As a former player, I cannot stress how important an ingame chat feature is. Ever since LoU closed down, I have desperately been searching for a replacement. I've tried them all, including TW and now in the TW2 beta. Many games out there stink, others have good mechanics. Others are also top tier with great game-play, little P2W bias, good graphics, etc. So far, I feel TW2 indeed does fall into that category. However, no matter how many games I try, almost all of them lack the one thing that I have discovered that keeps me playing...
The social element!
Most empire building games similar to TW2 and LoU have no chat function at all, or one that is so basic that it is practically useless (I'm looking at you Grepolis!) Don't get me wrong, TW2 looks GREAT so far. I haven't been able to put in as much time as I'd like at the moment due to RL being ramped up recently, but I really like what I've seen so far. Yet, no matter how engaging the gameplay and graphics are, I find myself bored. And the reason is, there is really no one to talk to or collaborate with in game.
Now I know a lot of groups in this game and Grepolis alike usually set up a Skype room or something similar to chat within their guild, which is fine. However, it's really not engaging enough. In LoU, there was something to be said to be able to chat within your guild, have a separate officer chat, and being also able to whisper your neighbor or just hang out in global-chat. Within chat, and eventually throughout the game as people played on different worlds, your reputation, friends and enemies followed with you. Although someone might not be in your guild, you could communicate with them in realtime through whipsers or in global chat. If it was an enemy, you could talk a little trash to them if you want... friendly or otherwise. It gave you something engaging to do while you waited on timers to tick down for attacks, builds, whatever.
Had you asked me prior to LoU closing shop, I would have told you definitively that the chat function was just a mere backdrop to the awesomeness that LoU was as a game. However, having searched high and low to find a replacement, I can say it is indeed the other way around. For me at least. No matter how brilliant the graphics and gameplay are, if a game like this doesn't have an option to communicate with guild, officers, neighbors and the world in realtime, I'm probably not going to play it.
While this is a strong suggestion to an otherwise great game, allow me to take just a bit of a low road and admonish TW2 for not having this already. Ahem.... Come on guys, this is 2014. Robust chat functionality in a game like this should be ubiquitous, not a bleeding edge concept. The fact that TW2 are revolutionizing this game genre, yet NOT including by default such a common element just baffles me. Do yourself a favor. Close this gap. Give your playerbase an outstanding game that is fully tied together with an awesome, usable social engagement as well such as a solid chat system. I can almost guarantee you that there are MANY would-be players out there that would consider the lack of this feature a show-stopper.
/end rant
