This game is super quiet

[Lium]

If you ever go into Eureka, it’s absolutely fun and loud in there. It really brought a new picture of the community; I’ve had a blast just killing enemies, talking to folks, and hanging in there. It’s like it’s own game, really brought that spark of life I needed that ffxiv didn’t give during its normal romp through the world.

Plus party play is super addicting, it’s what makes an MMO communication / actually activily doing things with others, etc.

Yeah, the bold is exactly my point. This is an MMO and though I usually ignore any kind of global chat, it's nice to see it there. It's "background noise". Otherwise, I'll just go play Witcher 3 or something. FFXIV has a healthy population, but with no one chatting, the world feels lifeless.

[urban]

I start my game day with a hi and silent log out. Perfect day for me.

[Vhailor]

My FC is really small and I’m usually the only one on. So, I’m wondering are there any chat channels I don’t know about where people are actually chatting?

Besides Linkshells, I can't think of much. You'll still get varying levels of activity in any given LS, though, depending on where the update cycle is at. You should be able to find LS recruitment shouts in the major cities. I will say that, personally, I find it quite difficult to join a LS 'naturally' though. The game simply isn't social enough. I do very much hope the cross-world LS implementation fixes this, though with a 68-person cap (and only one LS slot per character), it'll probably be more of a novelty initially.

One other thing contributing to the relative quiet is the fact that many people play on gamepads. That makes typing an active decision rather than just something they weave into whatever it is they're currently doing, particularly if their keyboard isn't right at hand.

[Colino]

It's also worth noting we're in what would usually be classed as a "quiet" time which is the weeks leading up to a new patch.

[Miraiina]

It's also worth noting we're in what would usually be classed as a "quiet" time which is the weeks leading up to a new patch.

This. Once new patches drop there is usually an upswing in people chatting and doing the new content.

[LineageRazor]

FFXIV has no General Chat. That said, folks generally make their own substitutes. Mor Dhona and Idyllshire were notorious for this; I'm not sure that any of the Stormblood "hangout" zones compare. Novice Network, at least on Gilgamesh, has a healthy (some would say unhealthy) amount of chatter, but I hesitate to recommend becoming a Mentor unless you're actually willing to do some Mentoring. We have enough Mentors-in-name-only as it is. As was mentioned, Eureka has turned out to be a fantastic location for chitchat, as well

Of these, I'd say only Novice Network really qualifies as background noise you can take with you no matter where you go.

[Makeda]

Join linkshells, specially if they're about things you like, there are some Highlander only linkshells, etc Ask friends or people in FC to invite you to fun linkshells.

Finding out about linkshells is not easy though...

[RiyahArp]

Discord really changed the gaming landscape.

Old MMOs had a lot of chat because they were on dialup or very rarely isdn, and voice wasn't workable. Voice chat became more prevalent, but even then it was kind of limited since setting up stuff like teamspeak was a little harder than usual. But discord is free, easy to share a link to, and omnipresent, and it's really killing chat I think. Makes the game very silent.

[Lium]

Discord really changed the gaming landscape.

Old MMOs had a lot of chat because they were on dialup or very rarely isdn, and voice wasn't workable. Voice chat became more prevalent, but even then it was kind of limited since setting up stuff like teamspeak was a little harder than usual. But discord is free, easy to share a link to, and omnipresent, and it's really killing chat I think. Makes the game very silent.

Yeah, especially now with voice overlay. But the only way you can see Discord chat is if you have it up on your phone or tablet while you play. Or you play in windowed mode.

Either way, Discord seems to be where everyone's at. The Reddit Discord is quite lively. So is The Balance.