Yes, using the word "forced" is somewhat of an overstatement. However, here is one of the examples from the dictionary: "she was forced into early retirement". That's really not so different from what is happening here. Nobody put a gun to her head, but she was given a choice of two undesirable alternatives (early retirement or be laid off / fired) and had to pick the least undesirable one. Consider what this looks like to someone on a PvE server who does not care for PvP. The companion is only useful for PvE, not at all for PvP. Yet, you have to do PvP to get him/it, something the player doesn't enjoy and is able to avoid completely under normal circumstances. On top of that. Bioware has stated that there will be other companions (unknown) gated behind this one. So if you choose not to do it, you are cutting yourself off from not just one companion you might like, but several in the future. That might not be a "force" but it's horrible game design any way you look at it. Personally, I've done plenty of PvP in other games, but I don't enjoy it in SWTOR. I tried getting Pierce but I only reached five losses before I decided it wasn't fun and not worth the aggravation to myself and my team members. Yes, it was a choice. Finally, people who say they don't care if someone else quits the game aren't thinking it through. If enough people quit, development will slow down (even more than it has) or the game could be shut down. If you like SWTOR, you don't want that to happen.

Yes, it works. It's in the small room near the larger smuggler room in your base on Odessen. It's the same room as the commander's datapad. I used it to get Nadia back. Although the game warns you that she's not officially back, she does all the companion functions just fine and I imagine the others would also.

_yes_

It has changed over time, but right now: 1. SWTOR 2. LotRO 3. WoW 4. GW2 5. Warhammer Online The Panda grind knocked WoW from 1 to 3. The gradual improvements and fixes to SWTOR moved it from 2 to 1.

Here is a question I haven't seen answered (sorry if it has): I pre-ordered after Jan 7 (no tears, my choice) so I won't be able to go to Makeb or level past 50, but will I accumulate rest bonus and accumulate XP up to the end of 50, or will all XP be frozen for me until regular access?

I am running SWTOR (and other games) just fine on a Dell laptop with the Nvidia 540M which is lower spec than what you are getting, so you should be fine. Make sure you update to the latest driver when you get it. The hotel internet is going to be problematic unless you play at 2 AM, from personal experience. You are often sharing one connection with everyone else. I find a smaller hotel usually works out better if it has a decent connection to begin with.

Regarding the delay time for your idea #2: The droid is traveling faster than the speed of light to get back to the fleet, so technically he should arrive 5-10 minutes before you send him, not after. Just sayin'.

I thought the Inquisitor class quest got better and better all the way through. It was both a personal journey to power and also had a major impact on the Empire as a whole. (I did it light side for a twist.)

Hold on a sec. Did I miss something about server transfers? When is that coming?

Companions I have read some say these are "just pets" but that's nonsense. They have individual personalities, likes and dislikes. You need to gear them up if you're going to use them in combat. The AI system is very good (BW please make them get out of the fire, TYVM) but you can also control their actions if you want. They fit in well with your character's story line and you can even romance some of them if you want. This is way beyond "pets" in any other MMORPG.

I often heal three-player groups with one companion, or sometimes two players and two companions. I use the ops frame, which is a big help, but I still have two main gripes. (1) The ops frame doesn't show companions. The problem is not only targeting but also knowing that someone else's companion is taking a lot of damage and I need to heal him/her. It would help a lot to keep track of players and companions with one consistent interface in the same spot on the screen. (2) I wish that the game kept separate targets for friends and enemies. I often have to help CC and DPS as well as heal. I enjoyed using the Healbot interface in WoW and I wish we had something like that for TOR.

James Ohlen of BioWare said in an interview with Rock, Paper, Shotgun: "The top three things that people constantly list as the things they enjoy the most about SWTOR are the things that BioWare is famous for. So story, choice, and companions are always the top three." Now let's look at the end game content, both what we have and what we've been promised in the coming updates: PvP: No story, no choices, no companions. Flashpoints: Minimal story, minimal choices, no companions. Operations: Minimal story, minimal choices, no companions. Does anyone else see a disconnect? Am I missing something or not giving the end game content a fair chance?

OP, your title is a great example of how difficult it is to come up with a good search engine for forums. It does not help the reader decide if your thread is likely to be interesting. You could have made it "I fail to understand [TOR graphics design]" If you were trying to keep it short, you could have left out the third and fourth words in your title.

I would rather be playing this game now, in the state it's in, than wait another 6 months for the "perfect" version that will never exist.