Chat Bubbles (nerd-rage...ENGAGED!)

[Tupsi]

The task would be done by the UI department. I can't remember anything urgent at the moment that the UI devs have to work on

They have much more urgent matters to work on than a bubble chat system. Every update that even alters or adds those little guide tips is done by the UI team - Every major update tend to add new boss elements, maybe even new elements to your menu (definitely for the new class/jobs) or in the case of 2.4, rogue/ninja stuff, that's part of the UI team as well, which is far more important.

They said during beta the main problem is rendering and that it's largely unnecessary and will focus on using it for NPCs.

"Meaningful" is subjective.

It is - However Coil is progression content, so you can't really say it's meaningless unless you can show me where else you get current ilvl cap gear?

The best part is that we already have them, for NPC's.

It's also highly entertaining that anyone would be against them from an immersion perspective. I would find it more immersive to just read the chat over someones head in the world than stare at a chat box.

NPCs aren't players - All they're doing is pulling up pre-scripted text in a bubble graphics every x amount of seconds/when a player is in a certain distance. That's a farcry from the constant chatter and much more rendering it'll take for hundreds of players. So it does exist for NPCs, and much easier to render since it's just pulling up dialog table entries on a set pattern.