a casual invite to group function with a group chat, his reply was that this is not something that will feature.
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MASSIVE amounts of fun content and inclusivity that would occur with the ability to form a casual group by invite, will now not occur.
Features of Formed Casual Groups?
VOIP: Group-ONLY chats with VOIP (plus text, which isn't useful at all times) are possible through Discord and any other VOIP-capable client for gaming comms that individuals can trust others (and themselves) enough to use.
- @Henrik Nyström is consistent so far in not adding that kind of group-only VOIP function to the game client (as far as I know). I'd have to ask him, review all his Twitch streams and Discord answers, or ask @Spexnat if more has ever been said or written about that to be sure.
TEXT: Guilds (with their need of tools for Territory Control) had, and I think still have text channels in the game? And that was possibly a giant concesson to the general principle of not having a "World Chat". As was the Schola Pipio / HELP Chat, not destined to be permanent for the players in them-- even temporarily, they've been known to attract, have, and cause problems, partly because they are or were a "World Chat".
Yells (which attract attention and ruin stealth) are freely avaiable.
Local 'aloud' speech has range limits, but works if you're close.
Whispers could travel across the world, but only between two, one at a time. And you might have to be a 'friend' of the other communicant.
- Don't wonder if I miss the complicated text channel chat systems in EQ, WoW, and Shadowbane; be assured I do. Not really enough to ask for them here, though, where they'd be on top of guild chat, and multiple simultaneous VOIP channels. (And IRC, in the first years of MO.)
What Else?:
Loot: sharing is up to trust, both in and out of guilds. If it's not your loot, according to the game client (which favours guild brothers looting each other), there might be negative consequences for picking it up. If it's not your loot according to another player, there's PvP etc.
Credit: There is no 'pool of Experience' to share. The credit for kills that counted toward titles went to the person who had done the most damage -OR- the one who delivered the last blow, and I don't recall which.
Faction: How it works in MO2 is pretty much a mystery to me, unless it is exactly as it was in MO1, where the system seemed to languish in disuse.
I can't think of a follow-up to being invited to join a group (through a game function) that would accomplish something under these constranints, except
maybe giving access to a text chat that might be limited by distance, if that could be made to work. But maybe that's enough for the benefits you mentioned.
-- So I've tried to think this through keeping in mind what's essential, or useful, or popular.
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PS: Mumble VOIP is better than Discord, (and-- for text relay-- so is IRC) but no-one uses Mumble anymore. The best that few use
< what's popular. Any VOIP for a coördinated group is better outside of a game; in-game VOIP crashes when the game does. Indempendent clients mostly don't unless your computer does.