I do think that them touting the game as being social, then removing the main element in being social (being able to talk to others), was a bit foolish. I think having the ability to speak to others is kind of fundamental, especially in a "social" game. As it stands running across other people is no different to running across more boring versions of NPCs in other games. Removing voice chat because of a small portion of the community who get on to attempt to troll, or play their awful music full volume through a mic is stupid, thats what mute is for. By doing so they limit your ability to make friends to the forum or clan/group system, which you have to take yourself away from the game to use, so the sense of immersion is completely gone at that point. It also doesnt mean you are going to run into like minded people in the clan/group anyway and you have just invested a bunch of time away from the game for nothing. I'd much rather deal with a few idiots that i have to mute and have the option to talk to the people i wanted rather than be able to talk to nobody and be herded onto a forum/chat/clan for the purpose of doing the same thing. Also, just being able to speak to people in strikes etc means you could help randoms that join your matches if they arent as knowledgeable (eg. crit spots on strike bosses etc or make them aware of loot chests and things like that in the vicinity), and having the ability even just to talk about stupid little things to one another will make the game seem more lively, lets be honest, do you go out and ever just never speak a word to anyone you run into in public? All in all i think removing voice chat just distances the community from each other, which is foolish seeing as they tout it as the be all end all social MMO/FPS hybrid.