The bases in SWG were a great way to stimulate PvP. Player bases were HUGE pre-CU, and people would fight tooth and nail to take them out or defend them. Even if they aren't player-created, bases that are either static and capturable or player-created and destroyable are great for promoting world PvP and getting people to really care about PvP as a whole. I think they could do a lot in this regard, even just with static bases (like post-NGE SWG had), but I think we should give it some time for them to work out bugs in existing content (such as it is) and for players to catch up. And, of course, hope for expedient addition of new PvP and PvE content.

Right now, most players are below this level (http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=897980#edit897980), and it's very noticeable. At least on my server, you can go from maybe 120+ people on Dromund Kaas down to maybe 30 on Corellia. Most players are just leveling slowly, and issues like low population on Ilum and having difficulty finding groups will become less of an issue as time goes on and people catch up to those players who level more quickly. Granted, they may not have too many people to catch up to if many issues are not addressed (e.g. lots of bugs in PvE content, Huttballzones, character responsiveness etc.), but here's to hoping they will address all these things soon. To the OP, I'm not sure what your previous MMO experiences includes (saw SWG, played for a number of years myself ), but the gear treadmill is pretty standard fare these days. I like to think of it as getting gear to get gear to get gear, and it is ultimately what keeps the behemoth that is WoW afloat. Until they add more tiers of Ops, there isn't a lot of point re-running them a whole bunch. PvP will need some sort of ranked system for players to compete in (I believe this was mentioned by Gabe as something that may be coming), otherwise it too is just a mindless gear grind. But the whole Huttball thing needs to be addressed too.

2am CST isn't peak time for anyone in the US. I think it's kind of annoying for Europeans, it ends up being like 10am to 6pm, something weird like that.

Very true. I believe I read from a yellow the other day that the majority of players are in the <30 zones right now, and yes--there is new content coming with 1.1. New to us, anyway, as it seems it was intended for launch but wasn't quite ready. Still, new content is new content. The biggest issue I see right now is that a lot of the end-game content is bugged all to hell, and this is bad--obviously because we want working content, but also because the people running it right now constitute what is probably one of the most vocal segments of MMO gamers: power gamers and MMO vets. If they're having a bad time, they're going to tell people about it, and they're not likely to stick around too long if it looks like the issues plaguing the current end-game are not going to be addressed quickly. This could have a very detrimental impact on the game.

While the leveling process in TOR is probably the most enjoyable out of any MMO I've played yet, and is jam-packed full of lovely voice-acting, it is not what will ultimately keep players subscribing to TOR. The only unique part between characters will be class story; otherwise, every planet will be exactly the same. People will get tired of leveling alts just to see different stories. Granted, there's always the option to roll the other faction, but ultimately you run into the same problem. If you enjoy playing through planet and class stories, great! I do not mean to demean this at all, and I personally really am enjoying leveling so far, though I'm working on my first alt and not relishing running through the whole gambit of planets again. However, end-game is what keeps subscriptions. Call it what you will, it's the gear treadmill that keeps players p(l)aying.

But you're wrong. WoW isn't dead.

Yes, but paying for video games=real life. If you know you are going to be gone for an extended period of time, the solution is to cancel your account and reactivate it when you can play again. There is no "sleep" option. Just curious, but what games do you know of that have this feature?

Yes, it should be Ctrl+Shift+F. The numbers will appear in the lower left-hand corner of your screen. If this is not working, you can try downloading the trial version of Fraps and enable its FPS monitor.

I'm assuming there's a period in which the name cannot be taken again, but I have no idea how long that is.

This.

You're counting specs, and not actual numbers of players in each role. As Blizzard keeps discovering, even if you offer players the choice to go for a less-played role within their class, you can't force them to choose it. Someone who is an avid DPSer will only DPS, even if they could theoretically respec into tanking/healing.

I'm on a pretty decent laptop, which of course translates to a pretty low-end PC all things considered. Went from nigh-unplayable sub-10 FPS in most areas to playable at 20+ by turning off shadows.