[H] Online com's groups (TeamSpeak et cetera)

[MrGuvernment]

Hello [H] members!

I have my headset but never use it (i can get loud), I game often but usually play pubs cause all my old groups split. I wanted to see what groups / chats / rooms and what apps you are all using these days?

- App
- Channel / group
- Public / Private

Would love to get into some decent gaming groups (myself i am a Team F 2 / CS:GO / BF1 mainly FPS kind of guy with some World Of Tanks)

Does [H] have its own official groups?

 

[LigTasm]

I play a lot of Destiny 2 and World of Tanks, but I have my own TS server to use for those. I think a lot of guys have migrated to Discord these days though, never used it myself.

 

[RanceJustice]

Many of the threads in the PC subforum for a given game title will lead to discussion on frequent players arranging [H] groups and matches, so I urge you to check them out.

As for VOIP apps, I tend to use...

Mumble - https://wiki.mumble.info/wiki/Main_Page - This is a traditional VOIP app with a lot of great features, especially being Free and Open Source and offering client-side audio quality/codec adjustment along with encryption, overlays, and a multitude of others Users rent from pro hosting or host their own servers.

Teamspeak 3 - http://teamspeak.com/en/ - This is another traditional VOIP app. It is a bit more aesthetically pleasing than Mumble, but while it thankfully has a Linux client, it isn't open source. Overall great features though and easy to use. Users rent from pro hosting or host their own servers.

Riot - https://about.riot.im/ - A Matrix (www.matrix.org) compatible client, Riot is Free and Open Source. Its not exactly gaming focused, but it has a whole bunch of features including text, video/voice, and much more. Its somewhat more of a "Slack + Skype + More" style replacement (or perhaps a more open Discord) and is in development! Give it a try - it even has end-to-end encryption! Users can host their own servers or make private rooms/conversations on those hosted by others.

Discord - https://discordapp.com/ - These days Discord has become one of the most popular gaming focused messenger and VOIP apps. Unlike the others I list above, it is a centralized service - you can't run your own separate server. Discord had tapped into ease of use and top-down control of the platform in a way that gives a very smooth experience and it is ostensibly "free", however remember that a monolithic proprietary platform centrally controlled by a for profit company cannot be trusted for ethics, even if they start off with good intentions. I actually subscribe to Discord Nitro (a $5/month subscription or less, unlocks additional features) in the hopes that they'll be as open as possible, limit their data collection, and won't look to other avenues of monetization that are less scrupulous, but we'll see.

So those are some of the primary gaming VOIP apps around. There are others of course, which can range from Ventrilo (in my opinion a lesser version of Teamspeak and certainly not as open as Mumble), Twitch has their own client that they got when they purchased the "Curse" network that they've turned into something of a Discord-style platform, and of course some use Skype/Facebook or other conventional messaging services. On that front, don't forget about Signal (www.signal.org) - one of the best, free and open source messenger/VOIP w/vid services around; its encryption is what has made a lot of other apps more secure as well.


Hope this helps a bit.

 

[kledar586]

no one use vent anymore, just curious

 

[RanceJustice]

no one use vent anymore, just curious

This seems to be my impression as well. I don't see it as much of a loss. Ventrilo was in my opinion, the least desirable of the 3 server-based gaming VOIP clients. For a period of time at least, it had a hard cap on hosting your own server where you could only allow 7-ish people or something, unless you were an "authorized hosting provider" with a license to boot - I can remember it as an irritant when I needed at least 10 slots for MMO raiding/guild activities. During the old days when competing with Teamspeak 2 and almost nobody else, Vent may have compared more favorably thanks to a less confusing UI. However, once Teamspeak 3 and especially Mumble arose, I found them to be superior solutions.