Wrong. An MMORPG provides an online persistent world(s) in which other player characters exist. What I do with my time is up to me. And no, I won't "get mad" (which is a thoroughly dumb statement) - if the game doesn't provide me, a predominately solo player, with a gearing path that is fun & interesting then I will unsub and play something else.

Lotro is very immersive from a world building perspective, so that's where I suspect they gave the graphics that score.

Hmm....this was my experience with the new content:

I'm getting radom item levels from boss drops that are blow my that of my character. Currently item level 277 and receiving 272s from fp bosses and, oddly, gear for other specialisations - playing a ruffian and got two sniper rifles today...

LOTRO? Are you serious? 1. End game based around lootbox gambling, with RMT sellers now plaguing /world selling black steel keys. 2. No viable catch up for new players. Want to get to end game? Then you need to grind through hours and hours & thousands of quests to get class trait points, or spend ££££s on a lvl 105 boost that costs about 4* the amount as the equivalent swtor one does. 3. Legendary item progression that uses the store as the primary catch up mechanism. 4. A subscription that doesn't give you access to all the content. Still be prepared to buy all 5 expacs. Indeed it's well known that the subscription is terrible value for money once the player is out of the first 50 levels of content. 5. Subscribers still need to buy beorning class & high elf race. Sure lotro is great for f2p but because most players don't sub, SSG has monetised each and every aspect of the game to the point where subscribers often end up paying twice - even more so if they are on catch up. I know this because I've played lotro since May 2007. SWTOR in comparison at least gives you everything as a subscriber.

Bioware should be able to deliver end-game raid content - Turbine put out a new raid in Lotro back in 2016 and that game's run on a shoestring. It's all a question of management priorities.

This was a problem with the server merges in LOTRO last year. In the end, Turbine responded by giving people a ton of extra free character slots.

WoW is my main MMO and I don't see even a fraction of the money seller spam as there is here in SWTOR. That being said, WoW token's popularity is significantly boosted by its ability to be used to buy in-game services and other Blizzard games. Not that we would ever see a SWTOR token being usable for the purchase of other EA/Bioware games but who knows.

That's the point - what Blizzard did with WoW allowed guilds to remain exactly as they were - but with the bonus of a much bigger community to recruit against. Well worth researching the facts next time before trying to be smart...

Just follow the approach that Blizzard took with world consolidation in WoW - bigger communities and none of the nonsense such as character & guild name contentions. Any other approach is just idiotic.

It's only when favouritism becomes so rampant, along with the associated sycophancy, that the time will come to stand up and demand it stop. Otherwise people will just carry on denying it and you'll be classified as a whiner. Better to wait until the evidence is undeniable and overwhelming - if that ever happens. Back in lotro, it got to the point where we had a shadow community established for all those who were banned from the official forum for criticising the game, the producers and the CM. For those of us who spoke out, we were on the end of a witch hunt and it was very unpleasant. There's nothing like that over here in this forum community from what I can see.

Having been a long-time LOTRO player, where we had a community manager who really did demonstrate overt favouritism to particular players & kinships (guilds) ever an extended period, this particular example doesn't look much like that.

Uprisings? HM Flashpoints? But you're right - I should have stayed in quest drops & been happy for it. Thanks for the troll. /overandout.

I appreciate that Bioware doesn't want to have "negative" feedback, but as a casual player who has played & subbed since launch & doesn't do operations or pvp, the current rng for reasonable gear progression is just too much. Bioware should have stayed with the old 4.x system - at least there was a defined path rather than crossing my fingers and hoping for the best each and every time I opened a crate. I'm not going to waste any more of my money on this.

Oh the humanity! A massive American multinational that only cares about the money. Who would have thought that....

Not often I come across a total and utter, 100% complete failure of a post, but thanks for serving this one up on a plate with pink ribbons and chocolate sprinkles. Anyone who works in either corporate or retail-focussed IT will know that you will have layers of senior management & various investment boards to get through before having the money to hire the 20 people to deliver your "business plan". But in your world, I suspect money just grows on trees. One day you'll get a job in the real world and will find out just how hard it is to set out and deliver against a plan that has imposed on you an almost contradictory set of expectations. But hey, you've knocked up a couple of board games in your spare time so what do i know

"Alts shouldn't have to do everything a main character did to earn something, but there still should be a reasonable amount of gameplay." Source - WoW Dev Q&A (MMO Champion - http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/6170-Legion-Developer-Q-A-Ion-Hazzikostas)

Most MMO publishers (there are some noble exceptions) have been pulling this sort of scam for years now - pacing progression in such a way that customers are tempted to purchase a shortcut. It's hardly new. So on that basis why on earth are so many here on this thread wailing & crying "oh woe is me" at the horror that Bioware & EA are doing the same? Either accept the game, warts and all or just give up, leave and go and play something where the "Store" doesn't feature in core gameplay. Simples when you think about it.

This entire thread is based on someone reporting 2nd hand speculation. Perhaps wait for some evidence first?

As someone who has played and still does play a number of MMOs over the years, I find the level sync system adds a new dimension to the game that overall is positive - much of the drudgery from the levelling experience has been removed and older out-levelled content now has relevance and currency. I fail to understand why players cannot adapt to the fact that the HC content takes a little longer than would have been the case of LS was not implemented. More so it sounds ludicrous that people want to steamroller through what should be end-game content in order to obtain the alliance rewards when it's already easy enough. Perhaps Bioware should have implemented a new lvl 65 daily zone for the alliance system but I cannot see that happening now. Alternatively I would rather Bioware resolved the awful situation with tactical FPs and revert those back to the previous system of level ranges & tank / heal / 2 dps party requirement.

As someone who also plays LOTRO (Bango on Laurelin) I'd like to state here that the 10% figure you're quoting has never been validated. Indeed Turbine have never confirmed exactly what it is 10% of. So probably best not to make use of that as the foundation for a premise. The other point is that whilst not everyone may raid in an MMO, it is something that others may well consider doing at a later date and will want it as a game option. As we've found in other MMOs and also with LOTRO, there are variants on the raid theme that encourage people to give it a try - LFR in WoW and raid skirmishes in LOTRO for example. There are many shades of grey between the white of the new player at lvl 10 who is just starting and the black of the seasoned hardcore mythic/NiM raider and the most successful MMOs know how to make that work to their advantage.

I'm a casual SWTOR player - but a constant subscriber since 2012 - and on balance I see level scaling as a good idea. Why? - Content on planets remains relevant regardless of the actual accrued level of my character. - I have more discretion as to how I level - whether I want to do so just by running heroics or working through an entire planet at the expense of another is now my choice. - There will no longer be those lvl 60s who hover the the mats that I was going to collect but couldn't because I too busy killing the mobs nearby. - Most importantly, I can see there being more activity on planets running heroics as the exp rewards make it worthwhile to do so. On the other hand, getting rid of HC4s is disappointing.

I was just referring to in general to those on this thread who don't see an issue with what's happened. However I would have thought that violation of a TOS would have resulted in some form of sanction by default, as otherwise, why have a TOS? I have no sympathy for those who get their account banned on a permanent as a result of engaging in an exploit on multiple occasions and encouraging others to do so - don't want the punishment then don't abuse the exploit over and over. If this game's finances are so precarious that Bioware should avoid permanent sanctions as it would "loose customers" then so be it though by avoiding their obligations to the rest of their customers it will lose a lot more if it doesn't as it's reputation would be laughable.

Interesting how some people here don't see any issue with looting a boss chest whilst not actually being in the raid that killed said boss. For me that's a fundamental principle of raiding - that you get a reward for contributing to the kill. Perhaps times have changed and it's now all about getting as much "phat lewtz" rather than enjoying the shared experience and to hell with the wider consequences. What's certain is that the game will be the poorer for it if this sort of behaviour is seen to be tolerated.

I'm not an avid SWTOR player - other MMOs have my attention right now and I do enjoy raiding in those - however a key issue for me is that in any MMO the lowest tier of raiding content is accessible to those who are moving up from solo / small group content, otherwise how on earth to new players and those slightly behind the "gear curve" actually progress. So reading your points above, if it is true that as a result of this, players are inflating the base gear level required story-mode ops, not because of any issues of difficulty but no doubt because "allows for a smooth run" then those who have cheated the system should be banned. If someone wants to cheat the system and gain better gear without completing content that's one thing, negatively impacting other players who don't cheat is a whole new issue and one that should not be acceptable. Or put it another way, when I queue next for a SM opps via the group finder on my main who "only" has 186 and a few 192 items then what should I expect?