Sure the intention behind joint Castle was good, but it was not the right place. As long as the only intended interaction is talking, looking at equipped gear and PvP fighting, it would be great to have a Whole separate zone for this, a completely new Twilights zone, where Inventory is unavailable and consumables may not be used. No quests, no auction house, no other business that may interfere with or be interfered by the cross server voluntary contact between players. The zone should be devided so it is possible to have chats that are not disturbed by duel Challenges etc.
This is an excellent idea. Not to be rude or judgemental, but I'm not sure if the group VR was left with has all they need to create a totally new area. Maybe they do, but so far they have used areas already created by the former team. If that's the case, and if they are hell bent on making a global area, they may have to use one that already exists though.
Since the physical layout of the castle has an area designed as an auction room (with an auctioneer, benches, etc) and a bank area that looks like a bank, it wouldn't make the game as professional looking to just stick a copy of the auctioneer and of the banker out in a field. It makes more sense to relocate the global area.
To me the tavern is the most logical social area. That's what taverns are, plus the other part of the global appeal is supposed to be PvP and they already implemented bar fighting there. They could extend or even move the PvP part to the fenced area out in front of the tavern if they need more room. They could put a door separating the kitchen from the tavern, and make the kitchen its own room so the global chaos stays out. There might even be a way they could chop the kitchen off of the tavern and attach it to some spot in the quieter part of the castle. That would make getting ingredients easier too.
The idea, though, that cooking is such a special thing that we can't be disturbed by the chaos of a global area, but everyone in the castle doing things can be is nothing more than self-serving. (I say that as a cook btw). No one wants that degree of craziness anywhere while they are trying to do other things. The tavern should be the global area. Us cooks just need some way to be uneffected by it.
I know many of us have wondered if having a global area is a first step in checking out/working toward possible global trading, auctions etc and VR is wise enough not to share that with us yet. If so, the insistence to push us to the castle makes some sense. Another way to look at it though, is that trades could be negotiated over a beer in the tavern just as easily, and the auction system doesn't need us to all have our toons in the same spot in order to make the items listed a global list. All servers have the same auction area and system. We could all be in our own calm cozy castles reading an auction list of all the weapons or jewelry for sale in the entire game rather than just that for sale on our own server. There is a way to make the basics of this work if VR backs up a little and looks at whatever it is they actually want to accomplish, and is willing to be open to other ways to accomplish it.