Chat placement and movies make for unsocial play.

Really? It's not clear? Let me break it down:

I'm not suggesting that folks be forced to chat.

I'm suggesting that the DEFAULT placement of the chat window makes it harder to notice when someone is chatting with you. As an aside, this is precisely why folks are asking for chat bubbles.

This is a bad DEFAULT placement because your attention is usually not on the upper-left of the screen. When it is, you're probably sitting still and chatting. Good UI design dictates that the important things are placed where your eyes are looking at most of the time.

Having chat in the upper left as the DEFAULT makes it much less likely to be seen when you're playing the game. Simply because your attention is on the action. By the time you glance up to the chat window, all manner of important or interesting messages could be missed.

It is less my comprehension and more yours I would think . I re-quoted you again for emphasis

Comprehend that please

I sincerely thank you for the clarification. I didn't understand the motivation.

I can sympathize, but I'm not running into the same issue. Perhaps it is because of the times I play. Perhaps it is because I play a Healer/Medic. When I 'surface' and start looking for groups, the longest I have waited was 10 minutes. Some folks might think that 10 minutes is too long, but I use that time to grind and node harvest.

Now, I do things a little differently. I don't do 'Looking For Group'. I do 'Looking For Members'. Most of the time I just answer a general chat request though.

here's my reason that it should be defaulted to another location. have a look at my screenie and tell me I can see that chatbox just fine.

Screenshot

Yeah, that must be it. Messages like:

"LFG factory recall"
"Does anyone want to group up to do factory recall?"
"I'm looking for a factory recall group"

They are condescending. You're right!

I'm certainly happy to be condescending to incompetent readers that put words in my mouth. No problem there. But that's not what we're talking about, now is it?

Let me explain that to you.

You see, I was responding to the earlier comment that tried to dismiss the problem by saying I can move my chat window.

This problem has nothing to do with where I place my chat window. It has everything to do with the DEFAULT placement of the window.

The DEFAULT position is the problem. It makes no difference that I can move mine all around. The DEFAULT position is poorly chosen for using the window. That's all.

Does that make sense?

You are inferring a great deal from one UI feature based on your individual reaction. I have mostly noticed people can't manage to socialise in a lot of MMOs no matter what they do.

WoW - I have emoted, said hi in local, even spoken in area chat and some people are just utterly oblivious.

EVE - You're lucky if anyone opens chat.

GuildWars - There are better tools than just chat.

The list goes on. With respect, I think you are allowing your inherent biases around the UI & story-telling to infer more than is fair. However, I do agree that there are things that can be done to improve socialising. If people could actually read chat, that'd be a start. I mean read it as they type - if someone asks a question and directly below it an answer appears and two minutes later they ask the same question, brain has not yet been engaged.

I can manage to read the chat just fine.

You, sir, are exactly right. That chat window placement (among other elements) is just poor.

Your eye has to move all kinds of crazy to see what's happening.

I understand the desire for UI customization because of this. But, better still, the default UI should handle these scaling issues correctly.

Any UI that can turn into that mess is pretty unusable.

It is a problem for you. The earlier suggestion of moving that chat box as a fix, was correct. The placement is fine. Don't like it? Then move it. I like mine right where it is thanks. I have no problem getting groups. So maybe yours is just broken.

You might be right, but I don't feel that bias. I'm just sharing my theory on why I'm experiencing a stark lack of socialization in this game.

The fact that I'm experiencing a stark lack of socialization isn't really at issue. Many people are claiming this and many are not. It's clearly a perception thing.

I'm not one just to point out a symptom. I'm all for pointing out my thinking on the reason and looking for a solution.

I agree that managing chat isn't really a problem. If you're actively chatting, you just look at the chat window. The DEFAULT placement is poor, though. It's very likely that folks spend most of their attention on other things. Not because they don't want to chat, but because it's not easy to notice the chat.