I do have an IA at level 16. It is a better story line for sure. But the lack of things to do outside combat is still there. The need for involving professions, some possibility for trading to play a part in the game, for crafting to make items that are required or at least a little better than random mob drops (just sometimes.....) and some customization so you don't look like a drone...well I can't see them going away any time soon. I like the combat - it's good. But that is about all there is. Questing and combat. I can get that in a single player game for a fraction fo the cost. That's not to mention no secondary professions. To have primary profesions that are entirely hands off is one thing, but then to give no alternative. It's not a bad game. It looks good (IMO) it is stable (for me, no CTD's) it is a great IP (SW - the best). Perhaps I'm just used to games having "more to do" than just combat, and the lack of "more to do" means I label the overall experience as "quite dull". Someone mentioned a few posts back about community. I asked how you get to join an active guild. Does anyone have any ideas on this, because if I think one thing might just help it's actually being part of a guild that does stuff (not "leet" just does some Flashpoints here and there) and doesn't just "dissolve" after a few days.? If anyone resding this is on an EU server that needs a guild memebr I'll even re-roll, I'm that keen to see what group play is like, I'm on my third "gradually dissolving" guild at the moment and that - more than anything - is the most dis-heartening aspect of the game. Anyone? Scritty

If you don't mind me asking - what games were they. I may give them a go while I wait for SWTOR to beef up it's gameplay (or dwindle away ) Scritty

The only metric that matters to Bio is "How many players are paying for this game" Perhaps seasoned with the question "Is that figure increasing or decreasing" Metacritic is a de facto industry standard measure. Steam use it, EA use it, Square Enix use it, EVERYONE uses it. If you've found a fault in it, then best you tell them. OF course we could ask the question "Why aren't you playing...like NOW rather than spending what appears to be alarge amounts of time trying to impress the unimpressable and convert the unconvertable?" By expressing the percieved shortcomings of the game many of us hope to be agents of change...for the better. What are you hoping to be?

I watched it (not read it..it's all voiced remember) It's the same every planet I go to I'm level 32 JC, and that's all I've done so far. Have I missed something?

Just went on Metacritic and noticed the disparity. Huge from review platforms, very poor from users I'm not "au fait" with Metacritic though, maybe it can be gamed one way or the other. But a difference like that must havce a reason?

No - I realize that. Not sure what your point is though. How does that relate to the issues in this thread?

Ah - maybe that's what it is. I have children who are in bed at 8:00pm, so talking in anything other than a whisper is not an option for me after this time. Typing (keyboard clatter) is fine, but yelling down a mic at someone during a Flashpoint or Heroic would see me in hot water PDQ. I'm went back to my Imperial after the advice given here, it's not bad (SWTOR isn't a bad game after all) but I can't find a guild at all. The game is a month old and it seems everyone has already "put the shutters up". You see the area you are in "Tatooine" let's say, then it says there are 94 people in this area, then you notice that the chat channel is dead. Maybe one message every 15 minutes, sometimes not that. I put out "anyone looking for a guild member" and I don't even get a reply...ever. That's just dis-heartening So your post about everyone "mic'ed up" might be right. That's a real shame. Oh well. Either that or I stink..... Scritty

First of all - thanks for the positive replies. I was expecting to get flamed to kingdom come. I'm still a player - I'm paid up till mid April. I have an Imperial player (Frostclaw) the guild I was on pre-launch dissolved on launch day as many players faced with all night queues just re-rolled on other servers. Not an issue. I didn't add the emptiness of being a Republic player. I may go back and give Imperial another go. I have had zero technical issues with the game. Excellent frame rates etc, but my PC is well over spec (2500k running at 4.4gig, Nvidia 590 and 8 gigs of ram and OCZ SSD 160 gig just for this game) so maybe that's why It's not been a problem. I'm really pretty desparate for this game to work. All the other games someone mentioned I've played. I'm almost 45 and have been playing MMO's since graphical MUD in 1988 on my University's server (4 hours play a week - server time was rationed and play was pretty much frowned upon, however the game was played by a lot of the lecturers and used for stress testing the network, so we got away with it) I think depth can maybe be added. Better crafting, better trading (not "sandbox" depth - just as deep as your average theme park MMO would do for me.) and some level of customization that actually made your character look different. Thanks again for the replies - it is appreciated.

I'm on my third guild so far. First one was destroyed at launch by being put on a server with an all night queue (and many quit before they had ever logged in once). Second had about 50 members and just drifted apart as people stopped playing at the beginning of January. The third is going the same way. Had 50+ members, but now has maybe 2 or 3 online in the peak playing hours (mid evenings and weekends). All three on different servers as I can't find a server that actually has much of a player base at all - essp for Republic. Sometimes play an hour in open PvE without seeing another PC. Apparently the game is doing well, and there are some succesfull guilds. I'd love to find one.

Asking me what I thought of the game. SO I sat, and thought. I hadn't done that since release. I realized (and was midly surprised when I realized) that I hadn't played it much in January. SAO I spent an hour writing the post (below) saying I would stick until April - then 20 minutes after replying I realized I wouldn't. My idea was to cancel my sub (I have paid up until April 20th) and If I play or feel inclined to go back into the game between now and then, re-activate it. Sort of just changing my default mind set to "cancelled" After waiting so darn long for SWTOR I almost sobbed. Even 10 days ago I thought I would be playing this game for years. Hi, Sad to say, I'm not really enjoying SWTOR at the moment. The buzz wore off very quickly (a few days) and I'm left with quite a hollow feeling towards ther experience. Here's why that is (for me at least); Storyline The story for Jedi Consellor is a little repetative Go to planet one - then do the following; Quest line to find and help Jedi Master with disease Quest line to help locals with group of "insurgents" or "imperial agents" ..when finished..Goto planet two and start again. UI The user interface hinders me a little, nothing is where I would find it intuitively. I find myself healing a recently beaten mob rather than my companion sometimes, all sorts of things I don't like about the interface (it's too BIG for a start - it's like a 5 year old child's toy) Really needs to be customizable. Character customization. CC seems underdeveloped. I am very limited in what I can wear, and despite buying new items every few levels my character's "look" is more or less unaltered. I see other JC's running around, and they all like just like me. I don't feel like a hero, or even an individual, I feel like "Jedi Counsellor Clone 3354b" Crafting Crafting is dull. I can craft a whole list of virtually identical mods for armour and weapons. They all look the same, and no-one (not even me) can find any use for them. I can stick them on the the trade for 500 credits an no-one wants them "xxxxx mod 9" looks exactly the same as "xxxxxx mod 8"..... and despite keeping my crafting up with my character levelling, I have yet to find an item I craft that I actually have a use for myself - i.e is even marginally better than a mob drop I have already found or someone else has found and put on the Gal trade network. Crafting itself is uninvolved. It's not a sub game, it's not a challenge, What it is is being interrupted during combat when one of your companions comes back and sats "Here's your stuff" and just pressing "Make this" or "go there". The only slight interaction I have is to ensure that I have enough of the vendor sold re-agents in stock or storage. There are these descriptions of the missions your companion is oging on "Visit a deserted spacecraft and see if they have XXXXX" but after the first five goes... you just press the button That is 100% of your crafting experience in a nutshell..press a button to send a companion off.... wait 20 minutes till he or she comes back....then press it again. Trading Should be interesting. But it's not. There is not enough data to make informed stock choices or to "play the market". I perhaps spend 40% of my solo time at end level in other MMO's playing the market. It's great fun. Sure EvE and some other games (PotBS) have really good involved economics tied in with harvesting and crafting, but even WoW, Aion, Rift and FFXI have a fun factor. X-faction trading, storage and logistics etc.SWTOR has none of this, or at best very stunted and unerdeveloped trade and trading tools. Community Grouping takes so long, and with so few people looking to run any particular flashpoint or heroic, I have just given up on it. I am planning to give multi (or at least dual) boxing a try, as the lack of community means I am missing so much of the content I might well enjoy - I might buy a standard retail copy and give it a go for a month. But eventually I see me leaving SWTOR in a few months for a game with more scope (more involved trading and commercial aspects, better and more involved crafting) At the moment there is not enough depth to make the game a stayer for me. I can quite happily solo while a community builds up, but all I'm doing is grinding quests. No secondary professions, dull crafting, dull trading and awkward interface, coupled with a plot line (for JC's at least) which just seems to be an endless repeat of the same tasks - just with the level numbers changed. If I have to "Save another Jedi Grand Master" ...Arrrggggghhhh! I understand SWTOR is a "theme park" and I have no issue with that. WoW is a theme park, Aion is a theme park, FFXI is a theme park I love those games. But they seem to have a lot more "rides" than SWTOR. With a real lack of involvement and depth in crafting, trading, sub professions etc, SWTOR is like a theme park with one ride..levelling. Summary Group finding (Flashpoints and Heroics being missed due to no groups and very few flagged as LFG) GUI customization (lack of) Poor GUI, targets, etc all in fixed and none intuitive places Professions (dull, uninvolving "click button - wait - click again") No "Extra" professions to kill time when soloing. As you don't even craft personally. If your not levelling - your doing nothing - and that's not good at all. Trade Network (dull, no incentive for engrossing trading/stock play - no economic tools) JC plot line repetiton (Save Jedi Grand Master, goto planet two - rinse and repeat) CHARACTER APPEARANCE CUSTOMIZATION (Limited in what I can buy - and no matter what I DO buy I end up looking 99% the same) You'll see from my stats that I'm playing less and less. I'm hoping for big news on improvement soon. Story alone is not going to make up for lack of varied gameplay elements. And I'm not that impressed with the story (for JC at least) I'm paid up till mid April, and sadly I think that will probably be the end of my time with SWTOR unless there are really big improvements. ESSP with more involved and varied gameplay elements added. I expect you'll get more money from me though. Mass Effect 3 in a few weeks etc. I'm not sure MMO's are going to be your strong point though. Too much emphasis on story and not near enough "game" to go with it. Scritty

Yeah I know. Went back to my original character on Frostclaw - It's still packed - but at least no queue 141 in Dromund Kaas. That's more like it. Sad to see how quickly Republic players have dropped out. I can't criticise - cause I just dropped out too. No point playing a side where I can never find a group. Oh well. I expect this game may well start to dwindle (rather than pick up) and we'll be down to half a dozen full servers by Spring and rest probably closed down

I've just rolled an Imperial. Good job it's not a PvP server or it might as well just close down. Ah well - I enjoy levelling - so starting again seems quite a nice thought.

Server says "Standard" tonight - so I'm guessing everyone has rolled Imperial. Seems a real waste of two weeks to scrap my republic character if that's the case - but no point playing on my own all day. It's like theat episode of The Simpsons where Bart and Millhouse have a watch that stops time and they wander around alone. It's all live - the game is on - but as empty as the grave

Ok - just me then Won't bump again - I'll just change faction or server. Now been an hour and seen 3 Republic characters on republic fleet and Tatooine combined. Raising a flashpoint group is about as likely as me giving birth to a Womble

Been busy for a week - Came back to a server as dead as it gets. Server used to tag as "Heavy" for load (or whatever) like 3 weeks ago Now... I'm stood in the "Crew Skills" area on Republic Fleet...alone. There is one character in the market, and that's the only player I've seen in 15 minutes in the game. It's 8:45 in the evening - this place should be PACKED. Instead it's dead. I can honestly say there were 10x more people on my SWG server 6 weeks ago than this. I mean people are still having their "inclusive 28 days" aren't they..so where are they all? What's everyone elses experience? "Eye of Ashlenae" EU BTW

Never had any performance issue what-so-ever

UI customization will come Macros and a scripting language may well NOT. I don't much care either way about the latter - but I waqit keenly for UI customization. Every element is just WAAAAAAYYY to big for my liking, the text is like "junior angler for the short sighted" Just shrinking the cumbersome text would help - but UI customization is on their "Urgent"list - expect it in or before March this year. Scritty

What does " / less" mean?

The MMO play mechanic is not available in any single player game. These elements include (but are not limited to)... Real world economics (an indirect way of interacting with others really) Measuring yourself against others (on wealth, character level, equipment etc) Combat mechanic (unique..no it's nothing like Mass effect..or Diablo..or even Titan Quest) Constantly added content (the game should not "finish") Crafting (people love to "make stuff") If these things were available in a single player game. I would play that game in preference to an MMO. The closest I've got is Dwarf Fortress I suppose. I'm trying to give the multiplayer PvE thing a go in SWTOR. But finding so many pre-teens in a game that is supposed to have a 15+ age restriction in the UK has worn me down. If I'm accused of being ageist..that's becasue I AM AGEIST Not prejudiced mind. Prejudiced means to "pre-judge" I am entirely "Post judicial" on this one. Post judicial based on years of personal experience...mostly unenjoyable experience of foul language, ignorance, node ganking, guild thefts and unreliability that a disproportionate number of these younger players seem to be involved in going back as far as "Graphical MUD" in 1987 Playing alone rather than engaging with these people suits me just fine. I play sport 12 months of the year with real people, I don't need to fill a void for company with abusive 12 year olds who should not have the game in the first place. (15+ age limit..it's on the box!) Anyway.. The single player MMO fans are a small but not insignificant minority (I'm guessing 10-12%). Mostly for the reasons above. Telling them to "go play a single player game then" is disengenuous. There is no single player game that offers the gameplay elements that an MMO offers even if you ignore social interaction. So they play MMO's - and the devs would do well to throw them a bone from time to time.

Yup - many only register in forums if they have a gripe. I went my first 4 years in WoW without even realising that my Battle.net account was the same account that gave access to the forums. Everything was working fine, so why would I visit the forums and listen to a load of people whining. "This game is going to die - look at all the complaints on this forum" If you add all those with issues up - (there are some people on here posting on many threads multiple times) they account for probably a fraction of 1% of the user base. That doesn't mean the issues don't need to be fixed and features added to make this a AAA game. Lag clearly does exist for many Radeon GFX card support seems underwhelming FPS issues inside (which is odd in itself). I don't have issues with it - but it drops indoors - the exact opposite of what normally happens GUI is really pretty poor Queues on some servers - essp for those who joined the game early and put their money where their mouth is months ago needs addressing Maybe todays patch will go some way to fixing some of these.

I'll add that I have only ever come across one MMO that DOESN'T allow dual/multi boxing.(out of perhhaps 40 I've played or at least trialled) However there are issues with SWTOR 1) Multiple clients seem to require multipler machines (or a virtual machine) 2) "Follow" command (which is vital for DB/MB) does not behave correctly. Hopefully this will get fixed - it's the same with your own compnions. Lifts and things (one's that do not involve a HDD scene change) seem to confuse my companions quite a bit, they often just "appear" right next to me - missing out the lift altogether. 3) No third party keyboard synch software is yet customizable for SWTOR. KVM is of course possible. To answer the impied rebuke from a previous poster.. It is estimated that 1.1 million accounts on WoW are "none primary". That's a barrel full of revenue In addition, multiboxers tend to be long term players (as opposed to those that play for a year then quit - and need to be replaced) partly perhaps due to the expense of becoming an MBer. I know maybe 120 r so MBer's (hi to you guys and gals that used to play at Omega Sektor in Birmingham) and not one who "Bots" or is involved in RMT. Spending several hundred on the multiple copies of the game itself, hundreds on equipment/extra PC's KVM equipment/monitors and then "double /triple...... up to25x" the sub per month is NOT something who are looking to make a profit do...or if they do they will soon be very dissapointed. Anyone who griefs - be it with one character or multiboxing..is subject to the same penalties if caught, and if youy are multiboxing there is a far greater chance of being caught due to the greater visibility MBing invariably attracts. SO let the tens if not hundreds of thousands of us who want to MB..get on and MB. I would say though - might be an idea to allow many more individual acocunt holders in before Bio start making the changes required to make MBing a real viable option. Maybe March/April..sometime like that. Scritty

It was true (for US - sorted by the time it hit EU) However - there were no subs for that month (of course) and they made the decision very quickly. Also - that was 7 years ago..... My broadband was 1/32nd of the speed. I had an Athlon 1.4 Ghz Palamino Processor with a Geforce 4 series Ti GFX card. The woServers a FAR quicker and FAR more capable now. The internet offers a much broader pipe, faster and with less lag..again A LOT better than 2004. Tech is cheaper, servers faster and software better and more professionally supported Customers expectations are also higher. Saying that a game had issues 7 years ago does not really cut much ice in 2011.

My guy is still using a level 10 techblade - frankly it's completely useless. We've just dinged 18 and I've not seen another one as a reward or on sale anywhere

Reaches the point where he stops being an effective tank. Your own DPS output must have a bearing on the tanking/threat algorithm. At level 17, even when I let him have a second to establish aggro, he uses his threat talents etc - but mobs leave him to attack me. Pretty much defeating the purpose of having him in the first place. He needs a better weapon to dish out a little more damage and raise his threat (attention - or whatever it's called in this game)

300 is not good, but for most of the weekend, the queue on my first server has been well over 2000. No point even queueing when it will take all night to get on