I have noticed, that it certainly is different making friends in this game than in FFXI. Chatting with randoms seldomly works, and even FC chats seem dead at times. Then I got on their voice chat that they have and became aware that it more lively and I have developed friendships.

Seems more and more guilds/FC are using voice chatting services in this day and age and that is how many people communicate. If only the game implemented this feature itself for at the very least dungeons it might not feel so lonely in the world.