Developers: Please add different chat channels to connect major cities!

[Fullmetal]

1) It would be extremely helpful ( for obvious reasons ) to have a chat channel that ran through all the major cities. Perhaps this would even encourage people from leaving Ul'dah once in a while...
2) A trade/crafting/repairs channel would also be nice and useful
3) A looking for group/leve link/linkshell channel would also be very good. You know, somewhere to socialize and get together with people outside our LS network.
4) Perhaps also a global channel that can be seen throughout all the zones

The lack of some kind of far reaching channel, whether it even just be connecting all cities, makes it even harder for us as a community to come together and do stuff. There are so many barriers to overcome as a player trying to enjoy his or her time in Eorzea, why add more barriers by making communication so limited and difficult? A HUGELY important factor in MMOs is the ability to socialize and connect with other players. Developers have not done nearly enough in this regard and this, imo, should be a top priority. And while you are at it, add a good quality party/group search feature. Social aspects of this game have been so neglected while you Devs try to sort out the technical mess you are in, but the social improvements suggested here will help the player base create their own fun while you guys sort out your own problems.
If your concerns are that these features can be exploited for gilsellers etc - lets just be realistic - I can assure you that such a problem would be a honor and luxury for you to have. The population is rather small and I doubt any goldsellers will be trying to turn a profit in this game at the current time. Perhaps that is a problem you should worry about when the time arises and not let it interfere with things that could otherwise make this a more enjoyable game right now.
Thanks for your time.

[Rukkirii]

Being able to communicate with players outside of the zone you are in is a critical aspect of adventuring, and we are working to implement this in the future.

[Betelgeuzah]

All caps-lock thread titles=higher chance of rep reply?

Thanks for the heads-up, Rukkirii! Time to get on to it.

[Rukkirii]

All caps-lock thread titles=higher chance of rep reply?

Thanks for the heads-up, Rukkirii! Time to get on to it.

Too quick for me Mr. Patrick I fixed it.

And no, we frown upon using caps lock for titles and throughout the post. Thanks for your concern though! ^_^

[Greed]

if we can communicate with all city than we no longer need to stay in one city( Ul...dah!) just to /sh for something

[Elgorian]

I like the idea of chat between cities just so people can spread out to other places seeing shouts in Ul'dah for Girdania leves.... lawl, but a global chat is a bit much I think.

Not to contradict my above statement BUT

As much as I'd like to see some kind of city-linked chat. I think that having something like this would give birth to more trolls :X As useful as this feature is in WoW it can also become..... very ridiculous at times with all the BS you'll see people complaining about. Or the purpose of the channel will be off-topic completely.

Granted the majority of the WoW playerbase is rather immature to begin with. I -think- and would like to hope that the XIV playerbase is a bit more.... mature.

This in no means is attempting to put WoW down. I've played my share of WoW and just mentioning some things I noticed. Every MMO will have features you like or dislike. But I do think a city-link chat would be nice assuming that it can stay on topic and not just completely go to crap.

[Vawn]

I would like this as well. I hate having to hang out in a centralized place decided upon the majority of the playerbase, just so I don't miss shouts. In XI, I often used my friend's character and an extra TV just to have someone standing in Whitegate, so I don't miss shouts.

[Fullmetal]

Its probably safe to assume there will be an option to /leave a chat channel should you choose to do so. Even trolls have their use in the form of entertainment. Additionally, anything would be better than the mostly awkward silence of the single shout channel that people use only in Uldah.

While I appreciate a response from a rep, it is a fairly useless response as the community is looking for something more specific, e.g. patch 1.21 or within a few months. It would be fairly safe to assume such a feature would be implemented eventually *some time* in the future as it is a fairly standard feature of any MMO worth its weight. By the same token, I can tell you that the earth will cease to exist one day in the future, however I cant tell you exactly when. However, I can tell you it will be within the next 5 billion years. How about some sort of specific time frame for when this feature will happen? Thanks for your time.

[Reika]

NOOOOO! Not the trade channel!

It would be good if there were joinable/creatable chat channels rather than having to join multiple linkshells.

[Kiote]

Not trying to troll your thread, but I hate when a game has 10 different chat channels spewing through my log. Yes I know I can turn them off, but then there is a bunch of information i'm not getting.

I hope if they implement this they put some serious restrictions on it so it does not simply become an annoyance rather than a convenience.