Having the discourse happen in game is a good thing.
Except it won’t. It's 2025, not 1999. Back then, your options for real-time communication with other gamers were incredibly limited. If you wanted to coordinate, share information, or just chat, you were pretty much forced to do it inside the
game itself. The in-game chatbox was your "community hub".
But today? That dynamic is long gone. Now we have an overwhelming number of messaging and social platforms - Discord, Reddit, WhatsApp, Telegram, X (Twitter), Facebook groups, forums, subreddits, and countless others. Each of these platforms offers
far more functionality, flexibility, and reach than a basic MMO chat window ever could. Whether it's voice chat, pinned messages, file sharing, persistent channels, bots, scheduling tools, or integrations with other apps - modern platforms absolutely obliterate the MMO chatbox in terms of utility for organizing and communicating.
So no, the in-game chat isn't going to reclaim the central role it once held. The landscape has changed, and pretending otherwise is just wishful nostalgia.
Once again, people here keep romanticizing this mythical version of 1999/EQ/MMOs - as if time somehow froze in that era and all we have to do is faithfully recreate the
exact same systems and mechanics to magically transport ourselves back. But that's not how this works. The gaming landscape, the internet, and how people communicate have all evolved,
dramatically. Pandora's box has been opened, and there's no closing it. The habits, expectations, and tools of the modern player aren't going to be undone by forcing them into outdated frameworks and design decisions.
Instead of chasing some idealized, frozen moment in gaming history, it's far more realistic and productive to focus on adaptation. Learn from what worked back
then, yes, but build systems that acknowledge the reality of 2025. That's how you create something with lasting appeal, not by pretending you can rewind the clock.
