Skype Breaking Records

H

HardOCP News

[H] News
Joined
Dec 31, 1969
Messages
0
Microsoft no doubt has to be happy with these numbers.

Microsoft's Skype is making some serious headway into the international phone traffic scene. New data (PDF) from telecom market research firm TeleGeography shows that Skype broke records in 2012 by hosting the same amount of calls as one third of the world's phone traffic.
Click to expand...
 
My 13 year old brother uses skype... he opens up a phone conversation and leaves it on for 8 hours. He uses that shit like ventrilo.
 
Started with Skype back when it was a Beta in 2003, always been happy with them. Glad they are doing so well!
 
Me and my friends use Skype in the same way. It works flawlessly, sounds great, and we don't need to mess with any in-game settings. Everything else we've tried (Ventrilo, Team Speak, Steam Voice Chat, Blizzards own in-game chat) sounds either crappy or just takes more effort to setup.

And I'm mid-20's.
 
I use it weekly to chat a few hours with my friend from across the world... almost never an issue :)
 
I prefer to use it during LAN parties as well. On a LAN, voice is spectacular.
 
I'm not a fan, last time I used it there was no way of creating rooms, you had to manually invite everyone and if someone dropped out they had to be invited again. I'll stick to ventrilo for my game servers.
 
I have been using skype since 2009, and hope that MS doesn't make it to a bloatware.
 
I use Skype to talk to my cousin all the time. Especially when gaming.

Only issues is that the program seems to be overly bloated and not what I would consider the most stable software I've ever used. Really wish they would release a slimmed down version or something.
 
For small groups absolutely nothing beats Skype. I detest having to use ventrilo for wow. The quality blows
 
JoeUser said:
I use Skype to talk to my cousin all the time. Especially when gaming.

Only issues is that the program seems to be overly bloated and not what I would consider the most stable software I've ever used. Really wish they would release a slimmed down version or something.
Click to expand...

This ^^

I love Skype but it's filled with sooo much garbage.
 
Nothing beats free eh? I used to do vent for gaming and paid for my own server but stopped doing that since everyone became skype happy. I gotta say its really good for it being free. Though some times the quality gets really bad and you have to restart group calls.
 
I don't like skype cause its an open mic. Can hear people eating, chewing gum, etc. Vent is much better for games like WoW. Can you imagine 25 people raiding all having open mics. Screw that.
 
Well, Skype has a "push-to-toggle-mute-status" key, which can work as push-to-talk if you set your microphone to be muted by default. Donkey-backwards, but gets the job done. :/
 
I used to hate Teamspeak, and I always used Ventrilo. One of my RIFT guilds used Mumble, and the sound quality was good, but the software itself was not so good. Another group I play with went to Teamspeak 3, and it's pretty good. They fixed everything I hated about TS2.

My wife uses Skype to have small conversations with her friends, but I can't imagine using it for VOIP for gaming with a group larger than about 4. I'd probably just host my own small VOIP server rather than be forced to set up a Skype call.

On-Topic: This is great for Microsoft, but when is Skype going to post a profit?
 
Nearly all of our work conversations are being pushed through "Lync" now. My guess is the Skype integration will follow in more closely. We fully expect to not have a "real phone" on our desks in less than 1 year due to ring forwarding to our cells.
 
I use it quite a bit myself. For five or less, nothing beats it. However for more than that or better control. Nothing beats a well setup vent server. Most people complain about vent have never been on a good one using hq codecs. It is every bit as good as Skype if the admin set it up right. That of course costs money and free speaks volumes.
 
Adding to this, yes, for small gaming groups Skype is awesome. The open mic thing can be managed; I usually don't care and my friends don't have that distracting of background noise (clicky keyboard, a GF here and there, all fixed by wearing headsets).

But when many people are in a call, it gets cumbersome to orchestrate calls, people talk over each other, there are no rooms and its hard to spin off people into separate calls, especially when everyone isn't on everybody's contact list, and I can't imagine raiding with 25 people on open mics.

NickJames said:
I'm not a fan, last time I used it there was no way of creating rooms, you had to manually invite everyone and if someone dropped out they had to be invited again. I'll stick to ventrilo for my game servers.
Click to expand...
Once a call is initially made and you are invited, you can join or drop out of the call as you please, without being re-invited, as long as the call continues. Not really the same, but it's something.
 
Ashbringer said:
Lots of WoW players now prefer Skype over Ventrilo.
Click to expand...
It's obnoxious. Arena players have this perceived feeling that it's noticeably faster than Vent, when it really just comes down to server location and player location. The tradeoff is you have to hear everything going on because there's no push-to-talk and you get a horribly bloated client that also gives out your IPs (when SC2 pros get DDoS'ed, it's usually because they were connected on Skype with the wrong person.)
 
Thats nice to hear. I use skype voice at least a few times a week. I agree on the stability of the software part.
 
Game Master 128 said:
THIS. It feels sluggish and poorly written. It needs to be rebuilt.
Click to expand...

If you guys think there is even a remote chance that Microsoft's buyout of Skype gives any hope of it being re-written at all.. let a lone in a cleaner.. functional.. better way... well... just think about it...

As much as i totally agree with you's and wish for the same thing... there is only one thing that is going to happen. A worse UI. A *more* bloated piece of software. And above all else... even less customizable and totally frustrating to use because you can't do simple things like re-size windows as small as you'd like etc /movieragescream
 
HoffY said:
If you guys think there is even a remote chance that Microsoft's buyout of Skype gives any hope of it being re-written at all.. let a lone in a cleaner.. functional.. better way... well... just think about it...

As much as i totally agree with you's and wish for the same thing... there is only one thing that is going to happen. A worse UI. A *more* bloated piece of software. And above all else... even less customizable and totally frustrating to use because you can't do simple things like re-size windows as small as you'd like etc /movieragescream
Click to expand...
Yep and when that happens I'll just move back to a rented vent server or something else if there is a better option. Gotta love competition.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top