Getting the most out of Skype while gaming
After a long day at work, many people can’t wait to get away from their computers, if only for a little while. I’m not like that though, I like to unwind in my spare time by gaming. Though my first gaming experience was on a NES at the tender age of 5, my one true love has always been PC gaming.
Whether I’m in a 2v2 arena match or a game of assault, communication is key to a good result. Today I’ll give you some tips on how to get the most out of Skype when talking to your gaming teammates.
Push to talk, release to sigh in frustration
While gaming, you want to be able to talk to your team but you might not want them to hear everything. You can set Skype to unmute your microphone as long as you hold down a hotkey, allowing you to explain your masterful strategy.
First you have to set the hotkey you want to use. To do this:
- In Skype, in the menu bar, go to Tools > Options. In the Options window select Advanced > Hotkeys
- Tick Enable keyboard shortcuts
- Tick Toggle mute (Push-to-talk)
- In the pop-up window, enter a key combination (For example tick Ctrl and enter S to assign Ctrl+S as a hotkey combination) then click OK and Save.
Now the hotkey is set, start a Skype call with your teammates. Once the call has started, click the mute button on the call bar so that your microphone is muted by default. Then when you press the hotkey you just set you will be unmuted while you hold the button down.
Make sure to mute yourself on the call before returning to your game
Once your hotkey is set, the call is going and you’re on mute, you can go back to your game and push the hotkey which you created whenever you want to say something to your team.
Gaming is srs bsns – Do Not Disturb
You might already be aware of the different status options available in Skype:
- Online
- Away
- Do Not Disturb
- Invisible
What you might not know, however, is that the ‘Do Not Disturb’ presence does more than just let your friends know you’re occupied. When you set your presence to ‘Do Not Disturb’ your friends will still be able to call and instant message you, but you won’t receive distracting sound notifications.
