As much as you're exaggerating the lack of raids in LotrO (their last raid cluster was in 2013), there are extremely few things LotrO does better than SWTOR and marketing is not one of them. Their F2P model is IMO better, their cosmetic/outfit system is/was better and they have a LOT more scaled raids/flashpoints than SWTOR. The question is rather how far the new players get before they give up. http://www.swtor.com/info/news/news-article/20141126 from before SoR came out shows 57 million created characters and yet only 6.8 million progressed to the point where they got their Starship (which is like lvl 13-18). Of course this metric in itself is not enough to really conclude anything but it's IMO a poor metric for SWTOR and one that shows they might have to improve those first 10-15 levels of gameplay.

One thing is releasing this armor so early but this armor looks plain bad IMO. The helm looks cool but the rest looks so bad on that Twitter picture...

Metrics only tell part of the story. Don't get me wrong, Story in this game is the most essential part and probably always will be. GSF, PvP and Ops players are minorities. However, the reason these minorities are as small as they are is totally on Bioware and their incompetence. Many play Story because that's the only part of the game they're interested in. However, how many play Story only because the introduction to Ops in-game is non-existent? Because joining an Ops takes way too much effort to the point where it can take more time finding a group and learning tactics than actually playing that Operation? The same goes for PvP where you'll be thrown straight into a Warzone without any introduction to rules or gameplay without a single second of tutorials or the like to try it out. Even for gamemodes where they TRIED to make a tutorial (GSF) they fall flat. The tutorial for GSF is absolutely terrible and does almost nothing to introduce players into the mayhem they can end up against since Veteran players can go against first time players. Even for those who break through that beginners' barrier, it's not like there's a bucket of gold at the end. Especially PvP and GSF lack improvements and new additions to the gamemodes to keep them alive and active. They gave us all the PR bull**** about how Disciplines will make it easier for them to balance the game, yet we're seeing massive balance changes to healing 3 months before a new expansion where they can start all over with balancing as the classes will get new abilitiies.

Well, game play footage would only excite the crowd if the gameplay is exciting. Consider Ziost here. The gameplay itself was pretty much the usual MMO "kill this, collect that" in every single mission with the cutscenes providing the exciting bits. I'd bet the same will be the case for KotFE if not even more emphasis on cut-scenes.

The amount of viewers on Twitch is ultimately meaningless except the obvious PR that comes with it. There are extremely popular streamers who have viewers who follow the streamer and not the games. Streamers like LIRIK could play the worst game ever and still pull in more concurrent viewers than SWTOR has ever had. I just doubt we'll see LIRIK play SWTOR anytime soon unless he gets paid for it: As for hardcore gaming that is solely down to the SWTOR developers. This game is simply not as well engineered as their competitors. The combat doesn't have the flow other games have. Competitive PvP is meaningless when the good players are spread out on 17 different servers. The game engine is lacking when it comes to actual MMO gaming, a Viewer Raid like many streamers do in WoW simply wouldn't be as smooth as it is in WoW and even the biggest overclocked computer can still be brought to its knees in some SWTOR 16 man fights.

Trooper + nice Ilum background http://imgur.com/a/OdQn3#19 Cassus Fett and the true Hero of the Galaxy : http://imgur.com/a/dIKdG#6 Assassin: http://imgur.com/a/XFI3O#5

There's definitely players who prefer SW over WoW, myself included, but it doesn't change that WoW still has a massive lore and story about it. What SWTOR does better is delivering it in cinematic cutscenes. Once you're used to the cinematics, going back to text in WoW (and LotRO) is rough. The few cutscenes WoW have are usually really good, some of them even better than SWTOR IMO: Well it does depend on where you look and whether you bother to read the quests. Still, WoW has a ton of good story in it and these guys have picked some of the better areas incase you want to revisit:

Except WoW delivers story at the same time using their Dungeons and Raids. Sure, WoW don't come with the fully voiced dialogue and the illusion of choice but it still comes with a ton of story and lore through quests, dungeons and raids.

There's several reasons exploiting Ravagers was bad: 1. In severals pugs it meant the groups simply dissolved after fourth boss because people wanted to save their last boss lock for doing the exploit. People who didn't exploit thus had a harder time finding groups to complete the operation properly and get the Group Finder comms reward. 2. A player who gets loot through the exploit had an unfair advantage over non-exploiters for getting into groups. If a group/raid leader were to pick between 2 players for the last spot: a player with 186/192 gear (who didn't exploit) and a player with 192/198 gear (who did exploit), chances are the bestgeared player (the exploiter) got the spot - if nothing else then simply to have fewer people needing the gear drops. 3. Characters who do the exploit had easy access to 192 gear, so other players who crafted 186/192 gear to sell had fewer potential customers.

One thing is competence, but the WoW team is probably a lot larger than SWTORs. While Bioware split their team to work on SWTOR and Shadow Realms during 2013 and 2014, Blizzard was expanding their WoW group bigtime during Cataclysm and Mists of Pandaria: http://wow.mmosite.com/news/08272013/wow_becomes_a_life_long_game_for_team_size_increasing_40_more_content_expected.shtml Well, as the WoW Lead Designer present at Gamescom said: "We will be also talking about Dungeons and Raids. We have got to have Dungeons and Raids.".

That just means those players will be joining on their poorly geared alts instead, meaning the run will be less smooth and you'll still be rolling against them - if your group get there at all. Arrange proper loot rules before doing Ops, e.g. "only one piece per player" and/or "only need on things you need on your current character". If they can't accept that, kick them or find a different group.

1. It's perfectly soloable for several classes. Even if your current class can't solo it, you can just log out near the datacron, solo it on a different class and then relog your class that needs it. Even if you don't have an alt that can solo it, 1 person helping is enough. 2. Having problems finding players is down to several issues, the main one being lack of Cross server. 3. The content in question is really old content, many players have already done it (or know that they can solo it) and there's zero incentive to do it more than once (just like the GSI/Seeker Droid missions).

Lets see if the Datacrons will even be functional now that they're scrapping main stats lol...

Because the content and architecture isn't good enough. If you're not fuzzed about Lightsabers and choking people from afar, the raids and PvP in other MMOs are simply better. The game engine is keeping tons of players from enjoying 16 man (or more) content because FPS goes single digit even if you put the game on very low settings. The lack of Cross/Mega servers is keeping players from connecting and competing properly with other players. 90CC transfers solved some of it but in the end the competition in PvP is scarred by low population on each server rather than one or two big population(s) on each continent. PvP Leaderboard is nice and all but you can't play against even 10% of the top players unless you play on several servers. Then there's the amount of endgame content. There's been no new PvP map for over a year and Bioware are quietly ignoring their own "11 months between each raid cluster in not acceptable" comment now that we know we won't be seeing a new Operation before 2016.

Sure, in a massive chaos of lightsabers, explosions and blaster shots those blue lights are so attention catching This. I can see the plus in getting the different blasters but his armor went from being detailed and special to look like a recycled Subversive Jacket. This also matches the findings on torcommunity.com... Do please show where. I have only seen the detailed one until KotFE was announced.

Well, two wrongs don't make a right.

You may have more luck if you ask in the server forum: http://www.swtor.com/community/forumdisplay.php?f=390

The Oricon way of handling story content was definitely bad but the whole expansion without a single new flashpoint, warzone or operation stinks even more IMO. One thing is allowing solocontent as that is a must but now there's basically zero grounds for playing anything but solo through this new expansion unless you play content that came out before the expansion. One thing is not liking group content or interacting with other players (but then an MMO isn't really your type of game to begin with), but you also need to consider the state of group content in this game. The whole "SKIP" issue revolves around there not being a Group Finder mode/option made for automatically skipping conversations so you can have a queue for enjoying the story and a queue for rushing through the place. Finding a proper guild or group is made harder through the lack of Cross server because the group/guild that fits your playstyle and playtimes perfectly just might happen to be on another server. PUGs definitely have its fair share of scrubs but that's just how it goes with multiplayer games. Properly enjoying group content takes some time investment to find the right people/guild and you're clearly unwilling to make that investment. That doesn't make group content bad, it just means it might not be for you. If anyone needs to "relegate your timetable" for this guild then you have clearly not found the guild(s) that suits you yet.

From this tweet: However, is that not exactly what you just did? Here's the picture on Twitter https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CL-bYDdWsAANZ46.jpg:large Here's an older picture from 2011 or 2012: http://db94.rebellegion.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/SWTOR_Smuggler_Final.jpg So many cool details gone with the new picture

... except players could then just make gear that looks like Revan Reborn, Valiant Jedi or other sets that already exists in game and pretty much stop Bioware from earning money on Cartel armor/packs?

Alternatively they could perhaps do like Lord of the Rings Online did some years ago. LotrO allowed certain players (they focused on armor bloggers like https://cosmeticlotro.wordpress.com/2013/01/08/poll-dressing-up-the-mannequins-3/ ) to create custom armor sets using armor pieces that already exist in the game. Additionally they could perhaps allow these sets to come with minor alterations like removing the backpack/hood/buttflap/etc from the armor piece for this specific playermade armor set. This way the armor pieces themselves are already BW property, hopefully solving the problem DOHboy mentioned.

No? The http://www.swtor.com/fallen-empire/rewards page kinda suggests otherwise...

I would prefer Bioware for once actually follow through with the stuff they say they will do. PR-bull***** like "Choices that matter" and "Return to Bioware storytelling" means nothing when they keep going back on their word.

lol'd. You seriously prefer that mishmash of cutscenes (cutscenes we will see anyway once KotFE is out) over another Blur Cinematic? That's an even more ridiculous statement than Bioware calling this a 'gameplay trailer'. At least with Blur you know you get top quality stuff. I'd throw money every month towards Blur rather than Bioware if it meant we'd get Blur SW(TOR) cinematics/movie once in a while.

That's completely irrelevant. Noone forced them to name it a gameplay trailer, that was their own doing. They could have called it something else, e.g. In-game trailer.