Guild Wars 2

I find it nearly impossible to type text sentences while running, let alone while fighting. And when I stop to take the time to type, the others keep running and get out of range. Being in or out of a group wouldn’t change that. Plus, as others noted, in this game you are meant to look at the game world rather than the UI so chat scrolling won’t even register in your awareness if you’re doing anything other than chat. I don’t PuG dungeons, I go with guild groups — and even Mumble is only useful for quick bursts of communication, I can’t just randomly banter while fighting a boss. So for me personally, socialization wouldn’t be increased by forced grouping for benefits.

On the other hand, I get a ton of socializing in through guild RP, and if we’re chatting out loud then others will come up and join. Just yesterday I had a new alt chatting with a guildie in Kessex. Someone else joined the conversation because he needed to find a way into that cave skill point by Overlord’s Greatcamp. I in character led them to the entrance, we fought our way in, got the skill, and fought our way out with occasional IC commentary. Then scampered to the waypoint to hang out and RP more! A few days earlier I was near a hologram with a guildie. Someone else started emoting, we emoted back, and ended up with a long silly non-canon RP scene involving marriage, divorce, and an adopted Quaggan child named Puddle.

I’m lucky enough to be on Tarnished Coast, a highly sociable RP server. If you chat there in Map, you’ll get replies. But look at how these things happened: I and a friend RP’d, others noted us doing so and started chatting too. If you want social, -be- social.

edit: About auto-voice chat — fine, if it’s a robust system (WoW’s voice chat failed big time compared to dedicated programs like Vent and Mumble) and an optional one. My brain is either in reading mode or hearing mode, I can’t do both, so I turn off voice chat when RPing.