Guild Wars 2

I’m starting a casual guild, and I know how a voice chat program will make things easier to communicate to guild members when doing Dungeons/DE’s/WvW/etc.
What I’m looking for is a:
- Cheap (preferably free)
- User friendly
- Light on the computer usage
program that anyone can use.
Any recommendations will be greatly appriciated.

i’ve had a 5 man vent server i’ve kept for years from typefrag. not for guild purposes. just for gaming with friends so 5 is usually enough for me. i’s like 2 bucks a month.

you can bump it up to higher capacity fairly cheaply if as your guild grows. just take a look at http://www.typefrag.com/?gclid=CNL0odKQ6rICFYs7Mgod1x0AOA

There are 3 systems in use (afaik), so without the fact I have my preference (teamspeak) I will tell bout all.

1: Teamspeak. You need a central server and every user need a client. The server is free if you don ‘t exceed 512 users. Sound quality is very good and it is easy to use. If you don’t have the capacity to use a server you can use paid servers. this starts from 2 USD/ month to have access with 10 people. The client is free

2: Ventrillo, Again you need a central server and every user needs a client. Servers are free to use, so is the client. If you don’t have the capacity to host your own server you can use a paid server for the same price as teamapeak. The client takes a little les resources then teamspeak, but it has a slightly less quality. The amount of resources used are always minumal.

These two are for more experienced settled guilds cause it needs investment. But you can also use skype. Skype is officially a one two one VoIP program, but it does support having a group of people talking at the same time (conference call). The positive side is that it is free and doesn’t need a server. The negative is that one person needs to start the conversation with someone else everyday.

There is a free one called Raidtalk. I have never used it, so I can’t speak to its performance. I just know its what my fiance’s all girl guild uses.

The standard is Ventrillo. Some people still use Teamspeak. I recommend Mumble. It’s as reliable as ventrillo, cheaper, has less latency, uses less system resources.

More and more people have been switching over to mumble, but Ventrillo is so old and so many cross-game guilds and players have had it for so long that they just hang on to the server.

A bit of advice: Just download and configure all 3 clients. You might jump in groups for dungeons or PvP that want to use voip and there’s a 1/3 (I know statistics people, this assumes equal number of people using each, im just getting a point across) chance they are using the same one you. Its good to have them all ready so if you’re asked to jump on, then you are good to go.

price, low to high:
Raidtalk (free) < Teamspeak (practically deprecated) < Mumble < Ventrillo

latency low to high (lower is better):
Mumble < Ventrillo < Teamspeak

resources less to more (less is better):
Mumble < Ventrillo < Teamspeak

audio quality best to worst:
Teamspeak > Ventrillo > Mumble

Mumble doesn’t sound “bad”. Voices are still clear and distinct. You know who is talking. It’s like comparing the sound quality from an expensive cell phone and a cheap cell phone. One obviously sounds better, but they both get the job done.

Sound quality is also directly related to resources used and latency. Hence team-speak sounding the best, but taking the most memory and processing power and having the most lag.

So I guess use that info to point you in the direction to whats best for your particular needs.

Aside from the above three you can also use Mumble. It functions much in the same way that Vent and Teamspeak do but it uses up less resources, has lower latency, better sound quality, and other interesting features the others don’t like the ability to have the mic recognize your voice and turn on automatically when you want to speak instead of using a push to talk key (for some that is easier), the ability to turn down any music you’re playing automatically if others are talking, etc.

Vent is easy to use for beginners but I do prefer Mumble. But for smaller 1v1 convos I do use Skype if it’s just me and my friend chatting.

Thanks guys for the suggestions! Right now I’m useing Skype since thats easy for just 2-3 of us. When the guild starts growing, I’ll look into hosting my own server before I pay for someone else to host.
Yall have any tips for hosting your own server, or things I should know ahead of time when I finally do cross that bridge?

Use C3. It is free.

Raidcall is free. Not the best quality in the world…but hey…its free.

I will bump the comment on C3 … I’m a long time gamer and fan of Ventrilo, however when I started my guild I didn’t have the means nor desire to rent a server on the speculation it would get used.

I was told about C3 (www.downloadc3.com) and tried it out … it’s free, offers free channel hosting, has virtually no setup, and the sound quality is very good imo. In the month or so we’ve used it I have no big issues with it and for a free solution, I’ve been happy with it.

I can’t agree with the above assessment of Mumble’s audio quality at all. Mumble has always given me superiour quality in all aspect, compared to Vent and TS. It probably depends on your soundcard/-drivers.

Technically, Mumble is perfectly free… its demand on resources is so light, even the dinkiest netbook can run a server for it easily (I speak from personal experience). Of course, if you want that server up and running 24/7, it may not be an option for you, but if you just need it up for your dungeon runs, you can just run everything yourself.

Raf.1078:

Raidcall is free. Not the best quality in the world…but hey…its free.

I have never had any problems with quality in Raidcall even with a couple dozen people in the same room.

For the most part, I use Teamspeak, though I have Ventrilo and Mumble installed as well.

Raidcall is what out guild uses now instead of Ventrilo and never had any issues with it.
Also jump on a mumble one every now an then which again is good once you figure it out :/

I have manged to make a Vent server and we tried that. What I got from most of my friends is “Meh, it does what it’s supposed to.”

I’m setting up later tonight/tomorrow for Mumble to give it a try, and see how that goes.

I’ll be looking to give Teamspeak, Raidcall, and C3 a try as well after about a weeks worth of testing for each.

Thanks all for all the responces! (Hosting aint so bad once u figure it out :P )

If you’d like there are free 50 slot mumble servers available here: http://cleanvoice.ru/free/mumble/en.html. You have to click on the battery at least once every 30 days to show you’re actively using the server, though I’ve not heard a better sounding voice chat program than mumble.