Why Mumble?

Maybe you can stop asking about our client once you've scanned this.

Many come to the conclusion that VoIP client usage is down to personal preference. Yup. True that. Each client has its own benefits and drawbacks, usually at the cost of something else. I tend to liken Mumble to VoIP as Firefox is to web-browsing; open-source, customisable, and constantly in development.

Here are of some of Mumble's features:

~Customisability: You can Skin Mumble. You can add an avatar. A comment (status thing) for other info. The in-game overlay is one of the most customisable available.

~Low-Latency: One of Mumble's largest perks. Latency is basically to do with data transfer; the lower the latency, the quicker data is received from a sender.

~Rich Content:Via Mumble, you are not just able to send messages across channels and to different users, you can change colours and embed images as well.

~Channel Control:Temporary Channels. Linked Channels. Specialised channels for teams. Brilliant when you need people to shut up but hear team leaders, and they can still talk in their own channel.

~Auto-normalisation: No more bleeding ears! You don't fiddle with settings for individual users; if someone is too loud, usually everyone finds them too loud. Once they fix it their end, it's solved.

~Positional Audio: Hear someone relative to their in-game position. Ooooo.

~Access Control Lists: With the way Mumble works, a complex system of admin rights can be allotted to players, and channel changes made - all from within the client itself.

Here are some links and forum threads for your perusal:
Mumble Comparison Chart
Ventrilo vs. Mumble
Why don't more people use Mumble? - I put this link here not so much as being helpful, but because gamers just crack me up sometimes... =P

The drawbacks of the client? It's not sooo easy so as to just log in and get going. You've got to take a few minutes to set up. Players can be lazy bums (Guilty, here). But seriously? A bit of time for awesome functionality? Great trade. Of course, it's a different matter if you don't care about using these features.

Looking at the potential this client has, of which future developments allegedly wish to include features such as video feeds, Ventrilo and TS3 are still bit behind - Ventrilo even more so. They're all still decent clients though.

Keep your preferences. That's not what this is about. This post is saying to have an open mind and try the client out. Because it IS still awesome. Voice quality is comparable across Mumble, Vent and TS3 if you know your codecs. Latency and many other things are not, however. So give it a try! Or not.

Hope this has clarified why this alliance sticks to this client!

- Tabs