Once you have a chance to actually talk to someone, you’re running WoW with the whole game seeming to change. I’m not a great Raid or Guild guy (although I hope to be one day when I’m older), but I do have some friends that I race with. At one point, someone suggested that we hire Ventrilo (aka Vent) so that we could easily chat while searching or hitting the BGs. Chatting in real time is also essential for Arena. Essential.
Up to this point we had been chatting on the phone (embarrassing, I know) but since it was typically later in the evening, the minutes were “free” like on a “Night & Weekend” cell plan. But it was annoying and impractical. It is not easy to keep a phone on duty for an hour or two or three. Our speaker phones sucked too. So we are looking at Vent. It was cheap. A friend had a friend who had an account and that guy made us a channel for us to try it out. So we ran for an hour or so using Vent and it was fine. Not good. The voice quality was actually pretty bad, the interface was too fiddly for our needs, and overall it seemed to be a bigger problem than necessary. But it was better than using our phones.
Then, out of nowhere, someone asked, “Umm … Would Skype work?” This was one of those moments where you feel really silly when someone else suggests something so fantastically obvious that you should have seen before. Skype! Of course! If you’re unfamiliar with Skype, stop what you’re doing and get it now (at Skype.com). This is a free service (totally free, no credit card, nothing) that allows you to call and talk to people through your computer. The call quality is very clear, the interface is very simple, and it works perfectly with World of Warcraft.
You can hold conference calls of up to 25 people (all free) quite easily. For the record, I’ve only been with 4 other guys, or 5 of us in total, at one time, however it was very clear … as if the 5 of us were all sitting at the same table. Depending on your computer or laptop, you don’t even need a headphone as the original microphone and speakers work perfectly (on my laptop at least). If you’ve got an extra $ 15 or more lying around, grab a basic headset (like this one on Amazon) and you’re good to go.
Now many high level guilds may require you to have Vent and there is nothing wrong with that. It’s not expensive and everyone has to be on the same page in some way, right? But if you are doing missions, or running BG or the Arena with some friends, use Skype. It is very simple and works very well. Thanks!