Is the game not meant to be social?

[Dr_Cheesesteak]

Interesting info. I was not aware the spammers/bots were that troublesome.

I can see a reason for needing some association with another player before being able to send them mail. After all, I don't really want my inbox full of RMT spam. But having your Friends list be the only association to count for that is overly restrictive. Let us send mail to Friends, FC-mates, and alts.

Also, I see no valid reason why we can't send a Friend request to a player while they're offline, or reply to one while the sender is offline.

qft.

But I'd like to touch on the bolded. It took me and my cousin over a week to coordinate a time where we could both be online simultaneously just to finally be Friends status. Quite ridiculous, imo.

Ouch. /10char

I wish they gave me gil for joining!

[FunkYeahDragons]

Some of the features are a little frustrating. Many FC groups will use third-party programs like Discord that allow offline messaging, voice chat, and other things the game itself doesn't support.