If you don't know what Discord is, then you're either not a gamer or you don't do much gaming online. Described as the Slack or Skype for gamers, Discord is projected to hit 87 million users by the end of the year. Not too shabby considering the app had only 45 million users back in May.

Even if online chat apps aren't your thing, you are missing out if you don't have a Discord account. Discord is one of the best products out there for online communication. Just about everyone else is on there, so now's the best time to drop those other platforms and hop on Discord too.

The Other Competing Products Just Suck

Discord just works. The text messaging works perfectly. Voice chat and video chat connections are seamless and won't bog down your game. It's completely free. There's both a mobile app and a desktop app. Best of all, you can be part of multiple servers at once. The toughest part is keeping up with all the conversations.

Not only are similar products not nearly as comprehensive in their features, but Discord works better than game-specific or console-specific chats. For example, Nintendo Switch owners are not the biggest fans of the console's chat feature, which lacks the ability to voice chat. Players must also download a separate mobile app in order to use the chat feature, so it's not very integrated with the games. Discord founder Jason Citron even expressed interest in helping Nintendo with the Switch's voice chat capabilities. Overall, Discord just does what you need it to do without having to troubleshoot technical difficulties every other time you want to use it.

It's Such a Staple in the Gaming Community, It's Almost a Given

Up until February 2017, I had streamed on Twitch off and on for about two years. Even though I didn't ask for it, one of my avid viewers created a Discord server for my stream. There are only three people on the server, myself included, and the last time I checked was in August. Needless to say, Discord is to gaming like bread is to sandwiches. You almost can't have gaming without Discord.

Discord has embraced their niche by introducing Rich Presence in November 2017. Rich Presence allows developers to connect their game right into Discord, making it easier for players to form parties, invite players, and communicate with each other while playing the game. Players can also watch matches, see how long matches typically take, or simply see what matches are open for new players. Players can also see what games their friends are playing. Many of the most popular games have dedicated Discord servers, including Minecraft, Rocket League and PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS.

Essentially, Discord is already pretty core to the streaming experience and is working on becoming core to the overall gaming experience. By integrating with developers and games directly, players are spared a lot of the hassle of coordinating outside of the game itself. But, playing certain games becomes more and more unthinkable without Discord. Developers won't have to recreate the wheel of a chat feature inside every single game. Instead, work with Discord, and Discord gets it done for them.

Overall, if you're not on Discord yet, then there's no better time than right now to create an account and join the servers of your favorite games and streamers. Twitch may have purchased Curse late last year, but many on Twitch do not use the relaunched Desktop app for chatting or keeping up with their communities. Platforms like Teamspeak and Skype are less and less ubiquitous in gaming circles. Discord, if you haven't figured it out yet, will be the gaming communication platform of the future. Eventually, there may not be many choices beyond Discord, and that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Tired of people not communicating in your matchmade parties? Why aren't they using the microphone that comes with their console? Are they even hearing you explain your great tactics?! Or maybe you're sick of having to speak to people in order to get your point across. Soon you'll finally be able to communicate with others using text chat in The Elder Scrolls: Online for PS4 and Xbox One.

Text chat will be included in a patch with the upcoming update, available on August 16th. The feature will be off by default but can be switched on by plugging in a keyboard and pressing enter, or by going into your "Social" settings menu and turning the HUD chat display on (you'll find the profanity filter here as well, but who the **** needs that?!). Text chat messages from other players will automatically appear once you have the setting enabled.

You'll be able to type in different channels the same way PC players do by typing /zone, /whisper, etc. However, text chat messages aren't always proximity based. Typing /say will make messages appear in a small proximity around you, /yell is a larger proximity, and /zone is the entire zone you're currently in. Items can also be linked in chat as well, which is handy. You are able to use voice and text chat at the same time.

I think this is a great addition to the game. Other console games have implemented text chat and it's a nice option. In my opinion you need to be using a keyboard to make it worthwhile, just because typing using a controller is slow and inconvenient. You can read more about text chat and other features coming in Update 11 on the official ESO website.

Miitomo is a free to start (meaning in app-purchases) app from Nintendo allowing you to communicate with your friends through your smart devices with a Mii character that you can create and edit how you want. Right now, they are taking pre-registrations here.

Create Your Mii:

You start by creating a Mii character to look like you, or whatever you want it to look like. There are a variety of features you can use. In Miitomo you give your Mii a name, decide how it will speak and determine what type of personality you wish your Mii to have. You can use your camera on your smart device to aid in the creation of your Mii. You can even dress your Mii in the style you choose.

Miitomo Coins:

You gain coins by using Miitomo a lot or by purchasing them through the App Store or Google Play’s payment systems. These coins are how you purchase clothing items for your Mii character.

There is also a Miitomo Drop where you can drop your Mii character onto a platform to gain an item. You need either Miitomo coins or game tickets in order to play the mini-games. You can gain the tickets through various means including daily bonuses.

Chat:

You can use your Mii to chat with your friends' Mii characters about whatever you want. You can even pose your Mii and take photos, add stamps and share them through social media like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Preregistration Bonus

If you preregister now, you will be notified by email when it launches and you will receive bonus points.

With several names already in the VoIP and chat software market such as Ventrilo, TeamSpeak, and Mumble, Razer has decided to throw its hat into the ring. Razer has introduced Razer Comms. Its tagline is: "Talk. Chat. Play."

Razer Comms is free software for gamers. They claim their VoIP is crystal clear and the voice chat is built to give clear audio without lag spikes. Along with the voice chat, the software includes instant messaging and IRC-chat.

How does this work? Don't worry about Alt-Tab. The Razer Comms features an overlay that displays chat messages or identifies speakers while in the VoIP channel. Chat messages look like a news ticker.

League of Legends players get even more in the program. Razer Comms includes LOL Voice Chat and Scouter. The voice chat lets you coordinate with fellow summoners in your team when it detects a game starting. Plus, the Scouter shows stats about opponents in League of Legends for you while the game is loading.

With a sleek black format, it looks like it could be an interesting piece of freeware to pick up, especially for LoL players.

First of all, this is not going to be another post about Hearthstone. But, I have gotten a key about 10 days ago, and yes, it is fun. I have sworn not to spend real money on the game so progress is slow. Now that this is out of the way, let’s start the real article. The key element I’d like to address is the Hearthstone chat, or rather lack thereof.

Why do we want a chat?

To communicate, of course. It’s in our nature to seek a way to express ourselves. I’d like to ask questions to my opponent and congratulate him on an extremely lucky card draw. Another point I realized is that in some cases you have about a minute of downtime while your opponent is strategically planning your doom, so the next best thing would be to spend this time communicating. He in turn could respond while you’re setting up a combo. Communication; it sounds great on paper.

So, why can’t we have a chat?

Simple, we cannot be trusted with the responsibility. In other games we might need to give instructions to our teammates, so a chat is essential. In single player games a chat is not obsolete but it can bring a lot of negative things to the table. I have played many games, LoL, Starcraft 2, Dota2, Counter-Strike, Team-Fortress, AoE 2 etc…. All of these games have one thing in common: a chat. Now you might ask why not Hearthstone, if every single game on the market has one. Because: We are horrible people. Gamers, as a species, are horrible to each other. Do not get me wrong, there are good people out there. I’d like to think that I am one of them, but occasionally the little troll inside me comes out and takes over the keyboard.

A chat is a tool, it is neither good nor bad.

However, it can be used to create good and bad experiences for your opponents or teammates. Of course a chat in Hearthstone could help building a community, to make new friends, exchange knowledge, in short: create a positive experience. Unfortunately, we as a community have proven time and time again that we cannot be trusted with the responsibility of having a chat.

But we just could use a “reporting tool”!

Blizzard doesn’t want to take on the role as our parents, so they just gave every gamer a muzzle.

Reporting is a fix for a problem, which should not exist in the first place. Riot has hired psychologists to specifically design ways to reduce insults in their game, which is a fancy way to say: If you cannot play nice, I will send you home.

This type of behavior creates negative experiences for new players who might get discouraged easily. Blizzard doesn’t want to take on the role as our parents, so they just gave every gamer a muzzle. A move I can understand very well, especially after playing a couple of games in the arena.

All I hear is: "Well Played," "I will destroy you," "Greetings"…

I thought this might get old fast, but it doesn’t. It feels nice.

And who knows, maybe in some not-so-distant future we finally learn how to "communicate."

Thanks for reading.

Yesterday, it was announced that the PlayStation (PS) 4 will be supporting live eight-person chat like the PS Vita currently does. Since Sony's announcement, Game Informer reached out to Microsoft to see if it could reveal that it too will be supporting up to eight people in chat on the XBox One. They confirmed that this would indeed be the case.

Old Spec, New News

With this announcement coming after the song and dance Sony made about their party chat yesterday, it feels as if Microsoft have taken to mimicking their competitors.

However, when you look deeper into the issue, it's not at all the case. The XBox 306 (via Kinect) already has eight-person party chat, where the PS3 doesn't. So if anything, the PS4 is copying the XBox 360, and the XBox One is merely continuing what has already become the norm for its hardware. The only difference is that, with the Kinect coming as standard with the XBox One, users will no longer need to buy separate hardware.

More Pressing Matters

Party chat is not going to be what wins fans over: that will come down to the titles available at launch for each machine. But if people are really concerned about each console's chat features, XBox users might want to be a bit more concerned about reports from back in August that XBox Live's chat won't be compatible across the new and the older platform i.e. you won't be able to chat to XBox 360 friends through your XBox One.

With title's such as Call of Duty: Ghosts being available on both XBox consoles, this could be a real inconvenience. This is apparently due to a higher-quality CODEC being used with the XBox One, causing incompatibility issues. However, MajorNelson mentioned on XBox One's Reddit forums that this may change.

Furthermore, gamers should probably be concerned that on both consoles, the limit is a measly eight people. This is particularly pertinent with some titles like Battlefield 4 supporting multiplayer games of between 10 and a staggering 64 players. Being able to chat to a mere octet of friends suddenly doesn't look too flush when it comes to talking strategy and communicating with your wider warfaring companions.

But after all, all this talk is specifically aimed at what will and what won't be supported on day one of either's launch. So don't lose heart yet and keep your ear to the ground.

Casual games like Pac-man, Tetris, Solitaire, and most recently games like Farmville and Farm Town have captivated the masses since the beginning. Although some of these games are better than others, they all have something in common; these games are popular because of their one or two button gameplay.

This translates to an onslaught of games that have been popping up due to their ease of development. In the case of chat apps like Kik, Snapchat, and MSN Messenger this is good news.  They could easily develop a game for chatters to play with their friends as they are chatting, but I don’t think it will be a hit. Here’s why:

1. I’ve never used a chat app while playing a game; this isn’t due to the fact that I couldn’t, but rather because I didn’t want to play games while I was chatting. If I go through the trouble to download an app specifically for chatting then I want the app for chatting.

2. There are plenty of games already out there that allow for players to play back-and-forth with a friend. Popular games that come to mind are Draw Something and Words with Friends.

3. When I want to play a game on my cell phone, which is the only place most of these apps can be downloaded, I’m usually not somewhere where I want to wait for a response from one of my friends. If I’m wasting time in class—don’t judge me—I want to be able to kill time efficiently.

4. Many of the chat apps don’t have efficient enough design for allowing you to chat and play games with multiple people. If you have a convo going on with, say 6 people, how are you going to keep up the conversation and play all 6 games? I’m a pretty good multi-tasker but I don’t think I could keep up with 12 things on an app, on my phone, that I’m playing in class most of the time.  Having to switch back-and-forth from 12 different chat boxes doesn’t seem like fun.

I think handheld games and mobile games still have room to improve and are going to drive the future for a lot of casual games, but there most certainly is not an app for that.  

The future of gaming is near, Do you think that is in the form of chat apps? Comment below on whether or not chat apps are the wave of the future!