Just to be upfront and honest, SWToR is a huge success, it will be around for a long time, the launch was just a bit to casual for some people. But i guess it's how things are turning with the new console generation!
I have been thinking alot about the current situation of SWToR and the people who play/ed it.
I think there are several huge reasons as to why people aren't sticking around for very long., and none of them have anything to do with the quality of SWToR, which is imo better then any newly launched mmo ever.
1. SWToR was made to easy from the start, before 1.2 you could basically arrive at 50, JUST do 3 hours of pve/pve daily missions for a few days and have epic gear, this being orange gear with 22 mods and tier 1.1-1.2 PvP items.
This is enough to faceroll Hardmode Flashpoints, Normal Operations and even get you into Hardmode Operations.
No wonder players aren't sticking around, they have seen all the content within a month of hitting 50.
2. Many of the people who bought SWToR are tired of WoW because they have played it for soooo long, many of them raiding hardcore.
So when it comes to SWToR, they have tried it all once and have NO wish to do it again.
3. Personally i tried to keep a guild running without using any 3rd part website or tools, this worked sort of fine until everyone had seen all Operations in Normal and we were starting on Hardmodes, people started dropping like flies.
We tried for a month or two to add new members wherever we could find them but they either ended up as the single player type that leveled very slow to 50 or never got there at all, or we just lost player faster then we could find them.
Basically we went though about 100 players in 3 months until just before 1.2 where everybody vanished, i thought they might comes back after 1.2, but they didn't, it's just new existing content, they have tried that several times in WoW, it's not exciting unless you still want to play the existing game.
Had there been a calendar tool from launch or even just a bit later when they took down the swtor guild forum, we would have had a much bigger chance of keeping the guildies interested in events. Thought i'm not sure it would have changed the outcomes.
At lauch 1.2 i had 3 lvl 50, a Tank, Dps and Healer, i had used them all to keep our Operations going, my fourth and final class had just finished chapter 2, this gave me every single buff when i buffed.
Other then that i got NO joy from Legacy content, my Legacy level is 35 but anything beyond 15 is POINTLESS.
I have almost no credits because i spent all my time leveling my alts and legacy level, thus i can't even buy the legacy stuff that aren't bound to legacy level for some stupid reason.
As for the rest of the 1.2 content, the pvp warzone is brilliant, the new gearing system seem much more balanced, while you still get easy gear at 50, they are just blues. I haven't seen the new HM or Operation, but don't really want to see it with randoms.
My Armstech still feels crappy and useless, EVERYBODY that has it can make the new stuff, you still can't sell anything to other players and we don't get a bop at 50, i should have gone Armortech!
My guild is DEAD, another once 500 strong guild that asked us to merge is also DEAD, there are plenty of new and old players but i can't bother to start over.
If there was a ingame tool to advertise our guild like there were in Warhammer, or if my recruitment post on the SWToR forum wouldn't get erased because i bumped it, then i might still keep going with new people, but as it seems now, i'm done after the free month.
But, I WILL BE BACK! Someday....
"But it won't be for no *********** space expansion, i didn't buy it in SWG, and i won't buy it here, if i wanted to play a space game, i would play EVE!"