[quote]I see that Bungie has stubbornly refused to allow us to communicate with each other in The Tower, despite this being the most requested change in Beta. I really hope reviewers tKe Bungie to task for this. Why make a public area if no one can communicate there? May as well do like Warframe does and just give us all the vendor kiosks in our personal ships. Beyond that, game is fantastic.[/quote] I made a thread about making the D Pad more complex with a lot more uses for social aspects because of this. +1 on this thread. They do need to change this part of the game.

I have decided that I am just going to embrace the single-player nature of the game. As far as I am concerned, if you are not on my friends list, you are a bot. Judging by the way Bungie has made it such a headache to interact with anyone not on your friends list, this is obviously the way the game is meant to be played.

The lack of social abilities is Destiny's Achilles heel and could ruin the game in the long term. In the few hours I have played so far, I tried to invite 2 players I met out in the field, both ignored the invite (possibly because of the hassle of having to switch to PSN network screen etc. Why can't all that be done in game?) The only time I joined with anyone else was from a random invite by someone in the Tower, who then decided to take us to Venus (where I didn't want to go), where we had absolutely no chance as we were both only level 6. I don't want prox voice chat, that would be a nightmare. Most of the time the only communication I'd find necessary would be things like deciding what we're gonna do, requesting team-ups, and pointing out a few tactical plans. All of this could be done with a simple text-chat box, as seen in many other console games. At the moment, Destiny is more anti-social than social.

Last night it took about 20 minutes to get a friend [from my friends list, who is in my clan btw] into my fireteam. XboxOne party system NADA, Destiny fireteam system NADA. I end up calling him on the telephone and he has to restart his whole system before it magically allows him into my fireteam. Which results in me getting kicked back to orbit, OUT OF THE TOWER mind you our SOCIAL HUB. He should have been able to click on me, it sends me a "allow into fireteam?" and BOOM we are on our merry way. Im sorry didn't we address this vocally during the Beta? Bungie, i don't care about whether i get a bloody beard. Just let me talk to my friends and play your beautiful damn game, thanks.

As far as invites go, that CAN be done in-game via the [Roster] tab in the start menu, without the roundabout way of needing to use other interfaces. I do agree though that there could be some sort of messaging system in place; if nothing else, just go with Preset messages. Keeps things to the point, prevents slander and insults, and doesn't require needing a keyboard. I'd even go as far as suggesting presets akin to Playstation Home's presets; animation optional. They could even allow for simple Q&A responses, such as "Where did you get that weapon/armor?" and a player could respond with "Earth, Devil's Lair" or any other preset list of Planet missions or Planet locations. And if there really must be a bit more specific group searching, why not have some customizable presets that can be saved by player? Such as "Fireteam: [blank] only." where [blank] can sub in Males or Females, or sub in classes/subclasses such as Warlocks (Any, Sundancer, Voidwalker), Titans (Any, Striker, Defender), or Hunters (Any, Gunslinger, Bladedancer). Or "Fireteam: Need one [blank]." where [blank] can be any of the 3 classes or associated subclasses instead of just saying a default preset such as "Fireteam: Need 1 more". That way, some players who are really choosey can be specific enough while still keeping the discussion simple and straightforward, if that's what Bungie is aiming for. And if they have more things to add, such as requiring headsets or the location, they can just use another Preset sentence or two. Sure, it's not perfect, but it's far better than nothing, and one or two taps to say multiple presets isn't all that inconvenient.

I think they overestimate people "ruining" the game for others. Most people don't even wear Mic s half the time. Every online game ever has suffered from assholes and included ways to avoid and deal with it. The cons of what they are doing far out weigh the cons of running into a jerk every now and then.

Also I just wanna say, this issue doesnt stop at Public Chat. It is incredibly tedious and cumbersome to even get a random person(say, someone you see running around) into a Fireteam, to communicate. It requires: 1)Standing directly next to them. 2) You stopping everything, loading the PSN messaging interface and spending 15-30 seconds sending them a message through the PSN interface. 3)Them stopping everything, loading the PSN messaging interface and spending 15 seconds accepting the message. 4) Them being kicked back into Orbit, and the reloaded back into the game world at the beginning of whatever area you two are at. This is entirely to cumbersome. Now you see that Bungie has made it more difficult to be social than it should be. How it SHOULD be, is this: 1)You target the player, hit R3, click invite. 2)player gets popup on screen , hits R3 to accept or decline. 3)player instantly joins fireteam, and both players continue on. This should take all of 5 seconds, and should NOT involve going through two loading screens just to join a Fireteam with a guy standing RIGHT NEXT TO YOU. This entire communications issue is my ONLY real complaint about this game, tbh.

Want to know why? If you have played any MMO...or multiple MMO's you would understand that almost 90% of the public chat is bullshit, males trying to ask for FEMALE ONLY, and girls looking for other girls and guys trying to hit on them, then you have the retard spammers and insults and random shit that has 0% to do with the game...you might get a few % that actually ends up wanting to team up and shit... Note this is after a long period of time usually, when games first open it's always better but over time the chat system degrades heavily...every game has it. I am fine with it being out, don't care to chat anyways, i want to kill shit not have a cup of tea with some elf

Destiny Friend making tips -Point at them -They look at you -Bow/Wave to them -They return the favor -Dance -If they dance.. you have a friend

None of my friends bought a PS4 but I just assumed o well I'll just make some new friends, after all this is Bungie's big social game. Whoops I guess not. Seriously, wtf?!? I even bought a new headset, which I can't use. I, like may others, understand the decision by Bungie to not have a public chat or proximity chat in the tower to prevent an undesirable user experience. However, not having chat in the Crucible or in PvP is ludicrous. This is absolutely a mind boggling exclusion. How are we supposed to effectively play PvP or Strikes without a chat. PLEASE FIX THIS ISSUE BUNGIE ASAP !

It's pretty moronic that we can't communicate in the described social space

I agree as well! It was the first thing that came to my mind playing the beta. I created one of the thousand threads with the same name. I don't really care for arguments like "you can communicate with your friends" or "noo, there'll be trolls all over the place". ---> Just make it an option!? On/Off. I don't care for these arguments because I'm just referring to my personal gaming experience. And there was a huuuge lack of communication. It just doesn't feel like a shared experience in times with headsets and mikes... I really hope, Bungie will consider this, but I bet there's internal stuff that will prevent us from enjoying chat and voicechat...

Warframe has great communication and player hubs are coming in U15 and there can be 100 people in each hub. Clans can also set up little kiosks to recruit. Personally I think in about a years time Warframe will be better than Destiny.

Gotta love how people think that an in game text based chat system will devolved in to abuse and nonsense, I can only assume the everyone has a keyboard then? Having seen FF:ARR's ingame chat on and how long it takes to type anything on console, i really doubt people will spend a large quanity of time typing insults only to have it disappear quickly from view. Destiny needs social tools, Proximity chat, your instanced to 16 players, with mute and blacklist options, blacklisting someone means you don't get matchmade with them in the future. Regional text based chat to allow you to communicate with everyone in a public space, that includes outside of your instance. Friends and clan/guild/outfit (whatever you want to call it) text based chat (all ingame) to allow effective communication with your mates and to organise a activities.