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Today I used Skype for gaming for the first time and ho-lee-sheet it worked flawlessly — so much better than Hangouts or even Discord. Sure, the interface is awful (it’s Microsoft), but the audio and video were stellar, and that was with one player in Sweden and the rest of us in the States.

(Which maybe doesn’t matter, but I dunno.)

Sold!

26 thoughts on “Today I used Skype for gaming for the first time and ho-lee-sheet it worked flawlessly — so much better than…”

  7. Aaron Griffin I’ve mostly used Hangouts, and tried Discord earlier this week. The latter works okay, while the former is always spotty. Granted, my sample size is one instance, but I’m going to stick with it for now.

  8. < ![CDATA[Aaron Griffin I’ve mostly used Hangouts, and tried Discord earlier this week. The latter works okay, while the former is always spotty. Granted, my sample size is one instance, but I’m going to stick with it for now.]]>

  19. This session finally sold me on the idea of online gaming. I mean, I was cool with it before as a good-enough, but this session made me realize that it’s a totally viable way to game.

    Amazing what a good connection will do.

  20. < ![CDATA[This session finally sold me on the idea of online gaming. I mean, I was cool with it before as a good-enough, but this session made me realize that it's a totally viable way to game. Amazing what a good connection will do.]]>

  22. < ![CDATA[I think my favorite part of online gaming is that it removes table chatter and keeps everyone as an audience member of what's happening. This might not be a problem for your groups, but it can be for mine.]]>

  23. Aaron Griffin True! The focus is nice.

    I’m finding talking over each other to still be an issue, especially given the lag as packets travel between players. The best solution I have so far is to just raise my hand so people can see I want to talk. Some sort of baton-passing tech would be nice, though.

  24. < ![CDATA[Aaron Griffin True! The focus is nice. I'm finding talking over each other to still be an issue, especially given the lag as packets travel between players. The best solution I have so far is to just raise my hand so people can see I want to talk. Some sort of baton-passing tech would be nice, though.]]>

  25. I’ve been playing over Skype for a few years now, and I find that with a small group (we’re just three), talking over each other was more of an issue in the beginning than it is now. And we do audio only, so we can’t rely on visual cues. However, we’ve developed a sense of rhythm where we naturally wait an extra beat before speaking up just to make sure the other person is done. We also tend to prompt the other players. So for example, I might be talking and then say something like, “Mike, what do you think?” as a way of passing the baton to the next player and letting the other person know I’m done talking. It doesn’t work all the time, especially when we get excited, but it works pretty well. The only downside is that it’s something that developed naturally over the course of years, so I’m not sure how widely applicable it will be.

  26. < ![CDATA[I've been playing over Skype for a few years now, and I find that with a small group (we're just three), talking over each other was more of an issue in the beginning than it is now. And we do audio only, so we can't rely on visual cues. However, we've developed a sense of rhythm where we naturally wait an extra beat before speaking up just to make sure the other person is done. We also tend to prompt the other players. So for example, I might be talking and then say something like, "Mike, what do you think?" as a way of passing the baton to the next player and letting the other person know I'm done talking. It doesn't work all the time, especially when we get excited, but it works pretty well. The only downside is that it's something that developed naturally over the course of years, so I'm not sure how widely applicable it will be.]]>