The Weird Dead State that is Destiny 2’s In-game Communication

Like all modern games, Destiny 2 has an in-game chat function and in-game voice chat. The default settings are push-to-talk, but voice is enabled from the start, as is the chat feature. It’s just a feature that’s always there. After all, parts of Destiny 2 require communication and timing to complete. It’s not just mindless shooting. You need a chat feature, right?

In a normal game, of course!

In most games, even if you can’t use voice chat, some people will use text chat. If you have a hub area, some people may chat in it. To be fair, most of the time, these areas are normally used for selling, buying or trading. They’ll be filled with the same repeated phrases. When you’re in the middle of a game, a mission, a quest, there will also be people communicating. Or even just saying hello or asking for advice. Voice chat is less common, as not everyone is willing to talk to strangers. Voice chat tends to be more common in PvP when you need more instantaneous communication.

Heck, even in the most toxic of communities, you still see communication in-game. Even if it’s because the enemy Malphite is mocking your team’s Morgana for failing to land a single stun.

Some games however have minimal communication.

Take Warframe for example. Very few people chat in Warframe, in the middle of a mission. If you say hello though, you’ll probably get a hello back. Apex Legends on the other hand, being a Battle Royale, has a little less voice chat than you’d expect. But it covers its tracks by having an excellent ping system, so you can make call-outs as needed. That being said, you’ll still get people using voice chat in both games, simply because voice is quicker.

Destiny 2 has voice and text chat, but none of the communication.

So I’ve played Destiny 2 for about 70 hours now. In the entire time I’ve been playing, I’ve seen one person other than me use text chat. And that person was a friend, saying GG after a Crucible match and after a strike. I’m not just talking about chatting during missions and stuff though. The Tower, the main hub and safe zone area, is completely silent too.

And I haven’t heard ANY voice chat at all.

The weird fact is that no one in Destiny 2 uses Destiny 2 to communicate. So you end up with ghost towns, where the only conversation happening is generic words between NPC as you idle near them. Occasionally you’ll see stuff in the side bar from people using emotes, but that’s it. And because Destiny 2 has no trading at all, there’s not even a trade chat filled with the same few phrases over and over.

If you want to communicate in Destiny 2, get Discord.

That’s basically it. There’s no communication in the game at all. Despite the fact that there are many raids and missions that require vital communication. You’re expected to go to a third party channel to be able to get into an organized group. I don’t know why though, but this bothers me. Perhaps it bothers me a little too much. But it just seems so damn weird that a game with an otherwise rather comprehensive community shows none of that in game.

Inside Destiny 2 though, there’s nothing but silence. The community’s soul is basically non-existent in-game, despite being so varied outside the game. And that makes it very hard for an outsider like me to get in.