The battle of online chat platforms used to be very close, with a wide
range of selections that friends all had to choose between before
getting started. Nowadays, the vast majority of gamers are centralized
on one platform, allowing that platform to keep them engaged with
constant small iterations and improvements.
Of course, that platform is Discord, an online group chat and voice call
app that seems like it’s always adding new bells and whistles.
Recently leaked, Discord is apparently working on a new function that will allow
viewers of a friend’s stream to ask them to “pass the controller”,
handing over direct control of the game being played to whoever has
requested it.
Couch Co-op Cross County
As magical as this system may sound, it actually isn’t all that
far-fetched, serving as a major selling point for the app Parsec, which
specializes in allowing players to connect to each other’s PCs, allowing
online play of typically local-only titles. Steam’s Steamplay system
functions similarly, though it requires players to provide their own
feed of the game.
Discord’s offering of the function could be a major game changer,
consolidating multiple functions into an already centralized app. The
issue of latency and ping will always exist, but the company is doing a
lot to earn back the users who were shaken by their recent collaboration
with Google
to open up channel messages directly to searches.
Aimed at opening up servers that exist to share info and house massive
communities, no real hiccups have occurred yet, even as users stay
vigilant. Discord has utilized all kinds of different minigames and
in-app connections to keep users centralized on the app itself, to a
fairly mixed effect.
The inclusion of the token shop and various quests to allow users to
obtain cosmetics and even Nitro time for free was a massive success,
allowing Discord to basically incentivize users to sit through various
ads and sponsored quests. Discord has made it clear they aim to turn the
app into more than just a chat venue.
Nowadays, the vast majority of gamers are centralized on one platform, allowing that platform to keep them engaged with constant small iterations and improvements.
This function has yet to be formally announced, and hasn’t had any kind
of estimated release date presented, but could seriously enable a lot of
older co-op games that don’t have modern releases or online multiplayer.
Alongside the huge amount of game preservation work that takes place
inside of Discord servers, this is potentially one of Discord’s most
impactful updates, for better or for worse.
The Fate of Feature Creep
The only issue that may creep up on Discord is the eternal hex of
feature creep, the mixtape where developers focus on implementing more
things instead of fixing and finalizing the things they have now.
Discord has really focused on adding more, with some
real dust
appearing on basic functions like voice calls. Latency has been
increasing, and it takes longer to join on average.
These issues are annoying, but nothing overly serious, at least for now.
The worry is always that functions like this, that allow players to
control input on other users’ machines, could be maliciously abused one
way or another, either through modifications or exploitable bugs.
This is the same type of worry that users had about the Google
initiative, and while nothing has come of it yet, users find it safer to
err on the side of caution. Discord’s history of data breaches is far
from spotless, and this kind of direct access could lead to real abuse
if not properly put together. The function is likely to roll out slowly
through some form of beta, but until official word is out, all we can do
is speculate.
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