Help wanted navigating the social aspect of the game

Howdy! I'm just returning to the game and it's great, but I'm feeling pretty lonely again which is what led to me leaving before. I've created characters on different servers and see that there are players but the chat on each remains silent. I just feel as if I'm in the game alone despite seeing other players plainly.

Is this silence by design or do I need to activate some sort of setting somewhere? I've a vague understanding of Link Shells and Free Companies but it's far from comprehensive. Is all chat facilitated through these Link Shells? I've found it easier to meet people in other games I've played through some sort of general chat channel where guilds often post descriptive ads. I've browsed the Free Company section of the site but the offerings are hugely numerous and descriptions are brief - it's overwhelming and akin to searching for a needle in a stack of hay. Haha.

I'd really appreciate a bit of instruction. :o

Well to talk to people in the same map as you they usually talk in "Shout" or "Yell" so that everyone can hear it.
As for linkshells youd need to find a few recruiting usually you can find them in game if not reddit or the official website can help you with that.

My names Gavin Laville in game and im on behemoth, id recommend joining a small linkshell or FC instead of a huge one until youre ready to raid (if at all) cause bigger linkshells tend to have their newer members ignored imo

There is no global chat. Thankfully, from my perspective. There is zone chat which is shout (/shout or /sh). It isn't used much in the lower level areas but if you can get to Mor Dhona it is constantly in use.
The area based talking options are:

• /say - a small area around you
• /yell - a large area around you
• /shout - the entire zone

But mostly people talk in group specific channels. These are:

• /party - the adventuring party you are in
• /fc - the free company you are in
• /l1-8 - you can belong to up to 8 linkshells which are player created chat channels. You must be invited to one to join.

You can, as you have done, post here on the forums and ask for server specific groups.

Hey there and thanks for responding! I unfortunately don't know anything about reddit, but I'll double my efforts here on the website. How about servers? I've seen people use /say on Balmung, but only for a bit of RP and don't recall any sort of map wide chat. My current character's on Midgardsormr as it doesn't appear to suffer from queue times and I can create characters freely. Do I need to turn on "Shout" or "Yell" or is that on by default and it's just that people aren't talkative or recruiting?

Shouts cover the entire map.
People generally don't use Yell instead of Shout unless they're trying to get more attention with brighter text, or specifically trying to not bug the entire zone with it.

Shouts are in orange.
Yells are in yellow.
Say is in white, as you've seen.
(You can change the colors if you want through Character Configuration.)

As Sagittarian said, there's usually not much Shout chatter until you reach Mor Dhona, since that's a common place for various endgame matters. Outside of there, people are usually just quietly crafting or leveling and don't have much reason to stay long.

Ah, okay. I can understand why a global chat would be frowned upon as I've experienced it myself in other games, but unfortunately I think the absence might have some feeling alienated - myself at least! There's always bad with the good in anything. Haha. I suppose the way to go about it is to search outside of the game on the server specific forums and create a post asking for an invitation to a Link Shell of some sort? That sounds somewhat awkward, but that's the way of things. I reckon I have some contemplating to do. Thank you for your response!

The linkshells tend to be designed around a particular purpose - fishing talk, notorious monster hunts, friends hanging out, etc. There are some for new players though, so you can /shout around Gridania saying you are new and asking if anyone has an appropriate linkshell or just wants to show you the ropes. If they are actually helpful you can ask about their free company.

I looked at the Midgardsormr section of the forums and there are a few recruiting posts there for free companies. Those are really dependent on what you are looking for (raids, crafting, rp) but these look possible:
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...-Recruiting%21
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...orn-Recruiting
For free companies you can put in a request from their housing plot or by looking at the company information of a player.

You will also start meeting more people once you get up to level 15 and start getting access to dungeons. You are forced to group for those. The groups aren't always chatty but some are. Caveat: dungeon parties draw from multiple servers, so the other people may not be "local".

This information's really useful, thank you. I did not know of the ability to apply from housing plots. I'll concern myself less with Link Shells and focus on finding a FC for now. I appreciate those links to those FC that take my situation in the consideration too, they're helpful and it was a thoughtful gesture. I think that I understand everything better now and I'll apply what I've learned and see how my experience improves. Thanks again to those who took time to clarify for me.

When I first started noticed this aswell. I think its a result of duty finder grouping ppl across multiple servers that creates some of the disconnect. Coming from ffxi where you do everything from the exp grind from the start to cap (giving ppl the opportunity To socialize and what not) within your server you can take experiaence and knowledge of other ppls skill on. Their class into the endgame environment. Bcuz that interaction while partying up has laid the foundation. Whereas here usually that doesn't happen until you begin utilitlizing PF alongside finding the perfect fc group