Welcome back! The questions you asked are mostly based on opinion. There really isn't a class that you "should" play. What types of characters do you like to play? What is your preferred gameplay style (dps, healing, tank)? Which story interests you the most? As far as spending money on the cartel market, buy whatever you want, or wait until you have leveled a character to see what it is you want/need.

Interested in starting a fresh character, but hope to level with a group. Any new players interested?

Looking to start a new character with a group and do a 100% completion run. Anyone interested? ** EDIT ** Nevermind. Found some people on The Harbinger. Thank you.

Casual? Really? My wife, her friend, and I just finished Athiss without a single incap/death. As a healer, I did more DPS that I ever would have thought possible. Only threw out a heal once an a while, mainly so we didn't have to stop to heal between encounters. The funny part.......my wife and her friend were also playing some other game on their phones at the same time. I never should have shown her how to "follow." There is no challenge anymore. There is no sense of accomplishment. There is no real fun. I am so glad that I didn't have to actually buy the game for my wife and friend, like I did. I only regret that I actually paid for subs. Oh well, I tried. Should've just went to the movies :/

I hadn't played SWTOR in a while, until today. After waiting 4 hours for the patch to install I was eager to begin a new character. I was even starting with two other people (my wife and her friend) so I made sure we were all subscribed, and ready to go. Ugggg....why did I do it? This is not the same game I loved and was eagerly returning to. Things seemed just fine until I reached level 10 and was choosing my advanced class. I don't really understand what happened? Where are my skill trees? Why can I no longer create my own unique blend of a character? I used to immediately stop progression when I gained a level just to spent time deciding where I wanted to stick that new skill point. Now I have to wait multiple levels before I get to make a semblance of a character decision. But I was still able to go on. Hey, I can try something new. Then I get to fleet and decide to do the Black Talon FP. What is Tactical Flashpoint? Solo Flashpoint?. Tactical: sounds a bit more difficult, require good group organization. NOT AT ALL! It was so easy that not a single heal needed to be used. Healing items at every major encounter. The healer, my character, could stand and tank the bosses as well. No class rolls required, just run in and DPS till dead. And this was with level sync taking me from level 14 to 10. Feeling a little befuddled, I kept going. My wife and friend were getting bored. Then came Hammer Station. I remember my first time playing hammer station. I bought the preorder collector's edition, so I made hammer station before actual game release. It was tough, but that final boss was brutal. We died multiple times before beating the FP. This time? Simple. Once again, my healer was not needed. Out tank...useless. The boss went down without ever a concern of failing on our part. Hmm...maybe Tactical does not imply a challenge. I don't know what to do. There is no fun in the game. Nothing to make me want to continue. Level sync that makes no sense outside of group context; that is, level syncing a group for content is one thing, but if I revisit Korriban as a level 65 Dark Lord, those peon acolytes that I beat when I was an acolyte should not be a challenge at all. The story? Awesome. Great job as always, BioWare.

I do not particularly care for the level sync either. I especially dislike that it is one way. No one ever scales upward, only downward. When I leave my starting planet at approximately level 12, why can't I go to Illum and scale up? Essentially, it would be the same thing. Low level worlds will offer the same challenge when I revisit them as a more powerful character, so I should find the same challenge while visiting higher level worlds. I have not had any issues with the story, as a whole. I come back to see the new story additions with each expansion. I will say that this will be my last return, but that is my preference. To me, the game has changed so much, and deviated so far from the game I had enjoyed, that even the story is not worth my investment any more. I no longer feel that I am given the ability to make choices; my class is pre-designed with very little tailoring for my play style - too cookie cutter, I can now choose my companion's role though. I guess you trade your own autonomy to gain control over something else's. I know people will say that there wasn't autonomy before; that the majority went by "accepted" builds or the status quo, but we can agree to disagree on that.

Hey all, I am starting a toon on POT5 and just want to find some laid back, competitive, and fun people to group with, level with and kick some *** with. I am laid back, a mature player, and an EX SWG player. I will play as often as I can. I work as a Game Developer (Programmer and teacher) and go to school full time, but willing to give as much time as I can spare.

I am creating a toon on Prophesy of the 5 and am hoping to find a couple mature players who want to level and group together.

Again, it is very difficult to find such information. However, I , too, will give you my opinion. Since there two types (three if you include preferred) of accounts now: free-to-play and subscription. As far as subscriptions are concerned, I would be very surprised if actual subscriptions are over 300k. I would say there are over 300k free-to-play accounts. The bad thing about this is that I believe that those who are subscription players are responsible for more than 80% of cartel purchases. The reason I added this last bit of opinion is to show how the game model is working, and as a measurement to consider the future of SWTOR. The subscriber numbers will not grow. Instead, they will stabilize for a while, then eventually begin dropping again...not to quickly. The current subscribers are contributing more than their subscriptions in order to keep this game alive.

I don't think it is so much due to a feeling of "entitlement." Many people want that MMO that they can be loyal to and play for many years while enjoying it with a close group of MMO friends. In the past, players have been rewarded for loyalty, and these players feel appreciated. When players do not feel appreciated it becomes difficult for them to feel a sense of loyalty for the game.

It seems that today players gauge an MMO's success and merit by the number of subscriptions it maintains. With subscription MMOs it it easy to make this mistake. However, when referring to games that were in released during the foundational period of the MMO genre comparing subscription rates is simply ludicrous. Let me start this article with a history lesson. The very first graphical MMORPG was Neverwinter Nights, released in 1991. It was a collaborative project between AOL (America On-Line), Stormfront Studios, and TSR (later purchased by Wizards of the Coast). It ran from 1991 to 1997 and began with 50 players in 1991, to 500 players in 1995, and finished in 1997 with 115,000 players. Meridian59 and Ultima Online are two of the most well known "early" MMORPG games. Meridian59, developed by Archetype Interactive, was released in 1996, by 3DO with nearly 25,000 subscribers. 3DO shut the game down in 2000, but Near Death Studio re-released the game in 2002. Meridian59 boasted a whopping 156,000 subscribers and is still running today, even though Near Death Studios closed its doors in 2010. Ultima Online was released in 1997 by Origin Systems. It reached a 100,000 subscriber base within six months of its release, and peaked at 250,000 subscribers. Ultima is still alive today, and maintains over 50,000 active subscriptions. NOTE* Aside from Never Winter Nights, there are numerous other MMORPGs that were released before both Meridian59 and Ultima Online. Numerous other graphical MMORPGs came out after Neverwinter Nights trying to capture some of the success it had. The Shadow of Yserbius ran from 1992 to 1996 and was one of the more popular ones. Games like Nexus: Kingdom of the Winds (1996) and The Realm Online (1996) were in public beta before Ultima and Meridian. It’s also worth mentioning that Richard Gariott, the man behind Ultima Online and the Ultima Franchise, was the first person to actually ‘coin’ the term “MMORPG”. Both Ultima Online and Meridian59 have survived the test of time, as they’re both still running. On a side note the first few free to play MMORPGs were Tibia, RuneScape and MapleStory. Tibia was actually released before in Ultima Online in 1997, yet Ultima and Meridian59 usually get the credit for being the first MMORPGs. Both Everquest, developed by Sony's 989 Studios, and Asheron's Call, developed by Turbine Entertainment, were released in 1999. Everquest reached 225,000 subscriptions in its first year and 450,000 subscriptions by 2003. Asheron's Call never saw the success that Ultima Online and Everquest had. It 80,000 subscribers by the end of its first year, 90,000 subscriptions after its second year, and peaked in 2002 with 120,000 subscriptions. Dark Age of Camelot was relaed in 2001 and launched with 250,000 subscibers and would never gain more. The game started facing declines in subs with competition from competing MMOs (SWG, WoW, etc.) However, the game is still running today, though Mythic indicates that there are less than 10,000 accounts. One of the most popular RPG franchises in the world released its MMO in 2002. Final Fantasy XI Online, developed by Square (later Square Enix), It saw 200,000 subscribers immediately, and as of 2008 had 500,000 active subscription. NOTE* This MMO was the predominant MMO in Japan, which held more than 350,000 active subscriptions. Finally we reach Star Wars Galaxies. Released on June 6, 2003, by Sony Online Entertainment (developed by Verant Interactive), and immediately saw 120,000 subscriptions. That number grew to 260,000 within its first 18 months, however, a new game was released During this period. On November 23, 2004, Blizzard Entertainment release World Of Warcraft, and MMO based upon its successful Warcraft franchise. At release, World of Warcraft broke subscription records at 420,000 subscribers. This revealation took the gaming world by storm, and WoW broke 1 million subscriptions within 6 months. By the end of its first year, WoW held a staggering 5.6 million global subscriptions. With the explosion happening with WoW, and with the announcement of the NGE, Star Wars Galaxies saw a rapid decline in subscriptions. To be fair, all MMOs, except WoW, also suffered subscription loss. However, this was something that SWG would never recover from. Subscriptions fell to around 110,000 subscribers in 2006 and then to less than 20,000 in 2010. WoW sparked an MMO craze, in which dozens of companies began attempting to cash in on the MMO market. Due to WoW's quick success, most games have tried to emulate WoW, with very little success. It is imperative that I mention that the Korean market had an MMO which crossed the 1 million subscriber base before any other game. The Lineage franchise, released in 1998 by NCsoft, boasted more than 3 million subscribers, though more than 95% of those subscriptions were Korean. Lineage 2, released in 2003, saw 2 million subscribers after its first year, though subscriptions dropped steadily in the following years. Since the release of WoW, only a few games have had more than one million subscribers. Among these are Runescape, released in 2001 by Jagex Game Studios (Guiness World Record holder for largest free MMORPG with more than 10 million active accounts and 200 million accounts created), Aion, released in 2009 by NCsoft, Rift, released in 2011 by Trion Worlds, Star Wars the Old Republic, released in 2011 by BioWare and EA, and Guild Wars 2, released in 2012 by ArenaNet. This does not take into account many of the F2P MMORPG games out there or games which have not been released globally. No game will ever see the explosion that WoW held. You cannot compare games to WoW's success nor can you judge past games by today's standards. Statistically speaking, 10 years ago any game that could generate more than 100,000 subscribers was considered successful. Today, game success generally requires about 500,000 subscriptions, but requires maintaining more than 100,000. A games success cannot be judged by first year numbers since hype and advertising can easily put a game over 700,000. If a game is successful consider subscription numbers at launch and compare to subscription numbers one year later. A good game will maintain or increase subscription after a year, and unsuccessful games will drastically drop subscriptions. These games will either become niche games (games that will last over 5 years) or failures (those who close all servers within 5 years). By the way, the developer for Star Wars Galaxies did not say that the game was a failure. He actually said, and I quote: "But we *********** launched a gosh darned game. We launched a SECOND succesful MMO (post-uo). We made a *********** amazing space game using the same *********** game engine, integrated action combat, interior spaceships and in 9 MOTHER****ING MONTHS, all while running a succesful, cash positive product." *** As a side note*** Star Wars Galaxies began development in 2000 with a budget of 3.8 million dollars. Estimated development cost was reported to be approximately 4.4 million, due to Sony's increased budget for server management. Upon release, Star Wars Galaxies sold 300,000 box copies at $30.00 each. Box sales completely covered development costs with profit and subscriptions would fund overhead and future development costs for the rest of the SWG lifecycle. In essence, SWG was profitable since day 1! World of Warcraft Cost approximately 63 million to develop. That is only the original game and does not include expansions. SWG already had the first expansion completed before launch. Had SWG been granted even a third of the development budget that WoW had, about 20 million, would the game have been better? If SWG was re-created today with TOR's budget of 150 million, how do you think it would fare?

Many people loved SW:G and many people hated it. The same is true of SW:TOR. The two games are so vastly different that those who loved SW:G will not particularly feel the same about SW:TOR, and those who hated SW:G will most likely really like SW:TOR. This revelation aside, let's see what the pros and cons of both implementations of the Star Wars IP in a MMO translates into. Let us start with Star Wars Galaxies: Sandbox elements which allowed players to have their own homes and starships. These homes were varied and the decorating aspects were limited only by your imagination. Player housing allowed players a place to store items outside of the bank box or character inventory and served as great role-play backdrops. Player cities were a highlight that allowed guilds and social groups to actually build a presence in the Star Wars universe. The problem became obvious when players began leaving SW:G and the servers were heavily populated with player-built "ghost towns." Crafting was a role in itself. So much so, that the NGE implementation made crafting classes that held no combat role. Crafting required skill, time, and patience. Entire guilds were created simply for crafting purposes. Nearly every object in the game was able to be crafted, and all of the best items (outside of heroic jewelry) were completely obtained through crafting. Crafting drove the player economy, and the implementation of vendors made the universe seem a bit more real. Entertainers were a truly social class that added value to the game. From creating social hubs (as everyone gathered in areas where the entertainers were performing), to providing useful buffs for PvE and PvP combat alike. Even Medics were able to provide valuable buffs, making them even more important. Star Wars Galaxies was released on June 26, 2003. And for the time the graphics were rather good. Very few graphics updates were seen throughout its lifetime. Animations were lacking, effects were sporadic, and there were plenty of bugs. This caused a lot of grief in the community. As far as development, there were three expansions. Jump to Light Speed introduce space combat and exploration in a truly wonderful fashion. You would mine space resources, craft ship components, and even decorate your yacht or cruiser as you would your home. You truly started to feel as though the Star Wars universe was coming alive. Rage of the Wookies introduced us to Kashyyk and wealth of new PvE content. The Trials of Obi-Wan gave us Mustafar and more PvE content. Star Wars Galaxies had many themepark elements outside of its sandbox nature. So much so that many players never completed all of it. There were dungeons (called heroics or instances) that were difficult even for the most seasoned players. And even when they became easy (after much practice) players found ways of trying to make them more difficult (try completing Karraga's Palace or Eternity Vault using only the Trooper class or Bounty Hunter class). Galaxies had true open-world PvP...this means that PvP rewards were granted anywhere that PvP happened, and there were no locations where PvP could not, and did not, happen! PvP and PvE were integrated. PvPers took part in PvE dungeons because the rewards were the same and did not have a PvP gear/PvE gear qualification. Gear is gear (though there were augments you could buy that granted PvP specific boosts). Let us look at Star Wars: The Old Republic SWTOR is visually stunning. The animations and effects are truly wonderful, and the voice-overs are great. There are a few graphical bugs present, but they are not game-breaking and are barely noticeable, unless you are looking for them. The story lines are really well done. Leveling and questing is not so much of a grind (though it can feel that way at end game and higher levels where it takes a long time to gain a level). The content players were given was done extremely well...as we would all expect from BioWare. Crafting? It is ok. Nothing too new, just the same ol' same ol'. The greatest part of crafting is companion missions, which is all because of the companion idea. I must admit, the entire companion idea is great. I want companions in all my MMOs. However, it would have been great if we were given a bit more choice in these matters. Why can't every class be given a choice of light side/dark side companion? Why can't all companions have detailed story arcs? SW:TOR is entirely themepark. There is not a single sandbox element in the entire game. It is also PvE-centric. PvE is the overriding theme to the game. PvP is a secondary attraction, similar to the space "rail" shooter we were given. I left SW:TOR with the feeling of, "That was a fun game, and I quite enjoyed being able to participate in those stories with friends playing along my side." However, any future "content," or "expansion" will feel more like typical DLC for a single player game rather than building the Star Wars universe as provided in SW:TOR. I left SW:G with the feeling of, "I really enjoyed my life here, and I made amazing friends. But, it is time for this game to die...hopefully to be reincarnated into the glory it could truly become." When it comes to Star Wars, I must ask Lucas Arts the following: "When will you have extracted enough money from the IP, that you might truly consider creating an IP MMO that is about maintaining a legacy. Star Wars Galaxies was a great try, but was not taken seriously enough to elicit proper development. Star Wars: The Old Republicis a great game...not a great MMO. It shows that this game was all about commercialization and profits; hence the involvement of EA. Have you finnaly made enough money fron the Star Wars IP that you can seriously consider backing, funding, or developing truly epic Star Wars experience for MMO players?"

My statement about SWTOR : SWG is not about numbers...it was rather percentage of subscription base. SWG never saw more than 300,00 subs and did not drop below 150,000 subs (half its subscriber base) until 2006...4 years after its release! It is projected that SWTOR subs will be less than 300,000 after the next quarter. The F2P model will push subscriptions lower, though it will create more active accounts.

According to the SWTOR website, under server status, there are 153 US servers. Of those servers, in the last week, the same 3 servers have gone to heavy for an average of 2 hours (guilds jumping on to do a raid after work?). Only 5 servers have gone to "heavy" at all during the week. Also only 10 servers have gone to "standard" this week, and every other server has remained a consistent "light" status.

I agree that a JTL-like system would reinvigorate SWTOR, however, it will not make it as popular as it was at launch. Even though LotRO and DDO are doing well, they still are not titanic MMOs. Aion has the second highest subscription base, while WoW remains king of the hill (only as far as subs are concerned). SWTOR is dropping more rapidly than SWG did, though maintaining a very high 600K subscriber base (though this includes people how have discontinued their SWTOR journey, but paid for an extended sub). As it stands for August 2012 these are the approximate subscription numbers: World of Warcraft 9.2 million subs Aion 1.7 million subs Lineage 2 920,000 subs Star Wars: TOR 740,000 subs Runescape 720,000 subs Eve Online 490,000 subs LotRO 215,000 subs Rift 250,000 subs Everquest 2 130,000 subs DDO 110,000 subs This does not take into account the F2P systems founf in LotRO and DDO. Only people who have subscriptions (Premium).