Why the Strong Preference for Discord in Remote Games?

[pogre]

Greetings,

I was viewing some calls for players and DMs for remote games and I noticed there is a very strong preference for Discord over something like Zoom. I was wondering if anyone had any insight as to why that is? I even see folks with posts advertising a Zoom game having potential players asking if they would be willing to use Discord instead.

 

[SirMoogle]

I find Discord to be less of a hassle than Zoom. I always have it open, and depending on the group, a campaign can take up one whole server, which means multiple text channels for IC and OOC, and voice channels to speak in. The server is technically always active, whereas Zoom meetings have to be created by the owner. I don't use Zoom too much, but can anyone confirm whether or not Zoom meetings can save chat messages from previous meetings? Discord's able to keep a log without any interruptions.

Discord also has bot functionality. There are bots that can play background music, and if it's D&D 5e, the Avrae bot is able to connect character sheets from D&D Beyond and even roll dice.

I'm not aware of anything that Zoom can do better than Discord.

 

[Guest 6948803]

Isn't Zoom superior in actual visual connection? I always use Zoom for my games, but looking at each other is my group no1 concern (also, screen sharing and whiteboard come handy, as we don't use any kind of vtt). My kids, play with friends through Discord, but they play voice only. So, is Discord any good for visual?

 

[darjr]

Momentum and the companies attitude. Also they are game focused already and support many power users with api's and tools. Avrae being a huge draw for me.

 

[BookTenTiger]

I run a game using Roll20 and Zoom, and play in a game using Foundry and Discord.

Honestly, I think it's best to use what you are most familiar with. I teach over Zoom all day so I am familiar with it.

For the Roll20/Zoom game, we use Zoom for seeing each other, and the chat feature in Roll20 for extra chat (between character chatter, funny quips, interruptions, etc.)

For the Foundry/Discord game, Foundry is only used for running the game, both main discussion and side chat happens over Discord.

 

[Imaculata]

My group was already using Discord for playing videogames, so it made sense to keep using it for D&D. Also, roll20's audio is an unreliable mess.

 

[Morrus]

Roll20 and Zoom for us. Roll20 has all the game-specific features and character sheets and buttons to press, while Zoom is the go-to video meeting tool. I didn't know Discord could even do video?

 

[Retreater]

Zoom at least was a paid, premium service. (Is it temporarily free?) My experience has been that it also requires a host to get on to start the video, whereas my group can get together on Discord if I'm running late. Plus it can handle chat on the same service.
I have a group on Zoom but most of my groups use Discord. Neither is a deal breaker for me though.

 

[SirMoogle]

Roll20 and Zoom for us. Roll20 has all the game-specific features and character sheets and buttons to press, while Zoom is the go-to video meeting tool. I didn't know Discord could even do video?

Discord's been able to do video for a long time now; just click on the "Video" button in the lower-left corner of the interface while connected to a voice channel.

In terms of video quality, I haven't really noticed any significant differences between the two.

 

[billd91]

In my experience, Zoom is more stable with connections once dealing with audio/video. So is google meet. But it's nice to be able to set up a Discord server that persists and anyone can jump on at any time for text communications between sessions.