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).

Star Wars: The Old Republic will never be as "hot" as it was at launch. As it is settling into its place among the MMO universe, it will maintain a standing similar to games like Lord of the Rings Online, Dungeons and Dragons Online, Everquest 2, and Star Wars Galaxies. It will maintain its loyal following which will carry the game until BioWare turns the last server off. There will be consistent droves of accounts created, people playing for a few weeks and moving onto something else. Many will return to see what has changed (if anything) and reminisce about times they had in the early days of SWTOR. Star Wars: The Old Republic is here to stay (for the next 5 years or so), though the 200 server monster will consolidate into less than 10 within the next 2 years (less than 20 US servers by 2014). I believe that SWTOR will always stand out as the game who's ambition could not deliver more than an entertaining story. Too many presumptions were made by the BioWare/Electronic Arts development teams, and inexperience in the MMO arena contributed to another MMO "that could have been..." Personally, Luscas Arts should be a bit perturbed about the state of the Star Wars IP. This is the Second Star Wars MMO (more MMOs than any other IP -- except new versions of old ones like EverQuest and Guild Wars) that started with a great premise, only to fail due to poor development decisions. However, the Star Wars IP would be difficult for any developer to do properly. The Star Wars universe is extremely vast and has been created through years of contributions by other game developers, Lucas Arts, and authors. By choosing to focus on PvE content and the "4th pillar," Star Wars: The Old Republic has ignored much of the excitement that drew even hard-core Star Wars fans to the game. Half of the Star Wars films took place in space, with major space conflicts and battles that kids today still mimic on the playground. BioWare chose to ignore this giant battleground and replace it with a linear "theme-park" rail shooter. The biggest disappointment was that the space shooter had absolutely no connection to the main game...other than a distraction from the linear character story progression. BioWare has shown that their intention, from the inception of SWTOR, has been about the story. Their primary focus was to encourage players to experience the stories of all the "classes." However, such sole focus on PvE content and the "4th pillar" seemed to alienate players who were most interested in role-playing and PvP. There is very little role-play mechanics available to those who wish to role-play (you can't even sit in a cantina chair, and you must stare at a chat box sifting for a response, while trying to ignore insults about role-playing by those who do not participate. PvP was designed poorly. The only open-world PvP was Ilum, which was a tremendous failur. Besides a PvP area on a planet is NOT the definition of open-world PvP. It was just a larger warzone that you did not need to wait in queue to enter. Endgame content was a second thought whose importance was trivial compared to that "4th pillar." It appears that BioWare assumed that players would simply re-roll characters. Star Wars: The Old Republic does PvE content very well, and even PvP can be engaging. Die-hard Star Wars fans will remain as long as the game is still online. Many people have still not given up hope that SWTOR will become all that they dreamed it would be, and though they might not be extremely active players, they will maintain their connection with the game...waiting to see. Free-to-play will breath a bit of life back into SWTOR as new players experience the SWTOR stories. However, it is inevitable that upon finishing a story or three, these players will fade off into the miasma of the MMO universe in search of something more entertaining. As a final note, I must congratulate BioWare for doing a very good job, considering this was their very first jump into the MMO market. I believe (perhaps a bit pessimistically) that their next venture in MMO-dom will be a better experience...so long as they learn from their first experience.

You see, this is the point I was making. I have limited time to play. I work full time, go to school full time, and am raising a family. I get about 2 hours a day to play. If I have to spend 80% of my game time doing the things I don't like in order to spend 20% of the time doing what I like, how is it worth it? Crafting? Viable? I lose more money crafting for the AH than I gain from sales. Why must I be required to PvE to sustain myself for PvP? Am I not Farming Warzones? How is this different than Farming boring mobs (other than being a bit more exciting)? I am valor rank 92 and have about 1/2 War Hero gear. It costs about 300k to get an augmented orange piece of gear (cost of removing mods to transfer, buying an augment, and buying a kit aand using it.). That is about 45 warzones at 15 minutes each (about 11 1/2 hours of warzones). A PvEer can run two hours of dailies to get the same amount. And don't tell me about repair costs, because you can FACEROLL the dailies. Pre 1.2 PvP was much better than it is today. Even Ilum, with its horrible mechanics, was better than no open-world format for PvP.

I do not understand why BioWare has decided to push PvPers to the back burner. It seems that every "patch" does less to offer a more engaging PvP experience and more to drive PvP away. Before you get all riled up, hear me out. There is no real integration between PvP and PvE. A PvEer can sustain himself without ever needing to step into a warzone. As a matter of fact, a PvEer will excel financially over any hard-core PvPer. PvPers are being forced to move outside of the PvP arena to sustain themselves. In order to to be competitive, PvPers must sink credits into the new Augments. The cost of modifying all gear with augment slots is far greater than the reward given for participating in PvP. BioWare overlooked the need for an open world PvP system, which could have been used as a means to integrate the PvE and PvP community. Though Ilum was a failure, mechanically, it was a great respite from warzones and provided another opportunity for PvPers to earn some credits without having to resort to PvE dailies. Creating daily missions in which opposing factions (Republic and Imperial) are brought into contention would be a great way to add life back to PvP. Why can't every planet have daily missions in which opposing factions fight for the same reward? The grind cost for PvP gear is extremely ridiculous. It is not equal to PvE gear grinding. Rated Warzones are a great addition as it allows us to grind Ranked Warzone credits a bit faster. If you lose the match you will receive a little more than what you would have gained by winning a regular warzone (After converting WZ commendations to RWZ commendations). However, the reward is not equal to the cost. The rewards from the PvP daily and weekly are minuscule. The amount of credits earned for a warzone is pathetic---all while BioWare tries to make us spend more and more. How can BioWare fix SWTOR, or is it too late? Why does every new modification seem to push the game further into the rut?

Ahhh, you mean just grind the same boring daily missions over and over, and over, and over and over and over till you gett enough money to buy a stupid perk, then grind those dailies again and again and again and again and again and again and again....to get one more. I see where the appeal is. It's like grinding PvP comms again and again and again and again and again to convert to different comms to get a piece of gear . When you finally have the whole collection, and you are finally on equal terms with people who have had them for months, the gear is no longer relevant and you have to start to grind again and again and again. You will always be playing catch-up and that is what you are paying every month for.

It is because BioWare is talking about adding more content when the content they have is broken. Space missions are fun in their own way, but they are useless. We want real space combat. Great ANOTHER new warzone when PvPers have been begging for Rated Warzones and Open-world PvP. Why are we doing warzones if they are meaningless? Yay! A new race! Yet many of the traditional races that Star Wars fans have loved for decades are not playable? Instead we get a CAT-har? Comic relief? The new OPs, sure for those who like them. But from what I hear the 3 already there do not work very well. I have yet to Actually finish one. I did finish a HM BT once. Don't care to do any others (why do I need Rakata gear?). Level Cap? Why does the introduction of a new planet mean that the planet's citizens are "naturally" more powerful than those on a previous planet? Can't you think of better incentives than "more powerful gear that makes the gear you have useless"? There are many reasons to complain about the direction BioWare is heading.

This game would not have gone over 1 million subs had it not been for the Star Wars name and the shattered confidence we used to have in BioWare as a developer.

Once again, it it Bioware trying to goad us into creating more characters. I don't want a republic toon. I want 1 toon...THAT IS IT. Whatever though, this game is just getting worse and worse.

People who like SWTOR is a much different crowd than those who like SWG. I like both games. However, SWG had many advantages and features that I still look for (to no avail) in other MMOs. SWTOR has advantages in other areas. The main reason SWG vets still play SWTOR and do not "look for something else" is because it is about Star Wars. We are great fans of the entire Star Wars franchise. SWG was nearly close to a perfect game (more so before NGE). However, it was only perfect for people who wanted to build something. SWTOR is a game, feels like a game, and is based for the "casual" gamer. SWG was a UNIVERSE. You felt like you really lived there. I spent days simply giving entertainer buffs in the cantina. I spent months building my home. I finally perfected my ships (and decorated them the way I wanted). The economy was supurb because nearly everything was player crafted. SWTOR is about loot/reward/challenging content. These are the quick rewards that make players feel like they are accomplishing something. The problem is that the world is static. The only thing that changes is a random developer event and waiting for new content to blow through and master. The "community" is not very social. Players do not feel connected to the rest of the other players. I do hope that an SWG 2 is release in the future. I know somewhere, somehow, a real developer will take on the challenge to create a truly wonderful Star Wars Universe in an MMO. I will be too old to play it, but I can prepare now by getting my children addicted to Star Wars as I have been all my life When people say they want SWG 2, it is not a literal creation of the SWG game. People want a Star Wars game that allows them to feel as though they are part of the game (not simply playing the game). They want to work hard at mastering something and feel as though they have conquered a planet. Honestly, if you combined the best features of SWTOR with those of SWG, I think you would have a game that would would be truly amazing.

My biggest problem is that you will have to "pay" to transfer characters to the server of your choice. I thought I was already paying $15.00 every month. I think everyone should be given 1 free server transfer per character, then consider adding a charge afterwards. Also, since there will be a lot of people flooding to more populated servers, perhaps BW should consider closing some underpopulated servers, and supplying a list of these servers, so that people do not accidentally move to them.

They are just trying to bleed subs dry. I paid $160.00 for the CE, pay $15.00 a month to play, but BioWare feels that their content and game is worth much more than that. Every 4 months I buy a new game through subbing to SWTOR. They need to start GIVING me a new game for that sub money. Why do I have to pay for content? Why pay for transfers? Haven't I BEEN paying for these things? They are adding MORE when what they have isn't working. The only reason they would CHARGE for an "expansion" this early in the game, is so they can bleed more money from a game that they think is dying. If I were George Lucas, I would be pissed! That is 2 Star Wars MMOs that have run down the tube fairly quickly. TBH, SWG had a better shelf life!