I would and I have. Worse than that, though, I re-rolled a level 35ish character for just that reason in a game which allowed you to change your facial features for in-game currency (of which said character had plenty). I just didn't know that was a feature until much later...

Speaking as one of the "haters," it sounds like you and I agree more than we disagree. My experience was similar to yours - CoH was my first MMO as well, and it felt perfectly normal to team up with others. I still play it for that reason. I was actually very surprised to find that very few other MMOs supported teaming nearly as much (IME, only Guild Wars came close to CoH in that regard). It's fine to say that's "par for the course" for MMOs, but that misses the point of the complaint. Near as I can tell, WoW pretty much sets the bar for the industry, simply due to its size. Problem is, the bar is set low, and gets pushed down regularly. You may be resigned to that, and accept it as industry standard. I don't - and that seems to be where we disagree. Whether it's teaming, graphics, gameplay, UI, whatever, there are so many cool innovations scattered around the MMOsphere, tucked away in niche games or games that suffered for other reasons. Bioware, a known company with a solid fanbase, sitting on a great IP and backed by a powerful publisher, apparently opted to ignore all that (plus its own system used in KotOR) in favor of the tired and overworked "industry standard." Do you really regard that as acceptable?

...I think that's actually part of the complaint. It is for me, anyway. MMOs are less and less cooperative with each iteration, to the point that there's no sense in running with a group or getting together with other people until you hit the "endgame." At which point, you have no choice but to team with others (or roll an alt, or leave). This is one of several MMO tropes that keep getting recycled, even though the problems with doing things this way should be apparent with a little thought and reflection on the history of the genre.

If this game weren't Star Wars, I might have still given it a try - but only because it's a Bioware title. If there were no name recognition involved, then no, I probably wouldn't have given this a second thought. Well, I played Age of Conan even though I hated the Conan books and movies (if I thought of them at all). Plus, I've played City of Heroes extensively, and, of course, the game that shall not be named - neither of which had an external IP. In fact, I think it's quite dangerous for an MMO studio to produce off a well-known IP. You might secure a core playerbase, but your game will be in a much harsher spotlight and suffer more constraints than any game built on an original property. Since LotRO, I've cringed with the launch of every IP-based MMO; it's just too much to balance corporate expectations, fan expectations, and gameplay in a way that's satisfying to everyone concerned.

Anakin's attraction to Padme: After his near-forcible separation from his mother, she was the first female he had any significant contact with. She was a surrogate mother, and he developed one hell of an Oedipal complex. Padme's attraction to Anakin: No idea. Women are weird. Maybe because he could levitate apples?

Haven't read all 55 pages, so forgive me if I'm repeating something... For all the prequels' flaws, there's one thing that would have saved them for me. If Anakin had played up the idea of getting into Darth Sidious' good graces to get insider info (and maybe even thinking he could beat the Sith Lord at his own game), I think all the pieces would have fallen in place. A noble, proactive intent nonetheless guided by Anakin's arrogance and ego, and driven by the Council's desperation, would have made a much more fitting snare than what we got. It seems like this was on the table - many of the elements to make it work are there - but it got completely pushed aside by the death of Anakin's mother and his fear for Padme's well-being. It could have been such a subtle and tragic fall of a great hero with a good heart. Instead, we witnessed the all-too-easy manipulation of a no-good bratty kid with unresolved abandonment issues. And, to add insult to injury, revealing Palpatine's and Anakin's disfigurement was IMO completely unnecessary and done rather cheaply. The loss of Anakin's hand was sufficient. We should have been left with some mystery at least.

I'm guessing: Bad-arse armor; He tricked Han Solo at his own game; One of the silliest names in the franchise.

Social points are a bribe to get you to play solo content in a group, or to play certain flashpoints over and over and over (and over and over) again.

I'm starting to believe that nobody plays MMOs for fun. Seems like everyone wants a reward for playing a game the way they want to play it.

I don't want to put words in Heretiq's mouth, but to me it seems like the "dumb" part is in attaching stat bonuses (or any other permanent numerical reward) to the 'crons. ...of course, if they didn't have those bonuses, I suspect most people wouldn't bother at all... MMO players are a weird subspecies of gamer.

If this game had more puzzle-like or exploration content like the datacrons (or DCUO's travel power races, or CoH's secret rooms in Faultline), I might not have cancelled my sub so soon. It's all about what people find fun. You don't find it fun and that's fine, but that doesn't mean that people who do have any less of a life than you.

Hehe, I have to laugh at the whole argument over whether or not datacrons are worth it. Are the stat boosts significant? Maybe, I don't know. Can you play the top of your game without them? Again, maybe. For me personally, the datacrons are just about the fun and challenge of getting them. They could offer nothing more than a title or a healing pot for all I care; I'd still chase 'em down. Like someone said earlier, they're a diversion from the normal MMO fare, something for those of us who like in-game activities that don't involve perpetual combat. If you like that sort of thing, go for it; if not, you shouldn't lose out for not doing it. In fact, the turn this thread has taken is a pretty good argument for reducing the potential stat bonuses, or dropping them altogether... Sorry to hear your alternative path got cut off, OP - that does kinda suck.

Nah, that's just the newest and most convenient excuse. People have always justified themselves by claiming that they're rolling for off-specs, alts, guildies, friends, or even because they're short on cash. What's interesting to me, though, is that MMO designers stick with the Need/Greed system in spite of introducing mechanics that further "justify" its "abuse." There are other mechanisms to get characters the loot they need, without pitting players against each other. Was never true for other games - won't be true here.

...maybe I didn't get into EvE combat enough, but wasn't it basically orbiting your target, autofiring your weapons, and flying off when your armor started getting low?

It's where we've always been with a Need/Greed system. As I've said before, there are a bajillion reasons to roll Need, only two or three to roll Greed, and only one to Pass. It's an old mechanic dreamt up by early game designers who apparently lacked an education in economic game theory.

Yes, the trinity existed in that game - but for most things (even AV fights) it wasn't the only viable strategy. Tanks and healers were nice but not necessary (with rare exceptions), and a team of almost any composition could shine if the players were decent. I don't know that CoH "broke" the trinity though. Rather, my impression is that the game was designed before the trinity really solidified and grabbed a stranglehold on MMO development, and has largely resisted the pressure to succomb to the trinity gospel. As for GW2, I haven't seen a lot of solid info, but I'm not getting the sense that they're actually breaking the trinity either, so much as giving everyone a self-heal and a way to absorb or mitigate damage.

...you do realize that you've just agreed with Sithmud's point, right? I.e., that the actual storyline questing is clearly designed for solo play, and is so trivially easy for groups that there's very little point in grouping for them, whether you like story or not. This is actually the flip side of one of my big issues about this game; if I want a team experience that's actually challenging, I have to do flashpoints - but if I do flashpoints, I rapidly outlevel the main story-driven content. In other words, for all the uniqueness of storytelling, and for all the emphasis Bioware puts on it, the game itself does not support much of a social story experience. It just tries to bribe you with social points, which kind of falls flat if you're not into the chasing carrots on a stick.

...actually, story is exactly why I bought SWTOR. It impressed me enough during the Thanksgiving beta that I thought I could put aside other issues I had with the game. Unfortunately, the story wasn't quite enough to keep me engaged.

Nope, I'm done. Lots of reasons, but they all boil down to "I've done all this before." Story seems to be the only truly unique aspect of this game, but it's not quite enough to keep me engaged.

If you're enjoying the game, you're enjoying the game - not much more to be said. Don't let us bitter and jaded MMO vets get you down with our talk of "that other game." Edit: Oh yeah, and General Discussion is something you probably want to avoid, in this or any other game... That's usually where people go to complain. Other forums tend to be a bit more positive and constructive.

You're right - but it made it harder to build your own community outside of a guild. Again, my experience was that I made friends through PuGging before LFD. After LFD, I found that to be next to impossible.

Maybe I'm missing something, but it sounds like you're saying, "since there's no community anyway, screw it"? Anyway, I'm not against same-server LFDs, and people are right to point out that that would solve some of the jerkwad anonymity issues. However, my guess is that it wouldn't solve any problems on low- or even standard-population servers - you'd probably still have to wait a long time for a queue to pop. If the pro-LFDers were to get behind a set of cross-server "community" tools, I wouldn't be against the idea. For example, extend /friend lists, /whispers, and such so that they work across servers, set up LFD so that people can more proactively form cross-server teams and people can see who is on the teams that are forming, etc. I know these have been suggested in that other game, and they'd do a lot to allay my concerns about LFD tools in general.

I played "that other game" before LFD was added, and returned briefly afterwards. My quick synopsis of my own experience: Before LFD, it was a pain in the butt to get a group together. However, people tended to stick with the group precisely for that reason, and would try to "make do" if the group composition wasn't perfect. In addition, the time it took to assemble the group and travel to the dungeon gave teammates some time to talk and joke around before starting. And finally, since you only grouped with people on your server, you often saw the same people regularly and got to know them and their playstyle. After LFD, it was relatively quick even for DPS to get into a group. However, I noticed two things right away - as often as not, the starting "tank" would just cuss out a random person for 10 minutes' straight and then quit. Also, healers tended to quit (not get kicked, just quit) after just one fight regardless of how the fight went; I ended up begging a healer to stay once after three healers in a row had bailed. And, of course, unless you were teamed before using LFD, you'd probably never see any of your teammates ever again, and had no way to join up later. So, yeah, before LFD, groups were few and far between, but I gladly joined up for anyone advertising. After LFD, I just didn't bother after a while. Maybe things were different in endgame, but both times I'd stopped caring about the game before I even got there.

I don't know if it's relevant, but my Jedi Shadow kept finding sniper rifles...

I say we make a special forum for people who want to make threads about this topic.