I think a public chat would make this game a lot more enjoyable. Of course it should be possible to disable it by default for people in fear of trolls.
I believe one of the main reasons I played the two other games I was addicted to for years each was their in-game chat. It just doesn’t feel so lonely in-game when you log in and enter a chat. And I don’t even involve myself that much in chats. Being able to watch some discussions while playing the game and leave a comment here and there is enough to enhance the game’s experience. People would stay, chat a bit, play some games, chat again, and so on.
Now I find myself logging into the game, do my quests and quickly log off again, although I find Duelyst is the best card game I ever played online. But, as others said, online means with people. Without chat, I don’t see people, my opponents could as well be very well made AIs. It’s a single player game this way.
Some say there is discord or something. It isn’t the same. It needs to be in-game. Minimizing the game to go to some chat or anything leads to frustration when playing games at the same time.
I believe the whole ‘no chat’ thing evolved from Diablo II, one of the games I was addicted to. After the chat there became unusable because of spambots, they decided to remove chats all along in their next games. Other companies followed that decision blindly.
Luckily, Duelyst is no trading card game, so there is no danger of bots appearing. Also, there are not as many people here as in a Blizzard game, so trolls can be handled.
Why are people watching streamers so much? It’s mainly because of the chat. People want company. If there were in-game chats, people would possibly play games themselves again!
I believe Duelyst would have a significantly higher playerbase in-game at all times if there was a chat.
This is a highly subjective opinion of course.