It's not uncommon for MMO's to have drops in the first month. I would be much more surprised if TOR sees no drop or an increase - speaking purely as "another MMO" and without attaching my feelings about the game. Usually, most of the people who are interested in buying the game, will have done so before it's out. After that you have word-of-mouth, reviews hitting, possible free trials etc to lure in new people. Inevitably, a lot of people will be really dissapointed, and that number is almost always greater than the people who pick it up month #2 - in part because a lot of the subs will leave on the 30th day, whereas the new customers will pick it up whenever, regardless of whether or not it looks statistically good. So depending on how Bioware tracks their subs, that can influence the numbers heavily aswell. It's very likely that TOR will take a hit in the next few weeks - but that doesn't mean overly much in terms of long-term success. If it bleeds an enormous of customers, or if the bleeding continues for many months, that might be indicative of serious issues. But a one-month drop, followed by a potential growth if they produce content, wouldn't be unheard of. You have to remember a lot of players try out just about every western AAA MMO that comes out, even if they aren't sure it'll be fun.

Good aesthetics belie graphical quality. Aesthetics here mean simply the art design, the things that aren't related to tech (although tech like lighting can certainly be used aesthetically). This is why some games from the early 90's can look genuinely pleasing today, and how come indie games can end up being really beautiful despite being designed to run on a toaster. Things like bright colours or well-placed assets do much more for the overall impression of a zone than good graphics. Conversely, I dislike the look of Battlefield 3 - the graphics are amazing, but everything is blue-filtered in an aesthetically displeasing way. So rather than argue about graphics, argue about the art design of the game. That's often much more relevant than poly counts.

Punishing alacrity is usually not a good idea for a game existing within a genre famous for wanting you to invest time in it. MMO's are designed around constant progression and time-sinks for a reason. Also, don't mistake 60-80 hours spent over 15+ days of holidays as "power levelling".

Simple. They give level 50's something to do (read: pve and pvp content) and if they enjoy it, they stay. They don't? Game will die. If they can produce two (or more) good, major content patches in 6 months time, that keep people occupied and give new players something to do, the game might even grow past its honeymoon figures.

"It's holidays ffs" The game was released before a major holiday, we know. Quit the excuse-ism. Whose fault is the release date? Patch doesn't fix enough of the things it should. The changes to slicing and Warzone Commendations are nice and all, I guess, but maybe priorities are misplaced. Just to name a few minor ones, the cover bar still re-enables whenver you go through a loading bar, and still no way to lock the camera to a different angle while you move, it will auto-adjust. To me, those issues (while minor) are more important than tweaking numbers on crew skills or Warzones.

Their furry nature belies the true terror of their warhammers.

it doesnt work well, ptfg

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=67268 Didn't need its own thread.

Complete opposite. I went from IA, to Trooper, to Smuggler. No more PvP queues!

Sabotage Charge. You can do it with Back Blast aswell, but SC is by far the easiest way to do big crits, and heartily recommended in combat. A quick F-Charge can do some pretty sick burst!

I like it, but whenever I like things I immediately think of ways to change them so I'd like them more. Space combat doesn't end when mission+bonus is done, and the XP rate is abysmal. I thought it would be a cool side-thing to do for leveling, but seems they turned it into a daily quest feature.

By logic of which we may aswell remove rewards from raids & dungeons, then see how popular they are.

Link, please.

@OP: Your credentials as a CS player have no relevance. Likewise, working for (not as?) an indie game developer makes it sound like you could've swept the floors for two weeks and still be accurate in leaving that on your resume. Also, over-use of similes or crude humour betray the point you're trying to make. This never works for two reasons. One, you have the shoulder of giants effect. WoW was designed ten years ago, TOR wasn't. TOR has been able to learn from all the mistakes and additions to that game, and pick and choose what they want to put into their game. WoW had to copy off of Everquest. It gets progressively harder to design an MMO as the rival MMO's get better and better. The list of "what your game needs out of the box" is MUCH longer for TOR than it was for WoW back in 2004, which launched without raids or battlegrounds e.g. Yes, it's unfair, but it's true. If you release an MMO today it will be compared to MMO's with several years of content development. Why? Because if you go out and buy WoW today, you get the 2011 version, not the 2004 version. The excuse "well our game didn't have as much time to become good" won't matter one bit to the customer who just wants to have a good time. Also, your statement seems to rely on the assumption that TOR will improve, over time, to equal or rival WoW. This may be true, but when? You can't ask a customer to pay for something that, in three years time, will become better than the competitor today. He'll wait three years and (maybe) buy it then, instead.

No, we're comparing fluidity and responsiveness. I don't know what your point is, sorry.