RPGWatch - Moving to a New Server

There's also a Discord that's almost as quiet as Twitter

here's the invite
https://discord.gg/JgXByA7

If you joined we can discuss things like, "Why is this taking so long", "Pause Based is better than Real Time with Turns", and "Codex Sux, why do they have more people than we do?"

I'm a bit wary of introducing a Discord to a forum community. In my experience, it's often the death of the forum, and all the information gets locked up in endless chat streams in a proprietary silo.

Originally Posted by Lucky Day
There's also a Discord that's almost as quiet as Twitter

here's the invite
https://discord.gg/JgXByA7

If you joined we can discuss things like, "Why is this taking so long", "Pause Based is better than Real Time with Turns", and "Codex Sux, why do they have more people than we do?"

I am in discord a lot so joined. Even if quiet I don't mind having the channel on my side bar. I prefer Discord way more than twitter.

Onward and upward. Fingers crossed.

Originally Posted by Hastar
The new server will be in EA for 1-2 years.

Can we pay tons of cash for a season pass to get access early and beta test for you?

I hate discord. Won't be joining it, and hopefully this discord thing won't result in less forum traffic and comments here. That would suck.

I am on twitter, but use my real name there. I like twitter and have been on binges where I spend way too much time there. I wouldn't mind making a new Arkadia7 handle on twitter though if twitter got popular among rpg watch regulars.

We're going for a RIDE!!

P.S. Steam channel: https://steamcommunity.com/groups/RPGWatchcom

Why not put out the hat a few days after the move, gin up some more donations?

Originally Posted by Arkadia7
I hate discord. Won't be joining it, and hopefully this discord thing won't result in less forum traffic and comments here. That would suck.

I beginning to agree with you. Busy Discord discussions kind of suck. You don't know who is speak to whom, and everything quickly flows out of sight. There's little point in trying to keep up.

It's all personal taste but Discord is a lot more then just a chat channel. I tend to agree it moves fast myself. But I enjoy Discord for many different reasons:

- With a small group (like 5-6 of my gaming online friends or a small guild) it is perfect for having conversations, discussing games, or just chat. It is a more organic conversation and like a real conversation with other people you can't expect to jump in and out and then be able to follow. Its organic for those participating as long as it isn't too large, then just as in real life, it becomes to hard to follow. But small groups its great. For large servers you need to be more mindful of letting people speak and break things into different channels.

- Super easy to stream games. The other night my friend from Germany wanted to see the character creator for BG3. In just 5 seconds and a few clicks we were connected over voice chat and I was streaming my BG3 game to her discord window. She watched and commented as I went through the steps.

I have done this with a few friends. They want to show me a settlement they built in FO4. Someone else is building a house in SIMS4 and wants feedback on a few things. A friend asks to see how some ENB settings work in Skyrim so I stream my game and show them live. Etc. It is a great tool for streaming most anything on your PC

- Super easy to toss in songs, images, ZIP files, text files, etc., while having discussions or simply to share mods, documents, etc. Easy to PIN items to various channels for tracking and sharing.

- Great way to stay in touch with people using the voice chat to talk while doing whatever on the PC or even just to talk while at home.

Could go on but if people only see discord as a simple chat editor they are really missing out on so many of its features.

EDIT: One downside, of course, is you need active people engaging in things. I have a channel with just a few friends but we use it differently. We also know when others are around so we don't expect constant chatter or interaction. Its more like a tavern or pub where we gather and check in now and then.

But chat is more dynamic so it doesn't work as well if someone says something then you wait 4 hours for someone else to reply. A forum works better for that content.

I tried discord out before a while ago for a youtube related reason, but I hated it. I had a bad experience all around. I disliked the format, the aesthetics, the design of it, and worst was I had some squirrely suspicious things going on with my computer when using the discord software.

In my opinion, discord is unsafe to use. Just do a google search of "discord and hacking". Top hits include things like malware, hackers using discord to steal passwords, steal accounts, and infect computers with viruses and trojans. Not trying to scare people, but just do that google search, I'm not lying.

That could be said for most any platform. There will always be hackers, trojans, and people trying to take advantage of others anytime you have a tool that reaches a lot of people who may not follow safe practices. I see the same warnings for a variety of online software and tools. It comes with online territory.

IMO, it's about the right tool for what you're trying to achieve. For small groups, who stay active on it and keep up with the chats, it can be a useful tool.

On the downside, when it gets introduced to a forum community, what tends to happen is that the most keen and active posters (who tend to be the ones keeping a forum alive and answering questions) move over to Discord, and the forum starts to die. Then you end up with a moderate number of people chatting on Discord, talking across each other in endless chat channels that are hard to parse, and not organized into specific topics. So it can be OK for those that are in there daily and want to pay attention to everything, but a pain in the arse for less active members, and very poor for those looking for specific information.

Also, for those that care about that sort of thing, it's a proprietary app looking to make money out of profiling you, and will demand your phone number sooner or later.

Discord is real time vs forum turn based

Originally Posted by Lucky Day
Discord is real time vs forum turn based

Lol, yes. The problem is, that when you run both games in a community, the faster paced real-time one tends to draw players away from the traditional style, which has its downside.