Cavedog wrote: »

Discord is a data mining service. Don't be fooled.

They claim to be compliant with the EU's General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) which means users should be able to control what data they collect and what's done with it. And if they're caught lying about that they can be hit with a very big fine (something like 20 million euros).

There's also an option to request a copy of all the data they hold on you.

None of which means they don't collect and sell your data - only that you can find out exactly what they've got and what they do with it, you can ask them to delete it all (and if you live in the EU they are legally required to do it) and they can't share the data without having notified you at some point.

Edit: Also most of the claims that it's spyware I can find seem to be sourced directly or indirectly to this web page, which doesn't exactly seem like a reliable source to me, since it's own sources are mainly discussions on forums about whether discord is collecting data, which seem to be inconclusive at best and often seems to come down to people not having read the ToS before they installed it: https://spyware.neocities.org/articles/discord.html

Colecovision wrote: »

reprosal wrote: »

People who always claim their mic is broken or won’t join discord because they were told ‘it’s unsafe’ and play female characters are probably due to men pretending to be women for attention.

I love that men playing a female role is attention getting, but the fact that she's a magical cat person is too normal for you to notice.

A magical cat person who summons demons from nowhere and throws lightning with her bare hands...at a vampire whose horse vanishes under him when he gets hit.

But yeah, the mis-match between player and character gender is the weird part.

Colecovision wrote: »

reprosal wrote: »

People who always claim their mic is broken or won’t join discord because they were told ‘it’s unsafe’ and play female characters are probably due to men pretending to be women for attention.

I love that men playing a female role is attention getting, but the fact that she's a magical cat person is too normal for you to notice.

Not even sure I follow your comment. Haha.

Voice comms are pretty essential for endgame PvE or high-end PvP.

...that being said, I don't trust discord (and, for some reason, it lags me out a lot more than teamspeak).

Just listen, no need to talk.

Also I only use it on a tablet, not my personal cell phone and not my pc. I find that it ameliorates the paranoia for me somewhat.

Discord is pretty good as far as voice comms programs go. It's got some niggling issues but I much prefer it over Skype, SteamChat, TeamSpeak or 'built-n' voice comms in each game.

As for guilds making it a requirement.. that makes sense. Obviously everyone in the group needs to be using the same voice comms & Discord is a good choice. Available for everyone for free, no paid servers required.

This is why I don’t play on PC anymore. And no, not everyone uses it. I’ve been in Trial runs where half the people refused to get on because of whatever else they were doing IRL and you can guess how those went.

At least on console the expectation is that if you’re raiding you’re on voice chat—or you get kicked.

kathandira wrote: »

Astrid_V wrote: »

How are you gonna communicate in raids and organized PvP without voice chat?

paulsimonps wrote: »

TEAMSPEAK>DISCORD. I like discord for the text chat but god I hate discords voice chat functions. Usually use Both, Discord for text msg and offline guild chat and Teamspeak for raids and hangout voice chat.

I never used Team Speak, or Discord for Voice Chat. I only ever used Ventrilo.

(Hoping I explain this correctly since it has been well over a decade since I used this)

Does TS and Discord have Ghosts? I recall in Ventrilo, you could create a ghost in a private channel and have only certain people hear things that are said over the ghost channel, all while being in another channel listening to the rest of the people?

We used this for Music. We would broadcast music on the ghost channel, and if people wanted to listen to the music, they could be asked to be invited to the ghost channel.

Teamspeak also has this, it's called whisper lists.

Fleshreaper wrote: »

Danikat wrote: »

GreenhaloX wrote: »

Astrid_V wrote: »

How are you gonna communicate in raids and organized PvP without voice chat?

Isn't it why there is mic/voice chat made for guild!? When I was running trials back in the day, that was what I was using and worked fine. Again, I'm not saying this Discord is a bad thing, but when guilds are requiring the use of it, and if you don't have it or use it, then you can't play with your guild members. That's cool.. whatever goes within such guild, and yes, one does not have to be part of such guild if one chooses not to. However, again, plugging in a mic (as the ESO developers intended for the game) works just fine. Maybe I'm just a dinosaur with ESO.

Unless I've missed something there is no built in voice chat on PC.

I know there is on consoles (but then I think they originally didn't have text chat, which seems crazy to me), but on PC it's ONLY text chat. If you want voice chat you've got to use an external program.

I don't know about ESO but I know other MMOs have said they're not including voice chat because there are already excellent 3rd party programs which provide it and they don't see any need to duplicate that service.

ESO PC had voice chat at one time. I don't know if it still does or not.

When ...I have been here since launch...did I miss it?

Jameliel wrote: »

First I've heard of it being associated
associated with hacks and exploits. Care to elaborate?

Agreeing with this because the whole year I’ve had Discord there has not once been any mention of that, unlike Facebook.

4/5 of my PS4 NA guilds have Discord and 3/5 REQUIRE it. When you’re doing end game trials there has to be some way to organize, create rosters, keep records of who ran what and when, and share information about tactics/mechanics. Enter Discord. All three of my trials guild require Discord for these reasons. It’s the best and easiest method for managing all these details. I’m in like 5 other Discord servers beside those! There’s other guilds where I’m not an official in game member, but assist in filling trials, etc., and there’s a couple servers that are mostly informational.

If you don’t give a rat’s fuzzy bum about end game trials, then you don’t likely need to bother with Discord. If you do, you’d better get on board.

Inarre wrote: »

While I think it's a good discussion I think it's really a simple issue. Don't like discord? Don't use it and don't be in guilds that require it.

Want to be in an end game progression guild that requires scheduling of 12+ working adults unique schedules? Are you off eso more than a few hours every other day? Discord is a good option and a reasonable requirement. How else are you guys going to get down a raid time?

If you don't want to participate in a guild that needs you to check in in your "off" hours or you don't want to use voice chat you probably aren't ready to complete the content with a guild that requires it.

If joe's trading guild requires discord for you to sell and pay dues though they are only crippling themselves. Its easy enough to find a+ trading guilds that don't require this because it's honestly not serving much of a purpose beyond "extra social feature".

That's a really good point, and I'd recommend expanding it to all guild requirements.

IMO it's always worth thinking about what you want from a guild and what you want to do with them when you go looking for one (or even when you impulsively respond to an interesting advert) and it's a good idea to discuss that with the recruiter when you're asking about joining. It can save a lot of hassle and disappointment later on. Whether that's voice chat or what time you're online or the kind of activities you do in-game or whatever else.

For example I'm always very clear up-front that I won't be on every day and it's unpredictable (even for me) when I will be online or for how long. So if your guild kicks people who are gone for a few days without notice, expects everyone to show up to regular guild events or assumes I'm available to do dungeons because I've just logged in and thinks it's an excuse to avoid you when I say I won't be online long enough then I'll save us both some hassle by not joining so you don't need to kick me later.

Likewise I tell them I can use Discord but not other voice chat programs (because I use my phone as a microphone and I'm not paying for an app I might only use once or twice), but don't open it unless I need it and can't always use voice chat even just to listen (because I'm in a noisy room and can't shut it out with headphones). If I have notice I can do it - for example if I sign up for a regular raid I'll make sure I'm free and able to use voice chat that evening - but not all the time.

Yes this does mean a lot of guilds turn me down, I turn down others, but it's a lot quicker and less frustrating than joining and then finding out it's not a good fit and having to leave/find out why I was kicked and start over.

Inarre wrote: »

While I think it's a good discussion I think it's really a simple issue. Don't like discord? Don't use it and don't be in guilds that require it.

Want to be in an end game progression guild that requires scheduling of 12+ working adults unique schedules? Are you off eso more than a few hours every other day? Discord is a good option and a reasonable requirement. How else are you guys going to get down a raid time?

Other Voice chat software besides Discord.


But I agree there are multiple guilds out there and not all raiding guilds require Discord specifically. Simply find one that uses the software you prefer.

It may seem that Discord is the only form of voice chat people use but it isn't and the others do exist it is just a bit harder to find them.