Even more shorter and to the point, stop trolling one another. You're going no where but circles baiting one another. :)

Now, my opinion... I've been using IRC for nearly the past 10 years now *cue fanboy smack talk from crowd*. IRC has had its fair share of good and bad. Voice more recently in the past few years have been "up and coming" as per say. I can foresee IRC in the next decade having a major user base decline globally due to more user friendly methods and ways of communications out on the internet.

• Advantage's of IRC: multiple conversations, multiple private chats if needed, ability to scroll back to see what's been said, mass-user-notification/chatting. IRC is great for general chatting without having to talk. Much like this message board, you don't get to hear my voice!
• Advantage's of VOIP: instant notifications, no delay, can be recorded for later "reviewing/listening", perfect for games. In which it covers Vent, TeamSpeak(TS3 is nice btw), Skype and many other methods out there for this avenue.

I think that's a good summary of opinion. :)
 

 "Bctrainers" you have completely missed the point, much like that other guy. This isn't a case of "IRC vs Voice" its a case of "IRC vs EVERYTHING ELSE!"

My position is that if you have both a forum and a voice chat, IRC offers no additional benefits to justify its use.

Originally posted by bctrainers

Advantage's of IRC: (Plus Comments by Raltar)

multiple conversations, (I don't know about other voice chat methods, but Vent allows private conversations. Most forums also offer a means of sending private messages to other users. Forums also allow you to communicate with as many people as you like and they don't even need to be all online at the same time to do it.)

multiple private chats if needed, (Again, Vent can do this as well. I'm not aware of any limitations vent places on the number of private chats you may maintain at one time. Most forums allow you to send as many private messages as you like.)

ability to scroll back to see what's been said, (Once again, this is what a forum is for! I could scroll back to page one of this topic for example to see the post talking about the SGW IRC chat which started this debate. Or I could even scroll all the way back to the very beginning of this forum to see what the very first post was if I so desired. Thats even more than what IRC does. IRC only allows you to go back and see which parts of the chat you were logged in to see in the first place while a forum keep permanent track of every post made without you needing to do anything.)

mass-user-notification/chatting. (Vent servers have the ability for the server admin (and anyone else he grants this ability to) to broadcast messages which will be heard by every user on the serverno matter which room they may be in. Forums also allow admins to send out private messages and/or emails to every registered user unless they have opted not to receive such messages.)

IRC is great for general chatting without having to talk. (Much like this forum!)

Much like this message board, you don't get to hear my voice! (Didn't I just say that?)

 

Originally posted by Raltar

E: Free Speech.

Ah I see.  I know your type now.

You're the kind that likes to beat people over the head with your opinions, and when someone complains you claim "free speech". 

It's safe doing that from behind your monitor isn't it?  No need to be concerned about someone giving you what you deserve.  How's real life working out for you? (don't feel the need to tell me.  I don't actually care)

Not everyone shares your opinions.  So i'm going to step away from this idiocy and do something constructive.

I can see the user interface advantage of voice--you can chat while doing other things, like controlling a game through a keyboard.

However, I will not use voice myself (except perhaps to listen-only):

• I play my games in a room with others, who are not playing, and are usually watching TV. To use voice would be like being in a theater and chatting on my cell phone.
• Voice is dependent on good networking connections, and we all know how that can go south every now and then
• Voice requires constant attention. If you get up to get a snack, go to the bathroom, etc. you will miss everything. Even playing through something that requires concentration can make you not pay attention.
• Voice can be very difficult in multi-lingual environments (something we in the US can forget). Languages are even harder to understand if quality is poor unless one is fluent. And written language, when you can take the time to translate is a lot easier for those with a non-fluent skill. Also, there is the issue of accents, and even in the US this can be an issue between native speakers.

But likewise, I do not prefer IRC over forums. I don't really care to chat in real time. And this is why I have little interest in Twitter (except as an "announcement"/read-only mechanism), or the upcoming Google Wave. Email and forums work just fine for me.

Originally posted by Gaunt2005

Ah I see.  I know your type now.

You're the kind that likes to beat people over the head with your opinions, and when someone complains you claim "free speech". 

And I know YOUR type now (actually, for the last several of your posts). You don't ever want to hear that you might be doing something WRONG. So whenever someone starts to tell you something you don't want to hear you just hide behind "political correctness" and scream that the person doesn't have the right to tell you how to live your life. Much like that famous movie quote, you can't handle the truth.

If CME wasn't so incompetent, they could have a working chat portal right from their website.

Originally posted by ariccaron

If CME wasn't so incompetent, they could have a working chat portal right from their website.

* bc isn't complaining about that.

OT: What game is it, that has that... if i recall right,  Star Trek Online? :)