As many of you know, WGT has been making a push to transition to Discord. I, like others, have resisted this. I was not real familiar with discord and believe the threads are/were a better form of communication.
As I am not big on "live" voice chat and have always used PM (private messaging) via wgt profile pages to communicate with friends, I saw no reason to even dip my toes in discord, although I have friends that have, for a long time, insisted I use discord, even before WGT set up its server. My position has always been that Discord is not for me. I know my younger brother uses discord all the time in his online gaming. When we lived in same household, I would always hear him yelling, laughing, etc..and he would never hear any of us calling him because he had headphones on and was "plugged in". I thought it was ridiculous, hence my feeling that discord is something I would never utilize.
Although I believe that the forum threads are the best way to discuss many things, and can create a fun environment, much more so than discord, I have to say, after using it for the past month or so, it is actually pretty good. As good as the threads, well, that is for you to decide.
Some of the reasons discord is not "all that":
1. Too many in general chat room that it is dificult to carry on a conversation or keep a constant thought with so many chatting over each other or deviating off topic. Ask a question, who knows what you will get back in reply;
2. Not too many specific "chat rooms" - so, for many things, have to post in the general chat area where everyone is chatting over each other and where "meme speak" is the first language. Now, I admit, thanks to PureGro, I am becoming somewhat fluent in meme speak, it is not my first language
3. At times, it has been said, it is more ;a chat room for one club, or another and people feel unwelcome to join in conversations; and
4. Try keeping up with the chat---The chat is displayed, live, and the page looks like a long chain email:
The above is not bad as it is only two of us, as no one else was active. However, when signing in, you may be 50 or 60 lines below when you were last on and it is a pain to scroll up and down to find things.
So, basically, my initial impression was Discord is big pain in butt and not for me.
Others feel Discord takes away the social aspect of the game.
Some of the reason discord is not that bad:
1. You can add friends on discord. As the departure of flash took away the ability to see if friends are busy or available for a game, discord provides for this. When I go on, I can immediately see which of my friends are signed in and simply send a message, directly to them, asking them if they want to play, or chat, etc.. They receive an audible signal letting them know someone is messaging them and can reply in "real time". If in a game and receive the notice that someone is trying to chat, I can reply, while in game, that I am playing, or "hey, I am on #6, be ready in 15 minutes", etc.. In a way, it is actually better than the old flash way of communicating;
2. Clubs can set up private servers, free, and members can freely communicate in real time. You can create threads within the club servers, similar to those in the forums, if you choose and the server "owner", usually the club owner, permits it;
3. For those who choose, you can speak to each other while playing, or simply while on discord.
In my personal opinion, there is a need for both discord and the forums.
The forums provide communication for the overall membership spread across various threads which are easy to follow and easy to catch up on, even if not signed in for a few days. It beats scrolling through a 100 memes to find what you are looking for.
The threads are a better way to find help, ask questions without being trolled (if solely relying upon WGT main server, and general chat room) and for all the other reasons people turn to the threads, and especially creates an avenue for creative expression and thought.
Discord is great way to speak directly with friends, find who is available, chat with others, while in game, that are not playing the game.
Although Nico, and other mods monitor the threads, and read and post, if you want a quick, or immediate, answer to a question, discord allows direct access to them, while they are online. A green dot next to someone's discord name tells you whether they are.
In our club server, we have a music bot. It accesses music from internet. All you have to do is type ".play" and name the artist of song. Sometimes, when we play, we load up the music bot and play while listening to tunes and chatting in game, or via discord.
When playing alt, I joke with my partner via discord so the other players cannot see what we are saying..LOL
Discord, like it or not, is here to say and is becoming a primary means of communication in this, and other games and social organizations. For those that feel the threads are the only, or best, means of finding, and keeping up with, friends, not true.
I am a strong believer that the threads serve a purpose and is part of what makes WGT unique and fun, but after all my resistance to discord, and feeling it is not for me, I was wrong. If you have not at least checked it out, you should. Then you can decide...
Discord or Discontent?
Finally, I am hoping that anyone who has questions, complaints, suggestions about discord, post in this thread and the moderators (Nico) can respond here to those replies.