I would definately like the option of friending people in-game. This community is awesome and there are a couple of names that stick out in my mind here on the forums that I would sure like to befriend and play with.
Right now Steam is factor that may affect method of implementation.
If this game is STEAM available only then the solution would obviously add them via Steam friends. However if the game is both STEAM and stand alone, if the person you play with is not a Steam user how can we befriend them?
Therefore I believe an in-game friend list would be also useful and can be sync with your steam friend account if you so choose. It will show when your friend is online/offline, when was the last time they logged off (for guild AKA club purposes) and also the ability to join them with the click of a button while providing location and quest they are working on (if applicable)
I agree. I'm going to be using steam to play this game, and while steam has a friends list already; I don't think it's a good idea to try and implement steam's list in the game.
I think the game should have its own stand-alone friends list so we can all interact with each other, regardless of their platform of choice.