There are many ways to communicate. I'm trying to decide, for our PaxLair Statehood, what services to subscribe to, pay for, and administrate so PaxLair Statehood, her cities, the guilds, the friends, the community, new players, etc. can easily communicate as a team regularly.

So ... to start out, how do you communicate when in-game and when out-of-game? What services do you use? I know guilds have their own forums, some have their own voice systems, some have alliances, etc.

Anyone and everyone can respond. Offer ideas, pros and cons, what seems to work and what does not work in various situations (call to arms, adventures, brainstorming, finding people in the Realm, etc.)

Regards,
Winfield

My ways to communicate:

When I am in-game:

- UOAutomap Server Link (shows my location and allows chat with anyone on the link, easy to find people)

- ICQ (for alerts, broadcasting, rallying folks, etc. who are not in UOAutomap or not in-game - draw back is when I don't have ICQ addresses for people and have to maintain a long address list and groups)

- PaxLair Vent (when in an active situation, or meeting or something)

- Face to face text with people while in-game. Sometimes alliance chat ingame.


When I am off-line (outside UO)

- Stratics Chesapeake Forum (latest info & discussions)

- UOForums PaxLair Statehood Forums (latest conversations and info affecting PaxLair)

- UOForums Private Messaging

- IRC #uo_paxlair

- ICQ

- Email (mainly the Contact the Governor form)

- UOAutomap Server Link (even when I sit idle, not really in the Realm, I may log in to UO and sit in my office)

- PaxLair.com front page -- read the news feeds consolidated to quickly see new things to read

ICQ: I use this because everyone else does. I'm not a big fan of it though but it is handy. ICQ 6 which I recently installed on my laptop is horrible though! (so if anyone knows where to download ICQ 2003b, that'd be great!)

IRC: I'm in #uo_paxlair all the time, though it's fairly quiet at the moment. I use IRC the most out of all programs because I also use it to stay in touch with non UO friends and things as well.

Forums: I guess I only really use this one, and I sometimes read the stratics ones.


I use all the above both in and out of game and have done for agggessss. I'm not a fan of Vent because I don't have a mic! and I type more clearly than I speak anyway. I suppose I use party-chat in game too! but I don't think that really counts too much. =P

There's a program called Trillian which combines IRC, AIM, MSN, YAHOO and ICQ clients into one instant messaging program. It also is completely skinnable, and has tons of other plugins available.

There's a basic version which is free... but definitely worth it to pay for the pro edition in my opinion, I've been using it for a few years now and love it.

http://www.ceruleanstudios.com/

Thanks Taltos,

I've been looking for a "single interface" for as many communication systems as possible since people want to use different systems. I'll surely give Trillian a try.

We use TeamSpeak, I love it and we have as many as 25 to 30 ppl on at one time, we have differnt rooms we go to that u can set up. It is great when in battle and u can talk on TS and know exactly what to do where to do and it saves from all the typing. I have used Ventrilo, its good to but right now and for several years we have used TS u really get to know ur ppl, its better than being on the phone cause u have so many ppl on at one time and we share about our lives, the game and have made some great freinds who i have actually met. Hearing some ones voice makes a big difference.

Agreed TigerEyeJade about the fantastic utility of TeamSpeak (and Ventrilo). It's great for rapid teamwork whether in a battle, adventure, or an auction. I think we'd be lost without some sort of VOIP system.

PaxLair has an open Ventrilo, and will be moving to TeamSpeak in the next several months.

I prefer to do as much communication as possible in game, so I stay in character better. So I use bulltin boards, the post office, etc. But I also use ICQ every time I'm in game so that I can coordinate with people for quests and brainstorm with people for events. I use Ventrillo rarely--for me it's a fun way to hang out with people out of character, I have very rarely had an opportunity to use it to actually assist anything in game.

I'd like to open up this topic again. What's the best way for us to stay in touch?

I'm going to look into Trillian - here's the wikipedia entry for Trillian features.

Current version appears to be 3.1.7.0

I'm much like Lenora. Most of my communication is in-game. Outside of UO, I use ICQ and messageboards, mostly to coordinate quests, theatre projects, or promote story lines.

I have used Ventrillo, but don't find it all that useful, because everyone seems to break off into their own personal channels, which divides the community. However, I did find it useful, when doing big shard wide things like defeating the Void Shadow.

I tried getting Trillian to work with IRC and could not. Help files did not help much either.

Personally I like communicating more in-game too. I'll be sitting in Skara or the Mage Tower or the Tea House or fishing somewhere if I'm around. That's my goal at least.