in dreamcast's phantasy star online, at the social spaceship hub, you could type messages that other players could see - the messages would appear as speech bubbles above your character - I'm amazed at how polite everyone was, I just can't imagine that now! :D but still, it's a neat idea, though I can't imagine that happening in a game like destiny now that voice chat is so ubiquitous, However, typing messages does have some advantages over talking "hello, I'm vax orbon from the star fields of orion, nice to meet you" - you just couldn't get away with saying that in voice chat.....unless you really were vax orbon from the star fields of orion! :D