Some type of regional chat would be greatly appreciated.

I actually ended up quitting the first time I picked up FFXIV 'cause of the lack of any method of communication outside of being in a linkshell. Granted, at the time I didn't really know anything about the game either, so I ended up just solo crafting for a month, then dropped the game. Hell, I remember at one point in time shouting in the middle of the city "WHY ISN'T ANYONE TALKING?" and was met with silence. Of course, I guess it didn't help that I started in Gridania, which isn't the mostly lively city to begin with.

I'm a lot happier now that I've found a linkshell, but the lack of a region wide chat of some sort is still disturbing, especially seeing how common place it is in MMOs. It's a lot harder than it needs to be to meet up with new people. Only time I really interact with people outside of my linkshell is during behests when everyone is mostly forced to party, but even those tend to be quiet endeavors, as most people just want to quickly finish the behest, then go back to whatever they were doing.