"Do you use Discord for gaming?" Topic

Yes, am active
No, no interest to use it
No, but used to use it.
No, but I'm interested in trying it
What's Discord?

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I've never used it but there are a couple Discords devoted to games i enjoy. Got the invites but need the app. I'm always a bit gunshy of signing up with an app. I don't do social media either. What's the purpose of Discord? I like TMP.

No, but I know quite a few people who do. The last thing I need is to learn (yet another) piece of collaboration software.

Yes, but only for its direct live team chat capabilities. I use Roll20 and its voice chat can sometimes be problematic so we usually use Discord as the live chat system while playing via Roll20.

I don't really use it as a forum or hangout, just while live gaming as its live audio chat system is rock solid and doesn't hog system resources.

That's how it started out and I never really changed from that.

What's Discord?

Yes, for sim racing not wargaming.

+1 Martin

Yes, for role-playing games and for live co-op board gaming, specifically HeroQuest and Horrified.

For the board games, I simply set up my iPhone on a tripod mount as an overhead camera for the board. The other players tell me what they want to do, and I move the pieces and draw the cards; they either roll their own dice and tell me the results, or I can do it.

It's easy to use, the audio and video quality are solid and reliable, and it's free. Plus it runs on both my iPhone and iPad.

Yes.

Yes.

I suspect we don't know what online human gaming looks like yet. We know how the first-person-shooters are going to work, that's established. BoardGameArena and VASSAL show us what boardgames will look like. But it's not clear how we will play RPGs and minis. There are a bunch of virtual table tops and so on, but there doesn't seem to be a dominant paradigm yet.

But Discord is part of most people's answer to this question.

During the pandemic I was thinking of trying a minis game on Zoom with four cameras pointed at the table from different angles so you could see more. Never tried it.

What's Discord?

What's Discord?

I had heard of it and sort of knew what it was but had someone show and explain it to me at Fall In! in relation to the rules we were discussing.

The irony is that at the same convention I heard at least a dozen people say "What's TMP?" and half of those were in their 30s or early 40s,.To be fair, they had also never heard of LAF or any of the other grognard forums either.

Yes, I have used Discord but mostly for multi-player online gaming whether that is kriegspiel, minis, or PC games. Discord is also used in conjunction with Tabletop Simulator for voice chat. TTS is used for online miniatures games as well as board games. I played in a Trafalgar game using Osprey's "Fighting Sail" this way.

There are Discord channels for gaming groups as well, like Too Fat Lardies where played post photos and can discuss rules either by text chat or voice channel.

Someone commented on not learning yet another program, but it is fairly intuitive if you are just a participant and want to chat with a team, etc.

Never heard of it.

I looked it up. For those who haven't, it's a way to play games remotely--a visual and audio feed--if you have enough tech at both ends, and if you're both good enough at using it.

I lost interest at "play games remotely," but I don't think anyone in my circle could meet the tech requirements. Certainly not two of us.

I combine Discord and Roll20 or Foundry when DM'ing virtual TTRPG's.

No

No.

I use discord to access AI bots that allow me to create important pieces of art.

Discord?

Discord is a common GUI for a connection manager to remote servers.

F'r'ex, for the example AI art above … It was generated by a program called Wombot. Wombot runs on a set of servers specialized for AI art generation. Discord lets me have a common, simple interface to "log on" to that server and operate the program. Since I have a Discord "channel" my stuff is in a separate "space", like an art studio. Because it is a common interface, it is easy for me to share results, tips, and other info with others connected to the server.

There are all kinds of servers that connect through Discord, like chat servers, voice servers (the Internet as a walkie-talkie), streaming video servers. There are even servers that allow you to "program" and "present" "board games" (terrain layouts and pieces … more complex ones (harder to use) allow you to preprogram dynamic behaviour of the pieces or terrain).

Two people joined to the same instance of a chat server can do text chat (just like in the 70's). Or three or four. Some for a voice, video, or boardgame.

Since Discord provides a common interface for server access, it is (relatively) easy to connect multiple capabilities (designed and run by others) together to create a "gaming environment". Or a set up for other types of collaborative environment.

"collaborative environment." "collaboration software."

And we all know what happens to collaborators, don't we? (If it had happened a few times at work, we'd have gotten a lot more accomplished.)

"(just like in the '70s)"

I grew up in the 70s and I have no idea what you are talking about.

And we all know what happens to collaborators, don't we?

Depends upon what you collaborate and with whom … link link

The first article is reasonable since it points out that to the … ahem … people … going after Discord over the leak is like going after Xerox because Aryan Nation uses a copier to create large numbers of flyers and pamphlets.

I grew up in the 70s and I have no idea what you are talking about.

I grew up in the 70's too. I was talking about text chat. Just like the 70's.

The ability to remotely connect to a server (like a video streamer or AI art one) is technically 60's technology (late, 60's as in 1969), but wasn't really widely available until the early 80's.

I am aware that Discord exists, but I'm not entirely sure what it is or what its purpose is.

Technology is really in the background for me: email to set up game day; word processing to make play aids; spreadsheets for designing weapons and vehicles.

As far as play, I want to feel the dice in my hand.

Answering the topic question, no, so far the people I game with, when we need to game remotely, have used other online sharing services, e.g., Skype, Zoom, Google Meet, Jitsi Meet, Roll20. Discord has a reputation of being more technical than those. Note – my group has one member in his 30s but the rest are 50+.

Answering the "what's Discord?" question …

Discord started as a voice chat system that could also share other content, like sharing video, so it was first used (in my experience) by online computer gamers as a replacement for Voice-over-IP services like Skype that the previous generation had used.

etotheipi
Discord is a common GUI for a connection manager to remote servers.

That's a very helpful next level deep explanation.

Since I have a Discord "channel" my stuff is in a separate "space"

This seems to be how the generation after me uses Discord. I see many references to for instance an RPG GM who sets up a Discord server, with separate channels for GM broadcast, shared all players, screen share, etc, and these can be chat or video or interfaces to lookup references (monster stats, dice rollers, image libraries).

text chat (just like in the 70's)

LOL. I think most people think of chat as congruent with networked offices, e.g. 90s, or text paging (late 90s), or smartphones + social media (2000s).

We primarily use it for discussion and planning purposes.