Discussion time: Do you think zone chats in MMOs are forces for good, or evil?

Zone chats in MMOs have long served as the social glue binding these virtual worlds together. However, they often become a hotbed for bizarre and often vile online discourse. Take World of Warcraft's Barrens Chat, a large zone with issues of verbal hooliganry that I found strangely nostalgic. Even though the Chuck Norris jokes may have become a bit tiresome, asking philosophical questions in Barrens Chat provided an entertaining distraction while collecting Zhevra Hoofs.

While I'm not fond of trade chat, which is typically dominated by bots spewing the same automated messages, I do appreciate the absurdity that can persist in games like Final Fantasy 14's Ul'dah. It's impressive how the same kind of infectious nonsense can thrive in a game with heavy-handed moderation. Ultimately, I find the belligerent nonsense of zone chats somehow pure and beautiful, as it's not driven by algorithmic mechanisms that push us towards anger and bickering. Instead, we provoke the masses and it's a spectacle to behold.