in voice over the past week. But we haven't tested it with multiple people at once. He says he notices some lag when we're doing voice, but I haven't noticed anything. We haven't been playing games that require everything to be completely lag free, though. (No FPS games, just MMO type)

[wreckedcarzz]

Lets run a test on something network-needy then, and see how it goes.

[ameniac88]

I use sucessfully for gaming Skype & Hamachi with my brother.

Ameniac88

[wreckedcarzz]

I try to stay away from Skype due to bad prior experiences, that and anything freeware with a shareware option is usually... "iffy" in terms of being usable and not "Buy our newest upgrade! Only $59.99+ tax of 8.9% and a monthly payment of ..."

It is an option, although not one I would opt for.