Best Voice Communication Software for Gaming?

[Mr. Analog]

Ventrillo? Skype? TeamSpeak? Anyone have any suggestions?

I find Skype to be a bit heavy while running games and I hear that Vent is fairly low profile.

[Melbosa]

Most of the Guilds or Clans I have been associated with use Vent, TeamSpeak or Mumble.  Vent costs money, the other two don't (i don't think).  Vent is the golden rule, the others are also popular.

I agree that Skype is heavier client, but it also adds video which a lot of these don't do well.

[Lazybones]

Can't we just use Steam as a game launcher now and use it's audio chat?

[Mr. Analog]

I had a problem before with it running Minecraft plus I think MMOs like GuildWars 2 and SW:TOR require their own launcher or can't be launched from Steam?

[Melbosa]

MMOs typically do not use the steam launcher, but you are right you may be able to get it to do that... never tried.

[Thorin]

... what if we don't have / want Steam Launcher installed?

[Lazybones]

... what if we don't have / want Steam Launcher installed?

Then I guess you need to have another 3rd party Voip tool installed... It was just a suggestion since so many of us have Steam and it has probably the lowest bandwidth audio codec of them all.