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I've met the owner of Ventrilo a few times at Quakecon a few years back. Super nice guy, pretty smart and nerdy in a good way. Seems to me the guy got pretty we

I've met the owner of Ventrilo a few times at Quakecon a few years back. Super nice guy, pretty smart and nerdy in a good way. Seems to me the guy got pretty wealthy off Ventrilo in its heyday, and was happy with it. Because as people can go search, Ventrilo is essentially abandonware. Discord's main benefits are the persistent chat with "slack-like" link embeds, emojis, and whatnot; as well as easier role management; and finally, federated identity. If Mumble, for instance, could make their chat interface more appealing, and if someone had a lightweight user directory for it and friend management, it might have a chance of competing. But Discord has really taken over.

COGlory 6y ago
Good for him. Not every business needs to last and grow forever. That's a mandate that can't be met without selling your soul to VC.
aseipp 6y ago
Discord also has a big lead in video support that, IMO, now exceeds anything else. It has flexible group based video chat that naturally extends voice chat. It has broadcasting support so you can stream your gameplay to each other, as well as player-in-player, pop out support, and side-by-side view. Almost all of these features work on mobile as well, including PIP/broadcasting (e.g. I streamed Genshin Impact directly off my phone.) These may seem like gimmicks, but I use all these features extensively in a server of ~8 regulars to the point we reflexively broadcast to each other and regularly watch each others gameplay, comment, or just use it to hang out. I think this stuff will probably significantly solidify Discord's lead, especially considering the technical infrastructure necessary for features like this. Before all that though, the slack-like features, and definitely the moderation features for bigger channels, were - still are! - major attractions.
- unethical_ban 6y ago
  Completely forgot about seamless video conferencing and screensharing.
Firehawke 6y ago
Yeah, it became obvious around 2010 that Ventrilo was dead and that no further development was going to happen. That's when my group moved to Mumble, which was significantly better (and cheaper for hosting costs) but in the end Discord ended up being a significantly better product in pretty much every way.

COGlory 6y ago

Good for him. Not every business needs to last and grow forever. That's a mandate that can't be met without selling your soul to VC.

aseipp 6y ago

Discord also has a big lead in video support that, IMO, now exceeds anything else. It has flexible group based video chat that naturally extends voice chat. It has broadcasting support so you can stream your gameplay to each other, as well as player-in-player, pop out support, and side-by-side view. Almost all of these features work on mobile as well, including PIP/broadcasting (e.g. I streamed Genshin Impact directly off my phone.) These may seem like gimmicks, but I use all these features extensively in a server of ~8 regulars to the point we reflexively broadcast to each other and regularly watch each others gameplay, comment, or just use it to hang out. I think this stuff will probably significantly solidify Discord's lead, especially considering the technical infrastructure necessary for features like this. Before all that though, the slack-like features, and definitely the moderation features for bigger channels, were - still are! - major attractions.

unethical_ban 6y ago
Completely forgot about seamless video conferencing and screensharing.

Firehawke 6y ago

Yeah, it became obvious around 2010 that Ventrilo was dead and that no further development was going to happen. That's when my group moved to Mumble, which was significantly better (and cheaper for hosting costs) but in the end Discord ended up being a significantly better product in pretty much every way.