it's very important for me. when i play as example halo online i love to talk at the same time with friends who play gears or fifa. i almost always have a chat when i play online or singleplayer if story isn't relevant. but i only care about it to talk with real life friends and not some people i only know from some online matches.
people often say it destroys the teamplay in online matches but seriously, when i play some halo or whatever the random matchmaking people don't really talk with each other which means i destroy nothing for them if i don't talk with them for some tactics. it's something different if you play with a group of friends the same game but then i don't have people in the chat who play something else.







