and for some strange reason fireteams can only have three people unless you're in a raid-- I don't buy balance as a reason in general because you can have tons of people working on one objective in explore mode and you can have teams of six in competitive multiplayer.

You can have 6 in your fireteam in the Crucible and in the tower.

I was glad for its absence. I am sure that for every one time it provided me with useful information from a stranger, there would be ten times where I'd imagine I was playing Halo 2 online again.

No thanks :)

The inability to speak seemed strikingly out of place in a game designed to be as social as Destiny is.

Having the option to speak (or hear) doesn't mean you have to use it....

I'm getting more exasperated every time someone says they don't like a feature or don't use it and so they don't care if it's gone or they even like that it's gone (in Destiny and Halo, and I'm sure I'd feel the same way about other games if I got involved in their communities). Voice chat exemplifies it pretty well. It's fine if you don't like a feature or don't use it, that doesn't mean I shouldn't be able to, and me being able to use a feature doesn't mean you have to, choosing not to use it or turning it off would be very simple to do.
For the record, I can get behind preventing people from hearing randoms. I have difficulty getting behind requiring people to party up through their semi-external console party mechanism or to get in a very small in-game group to talk to each other.

So wait, what is this situation where you're with non-randoms where you're not in an in-game group?

I'm late but this wasn't answered and I'm all about clarity. The issue is that you can't hear anyone talk unless you join their party externally to the game or you specifically join their fireteam (or they join your party or fireteam). This is the case regardless of what kind of group you're in, it can be the general crowd of the Tower or explore mode, or a matchmade team in the Crucible, or a matchmade fireteam in story mode, or a matchmade fireteam in a strike, it doesn't matter, you have to go through menus and rely on them to accept your invitation, or hope they do the same for you, and then you have to go to orbit and then go back to what you were doing, and for some strange reason fireteams can only have three people unless you're in a raid-- I don't buy balance as a reason in general because you can have tons of people working on one objective in explore mode and you can have teams of six in competitive multiplayer.

The reality is that there aren't THAT many shooters out there that ask you to take down a mini-raid-boss (something that requires a little strategy other than "headshot, headshot, cover, repeat") out in the open world, so maybe some people are just not used to that. If you've played RPG's, or past hybrids like Borderlands, you would have a category for this, but maybe not. Seems like Destiny is going to have a lot of them. Something on the scale of Terramorphous the Invincible? We'll see, but definitely in that ballpark.

Perhaps I was unfair with how I worded it.

So wait, what is this situation where you're with non-randoms where you're not in an in-game group?

What from Vagueness's post are you referring to?

I somehow walked into a Public Area and shortly after getting there, a mini version of the Halo Scarab with 6 legs materialized. I was under the impression that Destiny was going to be original! There were three other players in the area, and after what must have been thousands of rounds expended at this mini-scarab, we failed the objective. During the later part of this battle two of the players stopped doing anything and just hid behind a building waiting for the battle to end. I walked around hoping I would find a whiz-bang-super-intergalactic heavy weapon, but nothing was available.

Did you try any, like, you know, strategies? Just shooting at the thing, you realize pretty quickly that you get more damage hitting the legs. Doesn't take long after that to realize damaging a leg enough stuns the tank and reveals a critical hit area. This wasn't even a particularly difficult boss fight, so I'm not sure you can blame it for the thousands of rounds you expended.

this is a game that feels like it could strongly benefit from public proximity chat.

As in random people in the tower/public spaces can just talk to me uninvited? No thanks. Chat enabled when you're in a fireteam together, sure.

I was glad for its absence. I am sure that for every one time it provided me with useful information from a stranger, there would be ten times where I'd imagine I was playing Halo 2 online again.

No thanks :)

The inability to speak seemed strikingly out of place in a game designed to be as social as Destiny is.

Having the option to speak (or hear) doesn't mean you have to use it....

I'm getting more exasperated every time someone says they don't like a feature or don't use it and so they don't care if it's gone or they even like that it's gone (in Destiny and Halo, and I'm sure I'd feel the same way about other games if I got involved in their communities). Voice chat exemplifies it pretty well. It's fine if you don't like a feature or don't use it, that doesn't mean I shouldn't be able to, and me being able to use a feature doesn't mean you have to, choosing not to use it or turning it off would be very simple to do.
For the record, I can get behind preventing people from hearing randoms. I have difficulty getting behind requiring people to party up through their semi-external console party mechanism or to get in a very small in-game group to talk to each other.

So wait, what is this situation where you're with non-randoms where you're not in an in-game group?

I was glad for its absence. I am sure that for every one time it provided me with useful information from a stranger, there would be ten times where I'd imagine I was playing Halo 2 online again.

No thanks :)

The inability to speak seemed strikingly out of place in a game designed to be as social as Destiny is.

Having the option to speak (or hear) doesn't mean you have to use it....

I'm getting more exasperated every time someone says they don't like a feature or don't use it and so they don't care if it's gone or they even like that it's gone (in Destiny and Halo, and I'm sure I'd feel the same way about other games if I got involved in their communities). Voice chat exemplifies it pretty well. It's fine if you don't like a feature or don't use it, that doesn't mean I shouldn't be able to, and me being able to use a feature doesn't mean you have to, choosing not to use it or turning it off would be very simple to do.
For the record, I can get behind preventing people from hearing randoms. I have difficulty getting behind requiring people to party up through their semi-external console party mechanism or to get in a very small in-game group to talk to each other.

I was glad for its absence. I am sure that for every one time it provided me with useful information from a stranger, there would be ten times where I'd imagine I was playing Halo 2 online again.

No thanks :)

The inability to speak seemed strikingly out of place in a game designed to be as social as Destiny is.

Having the option to speak (or hear) doesn't mean you have to use it....

Incidentally, that's why a lot of us consider the policy with voice chat to be insanely stupid. Voice chat appears to require being in a party and on friend's lists with each other, and this is a game that feels like it could strongly benefit from public proximity chat.

I was glad for its absence. I am sure that for every one time it provided me with useful information from a stranger, there would be ten times where I'd imagine I was playing Halo 2 online again.

No thanks :)

The phrasing of this sounds like you have to do something extra, but as I understand it, starting a strike is like joining matchmaking. The game finds team members for you.

The question is regarding voice chat. Matchmade strike teams do not have voice chat by default.

You're right. I was thinking of chat in matchmaking teams. Crucible isn't exactly a chatty place, and even strikes require you to form fireteams.

The phrasing of this sounds like you have to do something extra, but as I understand it, starting a strike is like joining matchmaking. The game finds team members for you.