Online/Teleconferencing Gaming

[Cor Azer]

So, my face-to-face group stepping into a new geeky technical realm last night. One of our friends who's lived in Toronto for several years finally seems poised to rejoin our group on a weekly basis instead of once or twice a year - we used a webcam mic and speakers for him to participate via teleconferencing.

Other than some sound issues (he lost audio a couple of times due to too much noise coming through), it seemed to go pretty well. He couldn't see our battlemap well, but we don't always use one during combat, and in any event, have tons of experience playing without one.

Has anyone else ever tried such a feat? If so, were any pitfalls discovered after-the-fact (We haven't seen any yet, but again, last night was the first trial)?

 

[Wippit Guud]

Has anyone else ever tried such a feat? If so, were any pitfalls discovered after-the-fact (We haven't seen any yet, but again, last night was the first trial)?

Yeah, I have a pitfall... another sponge mooching off my experience points! Why I ever suggested using that is beyond me, now I level slower!

 

[Zappo]

I haven't done it. However, I am currently working in the field of cheap videconferencing, and I'm about to leave my country for five months. As a result, I'm planning some videoconf gaming and I think I have the skills to pull it off.

First of all, you'll need broadband. With a 56k, it would be tough to get decent audio through, and video is right out.

The easiest way is to use two Windows computers and Microsoft Netmeeting, which is installed by default on any Windows version and is very easy to use. Any webcam will do good enough video, and you can find webcams for 40$ or less. Most of them are easy-to-install USB devices. You'll also need a good microphone, one that can pick up sounds from a few meters so that you can just place it in the middle of the table and forget about it.

Netmeeting also has a shared whiteboard, which will be very useful to draw maps and notes on. It can also allow any application to be shared, which could be useful to show pictures and texts.

The first problem is bandwidth; unless you really have lots of it, the video will be choppy and the audio could be skippy. I would play around with the program settings to make sure that a good codec is used for audio, sacrificing video if need be. You don't really need a fluid rendition of your pals' faces (use the whiteboard for maps and drawings), but a low-quality audio will get on your nerves fairly quick.

The second problem is that at least one of the two must know the other's IP address. Netmeeting provides an online directory service, but I wouldn't like the idea of anyone being able to know my IP. It's not a telephone number, someone could do some ugly damage with it. I think a better idea is to use ICQ or a similar service to communicate the IP address for the call.

If the above doesn't work, or if you don't run Windows, it's time to pull out the Mash videoconferencing apps from www.openmash.org, which are what gets the closest to professional videoconferencing tools while still being free. They are not easy to use or configure, but they allow a lot more control than Netmeeting, so you can probably adjust the bandwidth usage between audio and video much more finely, and change codecs to better suit your needs (different codecs are better at different things). You could still use netmeeting for the good whiteboard and program sharing.

 

[Dismas]

Goes misty-eyed......

Back in the mid-ninties I ran a game with dedicated Video Conferencing equipment.

I was involved in the RPGA UK schools competition. First round consisted of a quiz paper with questions on history, mythology, literature & role-playing. Second round was a series of regional adventures through a specailly written module, with a final at Gen Con UK. Prizes included computer equipment and the like for the winning school and gaming product for the children. Schools could enter as many teams as they wanted, we had one small school that entered about 12 teams of 6 (it turned out it was everyone that got their permission slips back in time) of which only 1 person had ever played before.

Anyway, we had a school on the Isle of Man enter 2 teams. Unfortunately it is extremely expensive to get there. I was working at British Telecom at the time and, being the cheeky bugger that I am, emailed the head of RND to see if we could borrow some kit, explaining the reasons and suggested it would be a good test He agreed and they put in for a weekend two Video Conferencing systems.

We had the VC system as the top of the table where the GM would normally sit and someone to watch the dice rolls. The only real problem was the light reflecting off the top of my head