[ubuntu-uk] Ubuntu Community Gaming Server

[Skeg Fast]

Alan Pope wrote:
> I've recently been chatting with someone who is enthusiastic about an
> Ubuntu Community Gaming Server, and wanted to run it past you lot to get
> opinions/ideas.
> 
Snip
> Thoughts, ideas?
> 
> Cheers,
> Al.
> 

A few years ago I was very active in a gaming clan. I realise that this 
isn't about starting an Ubuntu Medal of Honor clan or FlightSim Air 
Traffic Control thing, but bear with me :)

One thing that we found was that having dedicated channel-based voice 
chat (we used TeamSpeak: www.goteamspeak.com ) really helped.

Firstly, we got a lot more people coming to chat with us whilst playing 
and then returning to play with us another day. Secondly, a lot of 
gamers (especially FlightSim) hang out on TeamSpeak in the same way that 
geeks hang out on IRC :p

It's pretty hard to shoot people or fly/direct a plane and type at the 
same time after all - but if somebody was off playing on another 
server/snoozing/doing work then you could still chat to them without 
interrupting them (and usually persuade them to come and have a quick 
'bash' or flight).

I assume most newer games now have their own voice clients, which is a 
shame because it means you need to have to fire up the game to chat to 
people I guess. TeamSpeak might be non-free, but it's great for creating 
communities of like-minded people.

So, my point is, you might want to consider some kind of TeamSpeak (or 
alternative) channel-based, always-available voice service. There seems 
to be only one free alternative (Mumble) but it doesn't seem to be quite 
  there yet. In my experience, your average gamer hangs out on voice 
channels, rather than, say IRC, so it might be worth exploring.