I'll bite: 1) What is your overall impression of this game? It is a pretty middle of the road MMO to me. It doesn't have the most content nor the least. It has an enjoyable leveling experience and the dungeons are solid enough. For some odd reason I have more fun in this games pvp than most other MMO's. Overall It is a decent game out of the 30 or so MMO's I have played over the last 15 years I would say it probably is sitting around 7 or 8. 2) What aspects of this game do you enjoy? I enjoy the Star Wars lore and the leveling aspect. Flashpoints are good and Ops are decent enough. 3) What aspects of this game do you not enjoy? Space is pretty boring, but that is cliche. I also am not a huge fan of the 100% themepark experience. I enjoy Themepark MMO's and Sandbox MMO's but I think MMO's need a mix of the two and SWTOR may be the single most themepark only MMO I have played. 4) What do you think could be done to improve the things you dont enjoy? I would like to see some Sandbox elements added to the game. Player housing ala EQ2 would be a good start. 5) What would you like to see added to this game in the future? A Full fledged expansion would breath new life into the game (No not this 1 planet or Space crap, I mean a full expansion with 5-7 planets and all new storylines). As I said above Player housing is also something I wish this game had - or at least some form of it.

At this time the go to game for Player Housing is probably EQ2. They have the most robust Housing system of any MMO out there and they embrace it completely. It is integrated into almost everything you do in EQ2 and I really applaud Sony's EQ2 team on making housing something that is not only very useful but can be a ton of fun too. On top of that Sony makes a KILLING on selling Housing related stuff on their market place. They have even said that housing related sales make as much money as them as all other sales combined - which is millions of dollars per month just one housing alone. How other companies cannot look at Sony's Housing model and see the absolutely lucrative business investment it can be is crazy. All F2P MMO's should add housing and then monetize the crap out of it - if you do it right and make it WORTHWHILE and FUN, people will pay. I was not even hardcore into housing and easily spend 200-300 dollars on my houses. But that's the crux of it, You have to do it right and you have to do it completely. You can't limp into it like some MMO's have done - Go all out, make it a good system and people will pay for it...Now I need to go watch Field of Dreams...

500 Cash a month isn't standard? I guess this is your only F2P MMO, cause all the other big MMO's also give 500 Cash a month PLUS they have Veteran Rewards...Why do you think other companies don't give this? All of those MMO's I listed in my previous post give their subscribers 500 Cash for FREE...ON TOP of the Veteran Rewards they also give...I haven't played any Sony game in 6 months, and in that 6 months I have gained 3000 Station Cash PLUS I have gained 6000 Loyalty Points to spend on the Loyalty Vendors in Sony games AND they have given me 5 card packs each month for their card game which have a chance of dropping rare in-game items... And that is just Sony...Turbine, Trion, Funcom, all of them offer similar (though not as good, Sony has the BEST incentive system by far..) systems... So your right, what we get ISN'T standard - Its LOWER than the industry Standard...Frankly, as far as F2P MMO's go, SWTOR is right at the bottom of the barrel for customers loyalty programs...

I can't even respond to this drivel. This is so backwards that I cannot fathom that anyone can actually believe any of this. Every post you make is so completely blinded by an irrational defense of a video game that you cannot hold a conversation anymore. I honestly think you are by far the single most dangerous person on these boards far below the whiners, gripers, and even rage-quiters..at least most of those people give some sort of critical feedback...

lol - The idea that I pay for my EQ sub for Veteran Rewards IS 100% true. I know ALOT of people who do. Is that anecdotal evidence? Sure, but that wasn't the point of my post to begin with. The whole point of this post is to say that while 500 Cartel coins is nice, it is pretty standard in the MMO world, and MOST companies go beyond that to reward their subscribers more. If you compare SWTOR to almost ANY other F2P game MMO on the market, it has one of the worst subscriber benefit packages out there. All the OP is saying is that maybe Bioware should look into making it more competitive by offering the same things that the direct competition offers. My POINT to Andy was that almost EVERY other F2P MMO has some sort of Veteran Reward system ON TOP of giving people free points each month. Andy claimed that veteran systems were not warranted to a F2P game and I pointed out to him/her/it that almost ALL of the "big" F2P MMO's ALL have Veteran programs. So, good job on missing the entire point of my post. Secondly, After 15 years of MMOing, you would be surprised how many people "jump" around MMO's. It is a lot more common than you think it is especially for those of us who have been playing this genre since its inception. I, personally, play EVERY new MMO that comes out to give it a chance. Sometimes I stay for a while, sometimes I don't.

Really Andy? Tell that to almost every other F2P MMO - because almost ALL of them have robust subscriber/veteran rewards - It is another way to KEEP people subscribing. All of Sony's MMO's (All 8 of them) are F2P and EVERY one of them have very large subscriber rewards systems that include everything from Free Player Houses to Cosmetic Armor, to even buying GAME TIME for free...AND you get 500 Station cash each month on top of all of this... All of Turbine's MMO's also have a Veteran program and they are all F2P... Both of Trion's MMO's have Veteran Reward Programs...and they are F2P... AoC, Aion, and GW1 (Soon GW2) have Veteran Reward programs..and they are....F2P... Veteran Rewards make MORE sense for F2P MMO's than Sub MMO's - The goal of F2P is get people to taste the product then hook them with a subscription. Veteran Rewards is another incentive to maintain a subscription over what they already offer. I don't play EQ1 or EQ2 at this time but I still have an active subscription to both games because I get veteran rewards that accrue over time - when I return to those games I will have built up a good bit of rewards and for that I will never unsub to those games. On the other hand, I have absolutely ZERO problems unsubbing SWTOR as soon as I get tired of it because they don't give me ANY incentive to keep my sub open if I am not actively playing the game. I have quit SWTOR 3 different times over the last 2.5 years and Each time I cancelled my subscription immediately. I have quit EQ1/2 multiple times over the same 2.5 years and I have maintained that subscription paying my All Access 20 bucks a month for near 10 years now with no break and it is SOLELY because they offer amazing Veteran rewards that continually accrue over time as long as your sub stays active - and I know for a FACT I am not the only one who does this as almost all of my EQ1 guild doesnt even play anymore, but near ALL of them keep their EQ1 sub active for the same reasons. Sorry Andy, your wrong, your 100% completely wrong...

Best part about the Article IMO. Questioning, Critiquing, and complaining is something that we should ALL be doing all the time. It is how Bioware makes a better game - if we don't tell them what we hate, how do they know we hate it? "To criticize one's country is to do it a service .... Criticism, in short, is more than a right; it is an act of patriotism – a higher form of patriotism, I believe, than the familiar rituals and national adulation." -- U.S. Senator J. William Fulbright P.S. Andryah is Numero Uno for being guilty of the above...

I could support a kick-starter if and ONLY if it is a FULL fledged Expansion - and those who gave up to 40 bucks get the entire expansion for FREE... Otherwise no, I am not paying extra for something that should already be in the game.

I don't care so much about the newbie world chat...but Fleet chat sometimes is beyond reprehensible. I have pretty thick skin and the things that people say on Imp POT5 Fleet is absolutely the worst chat I have ever seen in an MMO - And I played on Illidan Horde for years - So, that should say something... That being said, Pub POT5 is actually pretty tame...I haven't seen much out of the normal on their fleet.

Sad part about this whole thing... Everything he mentioned that they DIDN'T put in sounds infinitely more fun than what they are putting in...

I think a lot of people here are forgetting this is a video game...and sometimes you have to suspend story mechanics for gameplay sake. If they allowed Faction Transfers I can almost guarantee this is what would happen: 0. You must be 50+ to faction transfer 1. You can only transfer into your mirror class, so Jugs to Knight, Sent to Marauder, Slinger to Sniper, etc. 2. All Quests are canceled and all your non Cartel factions are set to 0. 3. You lose all your companions and you gain the companions of your new class (This is where you have to let go of story. It is not feasible for companions to go with you - companions are tied to the class and if you change class you change companions. Does it mess with the story that you lose all your companions and gain a whole new set? Sure, but that's the price of switching sides.) 4. All your new companions start at 0 reputation and you can build up their rep and experience their stories that way. 5. They could either make it where your new class quest is completely reset and you could redo the whole thing (Albeit you are 50+ so the quests will be grey, but you could at least do them to see the story) or they could make it so your entire questline is already completed and you cannot go back and do it (This is probably the easier of the two options from a pure coding sense.) I mean to think that it would work any other way than that is pretty ridiculous.

I just want to point out that there is about 0 chance of Eq next coming out Next spring. They are still in DESIGN phase for the game (They scrapped the entire game 2 years ago and started all over) - they haven't even developed all their classes yet. They released the information about EQ Next early because "they want the players to make the decisions with them" and its been pretty interesting to see them open up polls and let players vote on game changing issues such as contested content etc... I am very hopeful that EQ Next is great as I love the EQ franchise as a whole - But the earliest were gonna see EQ Next is November 2014, more than likely March of 2015... They haven't even announced an beta yet...

While the idea of PVP Space Flight seem very interesting, the idea of PvE Space Events seem even more interesting to me. I know they said it is PvP at launch but that doesn't mean in the future they may not add PVE into it. For instance say you have a raid and your fighting a boss and when the boss gets down to a certain amount he runs off and gets in his ship and takes off for space (Think Multistage bosses). The guild then has to get in their ships and follow him and then you fight some huge capital ship or something with multiple PvE objectives from defeating fighters to taking out turrets to boarding the ship or even destroying it... Would be neat.

I was going to leave it alone, because frankly this conversation was over. I won't convince you and you won't convince me but you brought me up so I'll at least respond to that. What I find somewhat sad here is you are touting that going to another country halfway across the world and "giving them democracy" and then "rebuilding their schools" etc, is actually something I care about? Have you not been listening to the News the last 8 years or so? The American people are sick and tired of our Military doing just what you describe. Poll after poll has Americans voting AGAINST these wars and against the rebuilding of these nations. You are not there as some righteous hand of God come to make their lives better - you are there as part of the imperialistic American culture that we have developed over the last 50 years. You want to do something actually heroic? Quit the military and come back here to America and help Habitat for Humanity. Stop building homes and schools and roads in Afghanistan and start building them here in America. You question my patriotism - I question yours as you seem more excited to build infrastructure for the Middle East than you do for America itself. Saying that Middle Eastern people come up to you and thank you makes me kind of sick. I wonder how many AMERICAN citizens (You know the ones you were sworn to actually protect) would be thankful to have that kind of help too, but you don't actually help AMERICAN citizens do you? Now I am not blaming soldiers for this. It is just your job. It is the politicians who are to blame for all this, but do I regard soldiers as some holier than thou person? Absolutely not - there are plenty of more noble professions than Military Service. Oh and as far as the Military IQ thing: Here is a link from 2008 about the lowering standards of the US Military: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/war_stories/2008/01/dumb_and_dumber.html It was only until a couple months ago did the Military start to re-raise those standards again - so yes, the Military IQ has been dropping since 2006 and will remain as such for many years to come as old members get out and new recruits get in. This whole thing started because the OP wanted to know why Military people always seem to want to show that service on the outside so that everyone knows that they are Military. The answer is simple, they are proud of being in the military, and good for them...that doesn't make them special people or better than anyone else.

Understand though that IF the pvp is being designed with DAOC in mind then that single PvP zone will be the size of about 8-10 planets in SWTOR and will consist of at least 36 different PvP world objectives including Keep taking and Relic Raiding (PvP Raiding) - DAOC's "Frontier" aka your "1 pvp zone" easily took 20-30 minutes just to run from one end to the other... Seriously, for those who didn't play DAOC you missed out on the single best pvp experience this genre has ever offered. If Zenimax can do 50% of what DAOC was it will make it the very best pvp game on the Market - there won't even be a comparison.

ESO is being made, in large part, by the original DAOC designers. Their pvp also is pretty much a carbon copy of that game. If it truly is DAOC PvP then it will, by far, be the best pvp MMO out there - considering DAOC is, by far, the best pvp MMO ever released to date. On the other hand Wildstar seems much more PvE focused than ESO does - I imagine ESO will be the better of the two for PvP and Wildstar better for PvE.

So explain to me how Military Service Members kept a "vigil" to prevent that "Freedom" from being disparaged? You can't - because that particular egregious act against the constitution had absolutely nothing to do with the Military. Remember this post is about how the MILITARY protects our freedom's. Did the Military stomp into the IRS office and force them to right their wrong and admit their mistakes? Did the Military head to Washington and imprison those who acted against the constitution? Did the military do ANYTHING to prevent this one freedom from being trampled on? No, it didn't. So how exactly did the Military do ANY good in this situation? The answer is, it didn't we could have very well not had a military whatsoever and it would have made absolutely 0 difference in the example you gave. This thread is not about how Freedoms can be trampled on, it is about how the MILITARY protects those freedoms. In the case you said the Military was so inconsequential that it was almost as if they didn't even exist. So how did you, as a Military Service Member, have ANY impact on our freedom? The answer is really quite simple - You didn't. Yes Freedom can be taken away, but it doesn't take a Military to keep those freedom's intact. It takes intelligent, level headed, human beings who work together to keep those freedom's going. The Military doesn't even factor into the equation. Last but not least, you keep spouting that my "limited knowledge" of what it takes to uphold freedom means that I will never understand. On the other hand I assert that you have been so indoctrinated by the Military machine that you cannot see the truth past your own rhetoric. I believe your quote about freedom is true, but just because something has to be "fought" for doesn't mean that it is "fought" with a gun.

I never said that I did not respect Military members, I do. It takes a lot of "intestinal fortitude" to do what soldiers do. What I was saying was that I do not believe that Military Members are in some way "better" than anyone else in the world and there are a lot of people, Military and not who believe that Military members are indeed "better" than anyone else. That all being said, I find the rhetoric that comes from the Military machine to be sad at times and others downright dangerous. That these people have been so indoctrinated to believe the things they say, is downright scary. Everytime I hear a Military members say they are fighting for our freedoms, It reminds of that old G.W. Bush speech where he spouted: "I'd rather fight them over there than over here..." Which in the last 10 years as been shown to be utter nonsense. So, let me ask you...If terrorists were able to bomb every city in the United States, do you believe that we would somehow "lose" the freedoms that we have? Assuming you do, then you sir are part of that: "lowering the IQ". Just because a terrorists bombs somewhere, or shoots up a mall, or kills some embassy workers - doesn't mean we are "losing our freedom." We still have those same rights and freedom's that we have had for the past 200+ years. People lose their freedom when we stop questioning our government. When we start letting the government take away our freedoms because we are scared of what might happen. We lose our freedom when we give entities, such as the Military, the power to tell us that they are directly responsible for those freedoms. Those freedoms that you tout are not granted by you or sustained by you, they are granted by the Constitution and sustained by that Constitution. Freedom is not maintained at the end of a barrel - it is maintained by our intelligence - Freedom is an idea sir, not something we can shoot at or kill. "They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Benjamin Franklin Lastly, the notion that our Military Might is the only thing that keeps other nations from invading us is laughable at best. In a world where we can kill each other without ever stepping foot outside of our own borders, the idea that a physical military is the "deterrent" to hostile action is ridiculous. Note how the Physical military is being replaced quickly by unmanned drones and long range missiles. You are being phased out of combat because you are not needed anymore - we can accomplish our imperial goals through machines now. It's 2013 our Freedom's are secure - if you want to make a difference, go home and be something that can directly help American's - like curing the sick and weak or teaching our youth to be more productive and better citizens.

Now this is where I have the problem. Men and Women in the armed forces like to come out and tout that they are somehow directly responsible for the rights that all Americans possess - or if not directly responsible then they at least say they are "protecting" those freedoms? What are you protecting them from? Is someone going to burn down the Constitutionif you are not in the Armed Forces? I am sorry to say that but our "Freedoms" that you think you are protecting were fought for and won over 200 years ago by Colonists fighting on North American soil. They won a war and sacrificed their lives in order for us to have those freedoms - and to THOSE people I appreciate their sacrifice and thank god they gave their lives so that we can have this country we have. You, on the other hand, joined up to go play soldier in meaningless wars that do nothing to protect anything in America. You see there is a difference between someone who fought for the RIGHTS of American citizens by ousting a tyrannical government and someone who goes overseas and beats up on little countries that have a snowball's chance in you know what of ever actually seriously hurting the U.S. In summation, no, I don't believe that Military members are sacrificing to "preserve" some way of life - that way of life was preserved a long time ago...I believe that most military members are there because they either had few other options for a lasting career (as evidenced by the lowering IQ of the Military in general) or they just want to kill people...

Ok, Ill say it, I agree with the OP. While I consider the military a worthy cause for a profession I don't think people should be treated or get special attention because of that chosen career. In my town (We have an air force base here) they have started throwing up billboards all over the place talking about "soldiers first" and "Give them your place in line". I call it a crock. They chose that career path. No one drafted them into the Air Force. This isn't Vietnam and people are not being forced to join the military - this is a choice they made. Why would I give up my place in line for a Military member anymore than a policeman, fireman, or even a teacher (who are just as important imo). I don't consider Military members above reproach or above anyone else in society, they just chose a career path that could end in their death - same as a lot of other careers. P.S. My grandfather is a Colonel in the Air Force, so I do have some connection to the military - It doesn't change my opinion though.

That is funny. When I see people in game with the Founder title I immediately assume they are generally an MMO newbie and know very little about the MMO genre at large. Why do I think this? Simple really, because if you played this game in month one and at any point thought this game was a good enough to pay 15 bucks for, then I must assume you are quite literally insane or stupid...both which are not redeeming qualities. This game was terrible for a long time after launch. People who support games that are released in as terrible a shape that SWTOR was only perpetuate the problem with the gaming industry as a whole. Only in gaming can you release a half completed product that doesn't even work right and people will throw money at you.

SWTOR exists now at the whim of Disney, though with the recent license negotiations between EA and Disney it seems SWTOR may be around for some time. Then again from reading the press on the agreement it was an "Expansion" on the license that EA already has for SWTOR. Which means that it MAY or MAY NOT have extended the license time for SWTOR itself, and only future titles. Disney very well could come back and deny EA the license depending on the terms of the deal. EA has put so much money into SWTOR there is no way they would shut it down unless it started losing money (Which it wont at this point cause they would just fire people at Bioware till it was a skeleton crew) - It really all depends on Disney.

While the OP's original point is kind of dumb in that it would be near impossible to switch engines at this time, he does have one good point: The hero engine is one of the worst engines out there. If you don't know what the Hero engine is or its history you should google it sometime - you would laugh if it didn't make you cry knowing that Bioware actually used it to make SWTOR...

SWTOR was a pretty big flop at the start. From game breaking bugs to overcrowded servers which lead to a massive server spike to ghost town servers that were left way too long... Lets just say Bioware didn't endear themselves to the MMO community much. On top of all that it was touted that this game cost 200 million to make and how awesome it would be and yet we all found out at launch that while the leveling was decent enough, you got to 50 and there was literally NOTHING to do. Like 2 Flashpoints and they were both completely bugged. All of this stayed a problem for months after release and so people quit in droves because at the time SWTOR was a pretty bad game. Has it gotten better? Yes, but if you went to a new restaurant and the food was undercooked, the waiter took your order then never came back, and you had to wait 2 hours for the check - would you go back and what would you tell your friends? Same thing as what happened to SWTOR. Vanguard had the same exact problem...Vanguard is an amazing MMO now but no one plays it because of the horrible rap it got at launch (And well deserved).

It will be a good title in 5 years when everyone now playing has quit and only a few people still have it. Everytime I pull out my Original CE pets in WoW you would think I just set Orgrimmar on fire or something at the amount of people who stop...