It was mostly Teamspeak, Ventrello, and Skype before discord took over. And the first reason Discord took over was that paying for a TS or Vent server was becoming a bit unviable, partly because the people who were paying for it was also paying for a server to host a forum, and a domain name for said forum, and all that together was pretty expensive, and partly because the shadows of the 08 recession was (and I’d argue still is) still being felt. Another reason was that Skype was shitting the bed so much that when Discord came around it did everything Skype was doing and more, and doing it significantly better than Skype.
Also the barrier to entry is significantly lower than your average traditional forum, and TS/Vent server that was most likely ran by like one guy, and if he went the whole community came crashing down.
Hell if you really want to get into it, Skype did everything every little instant messager did better, and more when it came about.
It was mostly Teamspeak, Ventrello, and Skype before discord took over. And the first reason Discord took over was that paying for a TS or Vent server was becoming a bit unviable, partly because the people who were paying for it was also paying for a server to host a forum, and a domain name for said forum, and all that together was pretty expensive, and partly because the shadows of the 08 recession was (and I’d argue still is) still being felt. Another reason was that Skype was shitting the bed so much that when Discord came around it did everything Skype was doing and more, and doing it significantly better than Skype.
Also the barrier to entry is significantly lower than your average traditional forum, and TS/Vent server that was most likely ran by like one guy, and if he went the whole community came crashing down.
Hell if you really want to get into it, Skype did everything every little instant messager did better, and more when it came about.