Discord
 | |
| Developer(s) | Discord Inc. |
|---|---|
| Initial release | March 6, 2015 |
| Stable release | 5.3.17
/ May 3, 2017 |
| Engine |
|
| Operating system | Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS |
| Type | VoIP communications, instant messaging and social media |
| License | Proprietary freeware |
| Website | discordapp |
Discord is a proprietary freeware VoIP application designed for gaming communities. Discord runs on Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, Linux, and in a web browser. As of May 2017, Discord has over 45 million users.[1]
History
The concept of Discord came from Jason Citron, who had founded OpenFeint, a social gaming platform for mobile games. He eventually sold OpenFeint to GREE for $104 million in 2011,[2] which he used to found Hammer & Chisel, a game development studio, 2012.[3] Their original product was Fates Forever released in 2014, which Citron anticipated to be the first MOBA game on mobile platforms. While Fates Forever was not commercially successful due to low popularity, Citron noted the difficulties that his team had in building the game when trying to play other representative games like Final Fantasy XIV and League of Legends to work out gameplay concepts, specifically highlighting issues of current Voice over IP options that were available: some VoIP options required players to share various IP addresses just to connect, while other services like Skype or TeamSpeak were resource-heavy and had known security issues. This led the developers towards developing a chat service that was much friendlier to use based on more modern technology.[4]
To develop Discord, Hammer & Chisel gained additional funding from YouWeb's 9+ incubator, who had also funded the startup of Hammer & Chisel, and from Benchmark capital and Tencent.[5][6]
The public release of Discord was in May 2015.[7] According to Citron, the only area that they pushed Discord into was for the Reddit communities, finding that many subreddit forums were replacing IRC servers with Discord ones.[8] Discord became popular through eSports and LAN tournament gamers and through other Twitch.tv streamers.[9]
The company raised an additional $20 million USD in funding for the software in January 2016.[10] On August 10 2017, Discord publicly announced the release of the "Video Calling and Screenshare" functionality.[11]
Software
The Discord client is built on the Electron framework using web technologies,[12] which allows it to be multi-platform and run on personal computers, mobile devices and the web. The software is supported by nine data centers scattered around the world to keep latency with clients low.[13] All versions of the client support the same feature set. The Discord application for personal computers is specifically designed for use while gaming, as it includes features such as low-latency, free voice chat servers for users and a dedicated server infrastructure. Discord's developers plan to add video calling and screen sharing.[7] Direct calling was added in an update on July 28, 2016, with support for calls between two or more users. The company introduced its GameBridge API in December 2016 that allows game developers to directly support integration with Discord within games.[14] The Git repository documentation for the Discord API is hosted on GitHub.
While the software itself comes at no cost, the developers investigated ways to monetize it, with potential options including paid customization options such as emoji or stickers.[5] In January 2017, the first paid features were released with 'Discord Nitro'. For a monthly subscription fee users can get an animated avatar, use custom emojis across all servers, an increased maximum file size on file uploads (from 8 MB to 50 MB), and a unique profile badge.[15] The developers have claimed that while they will look for ways to monetize the software, it will never lose its core features.[16] Discord uses the Opus audio format, which is low-latency and designed to compress speech.[16]
Reception
By January 2016, Hammer & Chisel claimed that Discord had been used by 3 million people, with growth of 1 million per month, reaching 11 million users in July that year.[10][17] As of December 2016, the company reports it had 25 million users worldwide.[14] In May that year, one year after the software's release, Tom Marks, writing for PC Gamer, described Discord as the best VoIP service available.[7] Lifehacker has praised Discord's interface, ease of use and platform compatibility.[18]
Criticism
Discord has had problems with hostile behaviour and abuse within chats, with some communities of chat servers being 'raided' by other communities. This includes flooding with controversial topics related to race, religion, politics and pornography.[19]
Discord gained popularity with alt-right and far-right political groups due to the client's features supporting anonymity and privacy. Analyst Keegan Hankes from the Southern Poverty Law Center said "It's pretty unavoidable to be a leader in this [alt-right] movement without participating in Discord".[20][21] The Discord staff were aware of these activities and had taken steps to remove servers that violated their terms of service prior to August 2017, but typically appeared to only have taken action in the most extreme cases where they could affirm illegal activity had occurred.[22][23]
Following the violent events that occurred during the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia on August 12, 2017, which led to one death and several injured due to clashes between white nationalist groups and counter-protestors, it was found that Discord had been used to plan and organize the white nationalist rally and during the event, including participation by high-level figures in the movement Richard Spencer and Andrew Anglin.[20] Having already been in internal discussions of how to deal with the rising use of Discord by such groups, Discord executed moves to eliminate servers that supported the alt-right and far-right in the wake of the Charlottesville events and ban users that participated in those.[24] Discord's executives condemned "white supremacy" and "neo-Nazism", and saying that these groups "are not welcome on Discord".[20]
See also
References
- ^ Francis, Bryant (May 19, 2017). "There's now 45 million people gabbing about games on Discord". GAMASUTRA. UBM plc. Retrieved May 21, 2017.
- ^ Rao, Leena (April 21, 2011). "Japanese Company GREE Buys Mobile Social Gaming Platform OpenFeint For $104 Million In Cash". TechCrunch. Retrieved June 21, 2017.
- ^ Takahashi, Dean (February 10, 2015). "Fates Forever mobile game maker Hammer & Chisel raises funding from Benchmark and Tencent". VentureBeat. Retrieved May 1, 2016.
- ^ Lazarides, Tasos (September 14, 2015). "Ex-'Fates Forever' Developers Making 'Discord', a Voice Comm App For Multiplayer Mobile Games". TouchArcade. Retrieved May 1, 2016.
- ^ a b Takahashi, Dean (September 10, 2015). "Hammer & Chisel pivots to voice comm app for multiplayer mobile games". VentureBeat. Retrieved May 1, 2016.
- ^ Takahashi, Dean (February 10, 2015). "Fates Forever mobile game maker Hammer & Chisel raises funding from Benchmark and Tencent". VentureBeat. Retrieved May 1, 2016.
- ^ a b c Marks, Tom (May 14, 2016). "One year after its launch, Discord is the best VoIP service available". PC Gamer. Future plc. Retrieved May 14, 2016.
- ^ Winkie, Luke (June 21, 2017). "Inside Discord, the Chat App That's Changing How Gamers Communicate". Glixel. Retrieved June 21, 2017.
- ^ Brightman, James (January 26, 2016). "Jason Citron lands $20m for Discord". gamesindustry.biz. Gamer Network Ltd. Retrieved July 10, 2016.
- ^ a b Walker, Alex (January 27, 2016). "The Latest App For Third-Party Voice Chat Just Raised Almost US$20 Million". Kotaku Australia. UCI. Retrieved May 1, 2016.
- ^ "We're testing Video Chat and Screen Share with 5% of players, today". August 10, 2017. Retrieved August 12, 2017.
- ^ "Apps Built on Electron". electron.atom.io. February 3, 2016. Retrieved May 8, 2017.
- ^ Takahashi, Dean (May 21, 2017). "Discord's voice communications app for gamers quadruples to 45 million users". Venture Beat. Retrieved June 21, 2017.
- ^ a b Kerr, Chris (December 8, 2016). "Booming game chat app Discord intros in-game text, voice integration". GAMASUTRA. UBM plc. Retrieved December 8, 2016.
- ^ Nelly (January 23, 2017). "Boost Your Account and Support Us With Discord Nitro". Discord Blog. Retrieved January 26, 2017.
- ^ a b "See How Discord Stacks Up". discordapp.com. Retrieved May 26, 2017.
- ^ Francis, Bryant (July 8, 2016). "Game chat app Discord crosses 11 million registered users". GAMASUTRA. UBM plc. Retrieved July 10, 2016.
- ^ Ravenscraft, Eric (August 17, 2016). "Discord Is The Voice Chat App I've Always Wanted". Lifehacker. UCI. Retrieved April 22, 2017.
- ^ Menegus, Bryan (February 6, 2017). "How a Video Game Chat Client Became the Web's New Cesspool of Abuse". Gizmodo. Gawker Media. Retrieved February 7, 2017.
- ^ a b c Roose, Kevin (August 15, 2017). "This Was the Alt-Right's Favorite Chat App. Then Came Charlottesville". The New York Times. Archived from the original on August 19, 2017. Retrieved August 20, 2017.
- ^ Barbaro, Michael (August 18, 2017). "'The Daily': The Alt-Right and the Internet". The New York Times. Archived from the original on August 19, 2017. Retrieved August 20, 2017.
- ^ Menegus, Bryan (February 6, 2017). "How a Video Game Chat Client Became the Web's New Cesspool of Abuse". Gizmodo. Retrieved August 20, 2017.
- ^ Bernstein, Joseph (January 23, 2017). "A Thriving Chat Startup Braces For The Alt-Right". BuzzFeed. Archived from the original on January 25, 2017. Retrieved August 20, 2017.
- ^ Newton, Casey (August 14, 2017). "Discord bans servers that promote Nazi ideology". The Verge. Archived from the original on August 18, 2017. Retrieved August 20, 2017.
