Quote Originally Posted by Ilitsa View Post
How exactly does seeing a bubble of text over your character's head make you feel a deep mental involvement? If anything they'd make it feel less involved and more like a cheap comic strip or something.
It's basically because the chat bubble is coming from you if you say something. The person talking to you when you're around them will be able to just look at your character and have a face to face chat, in a way. Having no visual cues when you're chatting and having to constantly look away from who you're talking to doesn't feel right to some people. I think for some people it's like talking directly in real life with each other but the 'voice' doesn't come out of their mouths and instead you have to check your tablet on your hands to read what they're saying back and forth repeatedly instead of looking at their faces.