^^ Really, this! ^^ Communication should be done through proper channels, marketing should be done through 3rd party websites.

I think the thread title should really be "Stephen Reid dodges questions" A pretty pointless read imho, I can sum most of his answers up quite quickly for anyone not wanting to waste their time Q: What are you doing about blank A: We are aware of blank and have discussed blank. I can't tell you what we will do about it though or when it will be fixed. The only think he was definite on was UI cutomisation coming, but again gave no timescale (for obvious reasons). All in all a generic MMO Q&A - it gives the impression the devs listen without actually giving any info on anything.

In the years between there was clearly an astronomical (boom boom) Universe wide recession. Economic growth stagnated, unemployment went through the roof and funding in new technologies stopped. Bioware have this crash pencilled in as their 4th expansion with the introduction of pawnbrokers where you can sell your older ships, mounts and lightsabers to raise funds. Unfortunately characters in the present day became complacent with the current situation and failed to provide adequately for the future. Just so you know, Yoda is already disappointed in your lack of forward planning.

A fair point, to me a RPG requires a connection with the character you are playing and an immersion in the world you are living in, including the landscape and population of that world, be it other players, creatures or NPCs. I do agree that an MMORPG should live and breath through the other players interacting with each other but your point on storylines not being necessary is interesting. The Sims has no storyline yet I would consider it a type of RPG, now you have me thinking... I like it

Even trolls can [inadvertently] create good talking points

My wife and I were discussing the voice acting the other day as I was saying how much it added to the genre in a big way. The genre being MMORPG, not just MMO which most people prefer to ignore. Or perhaps two different genres are emerging - the MMORPG and the MMO... Point is, in a lot of recent MMOs (only going to cite the ones I have played, I won't speak for any others) - WoW, Aion, Rift - the MMO came first and the RPG could be easily skipped over. Undoubtedly there was always a storyline running in the background, I just didn't really care about it. It very rarely sucked me in and gripped my imagination. The only recent exception I have played was Warhammer which was a fantastic game story wise (a fantastic game generally in conception, just not in execution). In SW:TOR the RPG element comes first, with the MMO bit secondary (in my experience so far). Honestly, I have been so sucked in by my character's story that I have generally ignored the other players around me unless I need help in a flashpoint/group quests. Even small quests have me listening to the plight of some poor sucker whose child has gone missing, or had their heirloom stolen, etc. The cut scenes make me care about the people in the quest, and breaks up the monotony of grinding and fetching (I know that's what I am still doing, it just has more purpose) In essence, all Bioware have done is replaced the quest text from previous MMORPGs with voice acted cut scenes, all other elements seem pretty run-of-the-mill MMORPG stuff (except the companion/crafting which is a great idea - more of a micro management mini game than the boring grinds that crafting seems to have become in other MMORPGs). It is such a minor change in the grand scheme of things yet it makes such a difference. If the story is not much interest to you, I can see how SW:TOR feels like a step backwards in MMORPGs, it doesn't have the fluidity in combat, interchangeable specs, adjustable ui, macros (I hate these) etc, which in terms of gameplay means it lacks any real depth. But this is Bioware, this is story driven content, this is a game revolving round conversations, dialogue options and consequences. This is not another WoW-race-to-end-game-and-roll-out-endless-meaningless-grinds-for-gear type game, not yet anyway. I imagine it will end up there but for now; slow down, take your time, enjoy the story. It will be intersting to see if cut scenes take over from text in MMORPGs. Personally I doubt it, very few companies will be bothered to put in the effort when typing out some text is much cheaper and to the masses has the same effect. Nonetheless, I am glad it has been done and brought some RPG back to the forefront of MMORPGs. It has ofc highlighted other issues as so elequently pointed out by the above poster regarding supposedly powerful characters being asked to do lowly tasks but that is another discussion.