To any who are arguing that an MMO is incapable of working on a console from a hardware/software standpoint. You are inexorably wrong. Fact is Final Fantasy XI is on PS2, PC, and Xbox 360. The game is still around and still a sub model. Oh and the players on all 3 platforms all play on the SAME SERVERS. DCU is also on PS3 and PC for what It's worth. The current issue with MMO's on the Xbox is the ungodly strict policies MS has on XBL now, Square-Enix got FFXI on the console before these policies were created IIRC. It pretty much makes it near impossible for an MMO to work on the platform. There is a reason about half a dozen MMO's that originally were announced for PC and Xbox dropped development for Xbox over the years. One issue with consoles I consent to is consoles cannot be upgraded or (legally) modified. They are what they are. Down the road you start to run into limitations on how much you can actually put into the game.

Worth noting I ran some numbers on my server during peak hours last night. There was around 120-150 people on the imp fleet at the time. I did level range searches in incriments of 10 up to level 49. Then did individual level 50 searches for every AC. There was over 760 imp players on the server. I didn't check the republic population. But not a stretch to add at least 300-400 more players with an imbalanced server pop.

That's actually pretty good. My server (Sith Wyrm) has roughly 150-200 at peak hours. Though as many will tell you, fleet pop isn't always a good gauge. It's typically ppl who are idle or waiting to get into an Op or WZ that are on the fleet. Just because the fleet is low doesn't always mean there is no server activity.

In terms of priority, Flashpoints are at the top for me. They are the most difficult things to find groups for. As all of them require the specific set up of healer, tank, dps x2. Operations are typically guild events. Most guilds can't at least get enough people to do 8 man runs. I can usually stumble into a PUG group for the heroics that are worth doing, and heroics don't always require the standard FP set up. Sometimes you can get away with not having a dedicated tank or having a player use a companion, ect.

Because BW knows that the only thing better than having a woman is having TWO woman.

Very very true. I wonder if these "hardcore" raiders even realize games like Tera and Guild Wars are totally doing away with the traditional raiding model. Neither of thoes games will have the traditional instance raids that require you to have 15-20 people to beat it. Much like the old school model of having 20 people sit and wait for 3-4 hours for a zone boss to spawn to maybe get that one awesome item is gone and done away with. The traditional raiding system is on its way out.

Seeing how 1.2 just came out, you won't hear anything about 1.3 soon. The safest unoffical bet would be 1.3 will hit late June or early July. Every 2-3 months is pretty standard for content updates on MMO's.

Trying to set up somethng like an Operation run during the day is probably a futile effor honestly. But doing something like HM Flashpoints or heroics is certainly viable. Afterall they only require 3 other players.

While some of your points about crafting is valid. I'll take the RNG as a trade off for only having to hit 2 buttons and wait for the mats to roll in. Like it or not the RNG is a way to curb the market. Keeping rare items rare. It's a lot better than the old days when you had to fight a boss with 17 other people and hope the boss drops the mat you need then compete with everyone for it, then pray to god you don't fail the craft and lose the whole thing. I kinda stopped reading when you started talking about everything in this game being a challenge. This is one of the most forgiving and casual MMO's I've ever played, possibly THE most forgiving. Everything requiring a group? Are we playing the same game? 90% of the time I play I'm solo and I'm not lacking in things to do ever.

Pretty sure EA isn't looking to give a competitor money and the advertising rights to one of their biggest projects in the last 5 years. This is like saying Microsoft should release Halo 4 on the PS3.

If they implimented my suggestion of allowing level 50's to change factions they could start to branch the classes out to not be mirrors of eachother with future level cap raises. Though this would be a very long term solution, and does little to help faction imbalances now.

There was an interesting article on Forcejunkies about faction imbalances. The short version was that unlike WoW, imbalances seem to be more than just how cool the races look. Let's face it, both factions have the "cool factor." The issue is likely more the psychological themes. When playing a video game and given the choice between honor (republic) or power (imperial). Most are going to choose power. I personally think they should add a feature that let's you change factions if you're level 50 and have enough light or darkside points.

What? I think you're confusing "end game players" with "hardcore raiders". HC raiders are a vocal minority yes. But everyone who plays the game for more than a month or two becomes an end game player. If you're level 50 you're an end game player. That being said, I don't feel this game is lacking in end game content for anyone who "only" plays 12-15 hours a week or less. I do believe it's the vocal "hardcore" minority that compulsivly plow through content asap that are the ones complaining about end game content.

If the current difficulty for ops is what you consider hardcore I honestly don't know what to say. Stacked against other MMO's this games raid content is some of the easiest. Fact is if you're having that much trouble your guild is probably under geared. The majority of the raid group should be in full columi gear before doing HM's. I can only play for a few hours a day myself. I work full time and have other hobbies outside this game. Using that as an excise doesn't mean you can't do said content. It just means it takes you longer to go through the gear progression that everyone else does. That is only my personal view and I may be wrong. But I also pay the 13Euro and I want to see the same endgame content as the others do.

Agreed. Pre 1.2 I've never once had to even slightly worry about my heat. Post 1.2 I think I've had heat issues in ops, FP's, and heroics MAYBE once or twice in prolonged boss fights, having bad tanks or overzealos dps.