mmm lol
i been lvling an alt., doing 95% or more solo, i did lvl my first char 0 - 70 mostly in groups and it was fun, but been make now 3 chars with lesss than 20% group.
actually i lvling this wizard now 64 and the gropup i been doing with it is less than 1% 99 has been solo and i enjoy it a lot.
The game is enjoyable, cuz the adjust the solo part, cuz people cryed a lot in the firts months of the game that they wanted to solo more.
About the chat channels... mmm get a guild., i'm chatting all the time, asking dumb questions on guild chat, and also i joined some worldwide channels. so the chat is all the time active., also i use ooc if looking for something on the current zone, like a moob and i don't want or feel lazy to open browser window to search location.
YOU CAN LVL 1-80 completly solo, doing quest average 2 lvls by day if you play some 5 - 10 hrs, just do the timeline quest, go see wiki for solo timeline.
not reason to complain really.