Excellent post. I'm afraid this BioWare is not the BioWare of old, it's a different beast. I think ever since ME2 I've been increasingly sceptical of this new BioWare. Since ME2, DA2 and now SWTOR, I've come to the conclusion that BW has turned into a mediocre company who pump out stuff that's got high production values, but lacks the immersion and charm of the old BW. I'm afraid I can no longer consider myself a BioWare fan any more.

I come back to check the transfer thing out, thinking it might reawaken my interest in this game to actually be able to play with other people, and I find that it's not possible to transfer my characters from a dead server to a more lively server? What sort of nonsense is this?

Although I agree with the general tenor of your post, I don't think it's so delusional to say that now. And I am someone who foresaw that the initial d00m claims of "dead after first month" would be wildly inaccurate. I am also someone who predicted 1.5m for a time when the true figure was 1.3m - not too bad, I'm sure you'll agree, considering the amount of d00msaying prior to that. Now, I'm seriously thinking subs are going to drop precipitously after the 6+1 month subs are up. How far? Well, I'd be very surprised if it's below 500k, but I think it's likely to be barely above. 700-800k at best. On what basis do I say this? Simply that there are very, very few players playing the game on any except a very few servers like Fatman, etc. I made my 8 toons in the first month on a server which, at that time, was busy, almost as busy as Fatman is now. There was never any problem getting people to play with. Now, that server is almost dead (20-30 people in Fleet).

If a game is dead it's shut down. If those games are running that means they are profitable, which means they are successes. Obviously not as big successes as developers and publishers might have wished, but profit is profit, and better than a kick up the arse or a slap in the face with a wet fish. The "WoW killer" standard of success is just something that idiot players and commentators have cooked up.

As the other guy said, it's not so much the bug itself, it's more that it's symptomatic of carelessness (or an overworked skeleton crew, perhaps). Grouped dialogues is a showcase feature of the game, for me (and I'd guess for many of those who are sticking with the game) it's one of the most fun parts of the game. When this showcase feature has such an obvious and blatantt bug let through, it doesn't inspire confidence in the developers.

Christ almighty, grouped dialogues is one of the few actual interesting innovations in the game, and they've managed to **** it up? This is turning into a farce of monumental proportions.

This. So ok, a lot of people have left because the game's not their cup of tea. But for BW to leave the people who are sticking with the game in the lurch like this is ... just really, really bad. I simply cannot fathom their thinking. They must be living in some sort of dream world if they don't think the population problem needs urgent sorting - it needed it 2 months ago. I'm afraid that when transfers come it's going to be far too late. I don't think the game will be shut down, but I think it's going to be a Vanguard situation, with the game on life support, no updates, etc., etc., and just an ever-dwindling number of players. So, so sad.

DA:O was "old BioWare", it was started before 2004. Everything they've done under EA has been competently produced ***** - DA2, ME2 & 3, all far shallower and more "streamlined" for console than anything BW has done before. Basically, they're games designed by focus groups. And now SWTOR. Basically a mess - good in parts, but totally unfocussed. BioWare, the "classic" BioWare, the BioWare that made a name for itself in the business by producing innovative, immersive CRPGs, is now dead and gone. It's a different company with a different ethos now, only the name is the same, and they're trading on the name. But I have a feeling that after the above-mentioned disappointments, and now SWTOR, they're not going to be able to trade on it for much longer - not unless they get some sense and make a proper CRPG again with DA3.

BioWare, check this post out, this person is, I should think, close to the sort of player you want to attract and keep. If someone like this person is starting to hear the warning bells, you've got to consider something is going wrong ... I should think lots of fans are starting to get a bit scared after this E3 announcement. It's just so ... I dunno, redolent of developers who are either totally out of touch with what's really going on in the game, or who don't really care anymore, who have basically given up on the game and are just "phoning in" now.. And that's scary.

Re-roll is also a poor option for some PvE players. If you've invested time and ... I dunno, make-believe? ... into a character, "re-roll" is like *********** Chinese. My character is my character - she's who she is, I've lived with her, grown with her through a story, she can't be "re-rolled". Fortunately, it's possible to re-roll another class and experience another story, so it's not quite as ridiculous advice as it might be, but still ... it's a poor option, when really it should be BW getting its finger out and sorting out this population problem.

No, it's not going to make any difference, the game is going to tank (below 500k subs, not bad by absolute standards but "tanking" by the standards they set out to achieve) and go on life support by the end of the year. That doesn't mean it will be shut down, and it will still be fun for those who enjoy it, but there won't be that many of them, and bugfixes and updates will be slow. This E3 announcement has been the final straw for me. I no longer have any hope for the game at all, BW really do have their heads up their collective arses. I will probably resub now and then to catch all the class stories eventually, but as far as being a place to hang out, SWTOR just isn't ringing the bell.

No you are not alone. The problem is that the single-player storyline stuff is pretty immersive, so that it highlights the deadness of the game world by contrast. The linearity of the quest progression also highlights the deadness. Also the lack of weather , day/night cycle, and things like birds and butterflies. However, most MMO worlds are fairly lifeless, it's just that you notice it more in this game.

I too am amazed by the comment, but not for your reason. I'm amazed at the comment because there is very little community at all. You can't form any sort of community on servers with 20-30 people at peak times. The whole thing is turning into an absurd joke. Which is a shame, because the game does have many good points. Just not strong enough to outweigh the bad. Months ago I predicted 1.5m subs for the recent report, result was 1.3m. Recently I predicted 700k for the next report. After this E3 announcement I now predict barely 500k. EA/BW show no signs of realism about what's happening to their game. They've got their heads buried so far up their arses they can see the sunlight through their teeth.

It's lipstick on a pig. Content is always welcome, and it looks cool and everything, but the game has serious population problems that need urgent attention yesterday. Also nonsense like "vibrant community" (spoken by the presenter at E3) is an insult to the people who are struggling on dead servers. A level cap raise after 10 months is ludicrous. You're only going to alienate players who have already ground for their present gear. They weren't looking for more grind, they were looking for meaningful endgame to show their gear off in. Cathars as a playable race is also a joke - cat heads on more standard 1-4 humanoid bodies? What rubbish. The space game needs a complete overhaul so it's multiplayer, another mission type is nice but does nothing to actually improve the quality of the space content. Frankly, this announcement, or rather, the hubris with which it was presented, disgusts me. I used to be a fan of BW, but ever since DA2 and ME2 the name "BioWare" has been sinking fast in my estimation - and if I'm not mistaken, in the estimation of many other gamers. I won't be renewing my sub at the end of the current month.

The reason people are hating on it is because it's just lipstick on a pig. Well, that's a bit too harsh, the game does have lots of good qualities. When I can find people to play with it's fun. But the above announcements offer no hope to anybody that the game is going to turnaround or improve in general.

I mean seriously. "Our fans have built a vibrant community" ... "we're humbled by their enthusiasm" What a joke. BW, FYI, you cannot build a "vibrant community" on a server that has 20 people in fleet at peak times. TBQH, I'd be quite happy if this game had only 100k subscribers, I don't actually care how "big" the game is, so long as the server I'm on has people enough to play with. At the moment there are precious few servers with enough people to play with. The busy server I started on with my 8 toons (EU-PvP Lord Calypho) is now almost dead. To get any sort of MMO buzz at all (i.e. to get to play with other people - shocking concept I know) I've had to re-roll on the US server Fatman, and even that is going down gradually. It can't be a good thing for BW to hide their head in the sand like this, surely? I offer in contrast, the behaviour of CCP, creators of EVE Online. Last year they had a horrendous fiasco with several things combining to create the perfect storm, with a large drop in subscriptions as a result of some mistakes they made. Did they tra-la-la through it like BW? Well, at first they did, but not for long - pretty quickly they got the message and apologized honestly and straightforwardly to the community. Subs have gone back up, and now EVE is steadily rising again.

It really is absolutely ludicrous. Whatever BW is smoking, I definitely want some of it.

People generally hate level cap raises because it invalidates the grind they went through to get the best gear at the previous cap (i.e. that gear is no longer elite, it's now basically useless).

Those of us who are saying "f2p" probably think that the next report is going to show a huge tank in subs, down to barely above 500k, if at all. Judging by the forums (as basically somewhat statistically representative of the playerbase, just the mouthier part) a lot of 6 monthers are not going to renew. Most servers are sooooo dead. And although a few hundred thousand players is still a decent amount, I think EA will cut losses by forcing an f2p transition rather than let the game limp along as a perceived failure with less than a million players. If we're right in our conjecture, f2p can't be far behind (and actually although people think of f2p as a failure, and it is from a certain point of view - game design intent - it's also a way of making more money than through a subscription plan alone).

I don't, I just unsub then resub when I get the hankering again. I played for the first month, enjoyed the hell out of the game but then just got suddenly very bored with it. Then recently I resubbed and, going through another class storyline, have been enjoying the hell out of the game for a while, but now I'm getting bored with it again and probably won't renew the sub this month. It's like that with all MMOs for me - NONE of them are really good enough to sustain one's interest for more than a month or two at a time, unless you're heavily invested in some sort of hamster wheel with your mates (whereupon it turns into a chore). In fact, it always amazes me how people expect that a game could entertain them for years. Your first MMO, yes, that will entertain you for a year or two, but after that, there's just nothing new to discover, and once you've canvassed the world and done most of the things it has to offer, really it's just down to whether it's a nice place to hang out every now and then. Sometimes you just get a hankering for a certain vibe, or a certain type of build style or whatever (and now, with SWTOR, the attraction is the class storylines - those, I anticipate, will keep bringing me back to the game for a few years to come, but never continuously, only in chunks of time).

If it's going to be about SWTOR, I'd have to go with f2p as well - but of course it will be "spun" as a positive development

Unfortunately, the difficulty of making an MMO hasn't changed much over the intervening years. So basically, the MMO genre is now ****ed, because a huge part of the playerbase has absurd expectations based on a fully-developed game, so they'll never be happy with ANY MMO THAT COMES OUT EVER. Just watch what happens to TSW and GW2. Developers can't innovate because an innovative game isn't going to be enough like WoW. And they can't make WoW clones because they're too much like WoW. The onlyt possible escape route is the sandbox - but what AAA developer is going to have the guts to release a sandbox nowadays? (Well, possibly Blizzard ... ? I've seen some vague rumours that Titan will be a sandbox, but who knows.)

As far as I'm concerned, most MMOs could learn a lot by looking closely at CoH (in its heyday, say from 2004 to 2008), as it's the most social casual MMO I've ever played. Hands down, easily. Judging by how Cryptic cocked up Champions Online, it may be an accident that CoH just had something about it that made it a great social game for casual players. The real pain in the *** about most MMOs is that the developers seem to have this blind spot about social gameplay, and assume that casual players are solo players, whereas social players are guild players. That this is wildly not true was proved by CoH. There are plenty of casual players who enjoy PUG-ing with strangers, and CoH just had some kind of synergy between its various elements that made casual PUG-ing incredibly easy to do, addictive and moreish. Not that the game didn't have its faults, but at least in terms of getting people to play together, CoH was very good at that (I say "was" becasue I personally can't stand the sight of the game after being heavily addicted for 3 years, but I'm aware it's still going strong).

BW, this game is failing in its important duty of getting people to play together in a virtual world. My EU home server where I started my 6 toons (Lord Calypho, EU RP-PVP) which was very healthy in the first month (roundabout 150-200 in Fleet at times) is now dead as a dodo, at most there's around 20 people in Fleet, rising maybe to 50 or 60 very occasionally. THERE AREN'T ENOUGH PEOPLE TO PLAY WITH. I can't understand your seemingly blase attitude about this, as if it's some relatively not-too-troublesome hiccup in the course of the game's inexorable rise to the MMO hall of fame. It's not, it's the most serious problem facing the game today, something needs to be done about it urgently. SWTOR is an MMO that has many charms on the single-player side, and is a lot of casual fun on the MMO side; but ask youreself honestly, how many players playing today are getting their full MMO-experience-money's worth out of the game, if their servers are deserted, and they are scattered to the four winds across the ludicrously hubristic number of live servers? The good name of BioWare has suffered a few knocks recently, let's see some company spirit (you are a great developer of immersive games, dammit!!!) asserting itself and giving us, the players, an honest, PR-free admission of error (for error there must have been, for things to have come to such an impasse) and some firm resolve to sort this problem out.

I don't think it's last resort stage, but there are far too many empty servers, and SWTOR is failing in one of the primary tasks of an MMO - to have people playing together in the virtual world the developers have designed. Some damn thing sure needs to be done, like yesterday. I am an EU player, most of the EU servers are Light nearly all the time, one or two of them occasionally reeaching up to the dizzying heights of Standard. I rolled a toon on Fatman in the US, and even with the slight lag difference, its so much more fun playing on a full server, the game comes alive as an MMO (actually it's almost too full wrt spawn rates, they need tweaking a bit on Fatman). Lots of people are not having this experience. I am aware of the arguments against a cross-server tool, but those argument have validity only when servers are relatively healthy. This game needs some means of getting people to be able to playe with other people right now, or I'm afraid it will die totally when GW2 comes out.