Just wanted to share a BSW experience I had this weekend...
One of my old college friends (jimk) and I jumped on BSW for a few hours of games. I wanted to teach him Take 6.
Not that Take 6 is not a hard game, but like just about every game on BSW, typing out a quick version of the rules (or waiting for them to read it) for a newbie can be a pain. So, just for kicks, we fired up Yahoo! Messenger.
For those who don't know, Yahoo! Messenger allows two (or more computers) share not just text messages, but live audio and\or video chat as well if you wish (assuming you have either a mic or cam on your computer) free of charge. The question is: How well will this work while running the BSW client?
Jim, could not find his mic and we didn't see the point of running video without audio. So I just sent audio and video while running the BSW client. My computer had no problems or response time issues.
Jim's 3 year old laptop could not handle audio\video\BSW at the same time.
However, he had no problems handling audio and BSW.
This allowed me to tell Jim the rules and we were up and running very quickly. By keeping the connection open while playing, I was able to help him over the learning curve while playing the first game. Even though the talk in this case was one way, I must say it was a very positive experience. It allowed us to talk\text about details that would be harder with just a text chat.
My friends and I already plan to meet online for a game of Settlers while using 3 or 4 way audio. It should cut down the game time for trading goods.
For those out there with a mic or cam and know others with the same, you might want to give it a shot. Even if you are not explaining the rules, it really does make it a different experience to be able to directly talk to someone you are gaming with. Who knows, we might even get to
see each other from time to time. (If it's 1AM and I'm rocking my 1 year old back to sleep, I promise NOT to turn on my video link
) or likely the audio link either for that matter.
Also, in case you missed this in the tech\business news, Yahoo! and MSN is going to join forces in IM to try to fight AOL. So soon, if you have a MSN account, we should be able to cross providers.
My Yahoo tag is: pbwedz, if someone wants to give it a try sometime.
Autor
