XFire

[drath]

XFire is a freeware gaming-style instant messaging client. Its uses include a server browser for over 900 games, instant text and voice messaging while you are playing in a game. One of the best features I find about XFire is also the ability to take screenshots of any game and it will automatically upload those screen captures to your online profile (once you confirm the screenshots). It also keeps a record of how many hours you have played each game. You can also choose to show your favorite servers, and even your computer stats in your profile.

Once you have friends you can dynamically see which game they are playing and even automatically join them in the server they are currently playing in.

There is many other features I am not mentioning, but one final thing I should mention is the ability to customize your own signature using which game you played the most and your most played game of the last 7 days. Like so:

[img:5ef7248058]http://miniprofile.xfire.com/bg/sh/type/0/drathax.png[/img:5ef7248058]

If any LLP member doesn't have me in their friends yet my username is "drathax".
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[martinz]

what's the advantage of xfire over msn ?

[LP-SolidRaven]

martinz, that's a stupid question...

• MSN is a huge memory hog, 40 mb with no chat windows open. Xfire uses 16mb (with several conversations open)
  
• Xfire has support for in game chat (in other words, no alt + tab anymore)
  
• Xfire does not have useless stuff you don't need (like winks)
  
• it automatically downloads game updates for you
  
• so much more...
  

Also, if you know what you're doing you can make something like:
[img:503f15250b]http://xbox360.com.ru/xfsig/index.jpeg[/img:503f15250b]
(that's my own xfire signature )
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[Desbrina]

It tracks what games you play and how long you've played them, but only if their supported, but theres many supported games
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Midnight Tempest - A Sailor Moon TCG
Balanced Force - A Star Wars TCG
Caretaker - A Star Trek Voyager TCG
My Stories

[LP-SolidRaven]

There is custom game support, you just have to modify some files.
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[agus]

The thing is that I'm trying not to be on the computer for a lot of time, and when I'm in front of it, I prefer chatting with all my friends (most of them use MSN) instead of just with the ones that have xFire...

Anyways, the idea they had is nice, if you do play many hours a day you probably find alt-tabbing to msn extremely boring. =P

[LP-SolidRaven]

MSN is bloated with stuff you never need.
I still prefer an irc client over anything else though.
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[krt]

So what! As an advocate of open source and customisable software, I realise that not everything is going to cooperate with this idealistic view. So what if MSN has some stupid winks and nudges, or some other features that you do not use. The point is, if you want them, they are there

And don't call martinz's question stupid, that was definitely not called for, it is easy to know the answer and ridicule people for not knowing it after having used the software yourself or looked up some info about it. Besides, XFire is not as good as you make it out to be. And while I use Trillian now, I never remember MSN nearing 40MB unless something drastic happened recently. Games are not that memory intensive anyways so it's not something to fret about.

[drath]

In terms of open-source, XFire also has that under control. Through the XFire team releasing an SDK, some people have made their own applications using the XFire libraries and protocols. Some of the most popular client include:

OpenFire
http://www.azdev.co.uk/ - Seems to be broken at this point, but this is an open source client using Java.

xfirelib
http://xfirelib.sphene.net/ - Open source client written in C++.

Another thing I found extremely useful for some people here is the Trillian Plugin. It allows Trillian to use XFire as a chatting medium.
http://www.trillian-messenger.net/en/plugin/xfire
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