18.4.13 Would you consider a chat system that was more realistic and allowed one to communicate only with those who are near you (in other words, no chat global chat such as /tells)?

While immersion, graphics, music, etc. are all very important to a game, gameplay is the most important. And then when you come to MMOGs, building community is also paramount.

To that end, while I'm against things like global Bazaars and other mechanisms that make region and location irrelevant, I do think you need basic communication commands like /tell.

It does need to be limited... creating a chat system with a ton of channels that you can link together again ruins the value of location in a virtual world. And one could argue that technically /tell does as well... but the reality is that whatever minor damage is done is more than paid for by the pro-community building advantages of global /tells.

On a tiny tangent, I think game mechanics that support bringing friends and groups together are really key... the trick is, again, to implement that in a way that doesn't 'shrink' the world.

We have some pretty good ideas in that regard, but more on that later.

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