Yeah, I had mentioned memory coming back and realizing that alot of TOR content was that way... eg. start solo and end up with group required to finish. It's just that having not played for so long and returning to subscribe, I had forgotten that wee bit of shenanigans. Fine if there's groups to do it, but frustrating waste of time if there isn't. Thanks for the tips on trying to pull together a group on fleet. I'm not a big fan of sitting idle at a keyboard on fleet to find a group while time passes - sitting idle not being good gameplay. I was playing TOR before there was a fleet, and was annoyed by the creation of fleet instead of a good group finding mechanic that let you keep playing while waiting for a group. Now though, they did introduce the group finder much later, thankfully, too late probably, but doesn't include heroics. Still, thanks for the tips.

Yes, key point being "after a Reset" because it didn't work the first time, or the second, or the ...

Resently resub'd to see what's what. Got to level 52 and found myself against level 55 stuff on Makeb, so figured I was supposed to do those two quests on Coruscant that it offered, Seeker Droid, and Macrobinoculars. Chased all the seeds and quests for little XP gain, and after all of that, to add insult to injury, it caps off by sending me to Ilum for a Heroic 4 that I knew I had absolutely zero chance of finding a group for. It probably was not a problem for a short time after it first launched, but now, on a weekend, I landed on Ilum and got what I expected when asking for a group. *crickets* What a waste of time, and beyond dissatisfying, to have a solo series end up with a Heroic 4 on Ilum. Shame on me for not seeing it coming, and LOL at me for getting hooked into a time sink for no pay off. I assume the same thing will happen to me when I reach the end of the Macrobinocular mess. Between this and the buggy mess I found in the binocular series that I posted about earlier... it's a resounding, "Welcome back!" to returning players. LOL.

Figured it out. Not sure why they did it this way, but the two scan's on Tatooine that are buggy are in the Junland map: A) the one in the middle of the map where the Heroic 4 was, and B) in the South, to the SouthWest of Outpost Rennar If I did (A) first, the scan item was high up on a mountain pillar to the SouthWest, and then (B) would disappear as a marker from my map and if I traveled to (B) anyway, you can still see the antennae, but it would not be scan-able. If I did (B) first, I could no longer scan the mountain pillar at point (A). What I did that solved it, was if I reset and did (B) first, I went to (A), and while the mountain pinnacle antennae was not scannable, there was now another antennae active under the bridge to the South. Odd that there's two potential points at (A), and active depending on what other points you did first. Very confusing and led to me resetting the quest 5 times, and fully abandoning it one other time to see if that would help. That you see it active up high one time, then you think its the spot every time. Needless confusion. All other spots are fixed.

There's that.

Came back to give it a try after repeated marketing emails. Going from level 50 on Makeb, got quests for Coruscant for level 53 and was already facing Level 55 mobs when I was only level 52, so figured its wonky related to progression, that it wanted me to go do the level 53 Coruscant missions. Sends me to Tatooine to scan 6 items, but it keeps bugging. It doesn't show all 6 active on my map, so I reset it now 4 times after traveling all over Tatooine and unable to get 6 / 6. One that I didn't see on my map was shown on some player's guide map, so I go there and sure enough, see a transmitter, but I can't scan it with my binoculars. I reset it yet again, and now this one is active and I can scan it, but when I go to another one that I was able to do before, it was now inactive after the reset. WTH? Then I go to my old favorite place, the SWTOR forums to see if there's any help to be found, and sure enough, I remember how ineffective these forums are laid out, they never listened about the structure of the forums that are lacking... there's not even a "Quests" forum. WTH? So I do a search of the quest name, "The Search Begins". And as I remember it before I quit last time, I get the ineffective, "No Search Results". Now I can't believe there's actually no forum posts about this buggy ####ing ###p, but good luck finding it. "Welcome back, sir", this is all saying to me. "Thanks for wasting your time and subscription on our 'new' content." Got it.

Emphasis: First, a LOL @ stormskimmer. OK back on topic. Exactly right, it should be simple and seamless. Nothing overly cumbersome and clunky is ever the right answer, and creating a quick feature to set points applied to zero ... well, it's a bandaid, right? Give us the ability to switch between specs AND gear. Need three or four of them, for each of roles (Tank, DPS, Heals), for PvP, for Raids. I realize though, that the theme park version of Star Wars MMO has sorely missed expectations, and has suffered enormous scaling back of ongoing resources, so fundamentals and development are going to be sorely stretched, and things like this are not likely any time soon. With my sole remaining TOR account, I find myself logging in instead at SWGemu for a breath of fresh daily Star Wars MMO air. See sig for the priority issues - ones that also have a fat chance in Hutta of ever getting resolved. Unfortunate, because without resolving such issues, the servers and game cannot thrive, and without the servers and game thriving, we can't have development resources to effect the changes... deadly catch 22, eh?

LOTRO currently has this feature. I don't know what other MMO's do, but have seen others mention it in forthcoming MMO's. It works effectively in LOTRO. The way it works is generally 100% of players who group, especially PUG's, have voice chat active, but many or even most don't talk, they just listen. It only takes 1 player in a group of 4 to talk, and generate teamwork and coordination. In fact, it's even better when 1 talks, and 3 listen. The norm was that you'd see the voice feature indicator "live" among all members of the party, but rarely would see most players actually talk, but they're listening when needed. Examples: "turn the boss around so his back is to us" "Mojomaker, can you cc the Troll?", to which Mojomaker either replies or types, "yes" "It's imperative that everyone interrupts the bosses heals, everyone got that?", to which they say or type "yes" Having voice elevates the teamwork 500%, or in the absence of voice, handicaps teamwork 90-98%. It's critical. Games like LOTRO demonstrate how it works effectively, is adopted nearly universally by players, even though most players don't ever say a word, but they listen, and they type responses. Of course, guilds could care less, because most use their own voice tools (of course they do because its so fundamental to teamwork) for groups, but for everyone else, PUGS, or mixed groups of Guilds/PUGS, they need to be able to communicate to raise group activity from chaos to teamwork, and enjoy the same level of gameplay that guilds do with their voice servers. For any modern MMO to have group content, and not provide voice, is a fundamental failure in design. For a game like TOR that claims innovation with Voice story, to not include Voice among players... well, it's like comparing color movies today, to black and white silent films.

Hi Agent, I cancelled 3 accounts, including the one that OP'd this thread, so I recreated the thread under the remaining active account, please see sig below and that thread for my reply to your post about the chat issue. Thanks for considering the material. Mods, please feel free to lock this thread, in lieu of the other noted in my signature.

Thanks for the latest state of the game. It was much more informative than the first that focused more on F2P than development direction. Appreciate the update and related dev posts, thank you. Also, Lol at the subscriber price of the expansion, thanks. I've spent 20x that on cartel points, and look forward to seeing more lifts in gameplay as we have been - particularly looking forward to server transfers to unite my avatars since the Legacy system was introduced.

regarding Section VI, Guild Tools, and see sig for Guild Charter and player's Guild Support tools: Joined a guild again, and like any time in the past, went from running dailies solo, to: Full Rakata and Black Hole gear in a matter of days Running HM Flashpoints and SM/HM Ops within days Alot of knowledge about how mechanics and endgame works Big shift in focus from dailies to FPs and Ops. Basically, what you expect when you are part of a guild that uses voice, and is active, right? No surprise. We'll see how the personalities mesh, but that's the problem... have to be in a guild to enjoy things like the above, and have to put up with a guild to enjoy the above. Be great if Bioware would provide the tools necessary to get more people into good guild fits, and more guilds with tools to build better charters and expectations for gaming communities of adult players. So more people can enjoy the game... alot more. P.S. regarding Section IX, gear grind, find that its alot of activity for activities sake. A real grind. However the things the groups like to do are not gear oriented, but things like masks, vehicles... get the most enthusiastic engagement. All corresponds with what's said in the OP, redirecting good content and loot, that isn't hung on a gear grind and gates.

Added a few selections in Leadership.

Thanks for info. FYI, Skadge and Blizz don't indicate the break for Ilum from Belsavis, all reads as if on Belsavis and know that's not the case at least for Blizz.

To the above, in support of Section VI, the weakness of guilds' charters and definition, and serious challenge for players to find and settle into a good guild fit, I prototyped a Charter Builder toolbox with Topics and (drop-down) Selections in another Thread, see URL in sig. Would like people's input on those topics and selections in that thread to refine it. Thanks.

Fair post. Some of the items are the same as listed in my Definitive Issues thread (see sig), such as sound and travel, and to a large degree the Companions - though I think you're missing the underlying story flaws that seem to be hinted at in some of your material without identifying the root cause... ... the lack of story depth (Companions, NPC's, Missions and Flashpoints). Have a read, might help you zero in on some of these with more clarity.

I hear "Need Help" in every planet while leveling alts by solo players doing solo content and getting stomped. I just finished my Inquisitor and had no problems, found the usual leveling grind, and the occasional death that made me sit up and pay attention. But once sitting up and paying attention, it's easily remedied with basics and engaging simple class skills that I usually may not bother with on normal trash mobs - no need for rotations for most when bam, bam, they're dead. While there's many responses to players in chat when they call for help, whether they're over or under level, whether they kept their gear up to level for themselves and Companion, or not, there's lots of answers, but here's some basics that I live by and never present a challenge: gear up to level, both you and companion, especially Barrel, Hilt mods at level in blue or purple, were always some on GTN through leveling stim (I hardly ever use them, or need to) med packs, keep them up to date by level, vendor off the old garbage, and know you're hitting the right ones sold by vendors or looted Heal over time skills, your heroic skills... your cc or stun skills to give you moments of pause - when even a couple of tics can allow for another heal or CD's to run down on your best skills again all classes I've played (including SI) have powerful combo skills that do damage over time (dots) which should be used when CDs are off, or skills that enable other skills to be more damaging (including SI) - using them is critical use your shielding skills Crowd control, thinning the herd. For squishee classes, 5 or 7 mobs can spell "death" very quickly if you're not focused on thinning the herd quickly. With my SI, I can have most of these dead in moments. Bam, bam, or just a bam, repeat, two are dead in seconds. Use cc's and stuns while working a larger crowd to buy time. Healing companions can stun Strong or Elite mobs as a first strike, or tank Companions can hold them a minute, while you thin the regulars. Execute precisely and with the right skills and combos to drop them quickly like flies. By the time you get to Voss, these should be known like the back of your hand. Go somewhere where you can practice on 5-7 mobs, and get those skills down; whether Alderaan, Voss or Section X depending on level, must know your skills and how to thin large crowds quickly. Companion selection; healing, dps, tank? See below for examples I've found when only a healing companion makes the difference, while I usually run with DPS companion for maximum burn With all the above, haven't seen a serious challenge. I had just finished leveling my Inquisitor to 50 and yesterday solo'd the Bonus Stage 3 - Champion boss on the Heroic 2 on Ilum. First time, he was at 10% when he defeated me, so I switched to Healing companion, switched a couple pieces to Shield (generator) and by the time he died, I was still at 90% health - no problem. The big bird boss on the Area quest Section X, with damage companion, no good... with healing companion, no problem. These bosses are a great time to read your skills, watch class videos and advanced class videos on You tube, and apply them. Once you use these skills on a boss, there won't be a challenge on Voss, guarantee it.

Had to stop the daily grind of dailies to post, instead of playing actual endgame, just continual grind of dailies, daily, to gear up avatars... so boring. Broken. See section IX of sig, and just as the OP says.

Following is a draft of suggested Charter Builder toolset designed to address Section VI of the Definitive Issues thread found in the signature. Depending on your position as an MMO stakeholder, click on Spoiler to see how you can you leverage it. Players: Guild Leaders: Bioware (MMO Developers): Solution Developers: CHARTER BUILDER TOOLBOX Section 1: Demographics [sERVER NAME] or [ALL] for Search Q1: Faction Focus: Both Factions Empire exclusively Republic exclusively Empire as Focus, but Republic alts welcomed Republic as Focus, but Empire alts welcomed Comments: Q2: Gameplay Area of Focus Endgame Raiding PvP Social, Events, RP Other All elements at members' options Does not apply Comments: Q3: Engagement Style Server First, or Server Best Sets and achieves Progressive Goals Goal oriented, but Real Life first Any or all elements at each player's option Does not apply Comments: Q4: No. of Members Logged In @ Prime Time, Today 2 - 5 (New) 6 - 10 11 - 20 21 – 40 41 + Q5: No. of Members Logged In @ Prime Time, Goal 6 - 10 11 - 20 21 – 40 41 + As many as needed to meet the Charter's objectives Comments: Q6: Guild Time Zone / Location US - Pacific US - Central US - Eastern Europe Oceanic International – Global Comments: Q7: Age Qualifications Any age welcome Youth oriented Adults, and those who conduct themselves as adults Adults 18 and over 18 and over, exceptions granted by leadership Other – see Comments Comments: Section 2: Leadership Q8: Leadership Depth Flat – 1 to 2 levels of leadership Forming Stages – 1 to 2 levels of leadership that will evolve with needs Hierarchy – many levels serving various functions Complex – with various Positions and Roles, RP Theme or Backstory Other Comments: Q9: Leadership Type Autocratic: guild leader(s) roles are owned and do not expire Autocratic-Plus: guild leader(s) roles are owned, with supporting leadership roles appointed by leaders Hybrid Autocratic: guild leader(s) roles are owned, with supporting leadership roles selected by open candidacy and member votes, for predetermined periods of time Democratic: leader(s) of all levels and roles selected by open candidacy and member votes, serving for predetermined periods of time Hybrid Democratic: guild leaders(s) elected, without scheduled timing or dates of next election Does not apply Comments: Q10: Leadership Philosophy Leaders are stewards of a community of adults, who serve because they are capable and enjoy serving and participating among a thriving community of peers, and engage community feedback to navigate change Leaders did the work to form the community, or inherited the community, know better, and make guild decisions to sustain the environment that suits them; like it or leave it Leaders run the guild that has been structured for success, feel things are fine the way they are, are not aware of any tangible need to change anything, so let's hold minor complaints and focus on enjoying the game Does not apply Comments: Q11: Decision Making All substantive decisions are made by formal community vote Hybrid decision-making by leadership or community vote, depending on issue Decisions are made by leadership Decisions are made by leadership after seeking community input Does not apply Comments: Q12: Depth of Consideration Decisions are made quickly with limited opportunity for discussion of ideas Decisions are made by leadership with no consideration of input from members Alternatives are discussed openly for a good week, then decided by leadership Alternatives are posted for discussion for a good week, then voted by members Does not apply Comments: Q13: Input from Newer Members Input and perspective of newer members are not valued - like the way it's been, or leave Perspective of newer members are considered as part of an evolving member base We explain to newer members why we like it the way it is Charters/Practices were established by leaders, and change/evolution is not welcome unless initiated by leaders Does not apply Comments: Q14: Leadership’s Support of Charter Navigates change, and responds to evolving situations and member base Funds structure and infrastructure with the right resources at the right time Participates in areas of guild’s Gameplay Focus (see Q2) Participates with community, listens and communicates Exercises effective feedback loops (see Q15-16) All of the above Does not apply Comments: Q15: Recruitment Policies Resources, policies, and membership qualifications in place to sustain charter goals Informal practices in place, with Membership Application form and process Informal practices in place, no Membership Application form and process Open recruitment policy, for all takers who agree to Charter tenets Does not apply Comments: Q16: Guild Meetings What's a Guild Meeting, Never Had One Guild Meetings are scheduled as needed to storm member input Guild Meeting schedule established, for ongoing feedback on Charter performance or otherwise Does not apply Comments: Q17: Satisfaction Surveys Surveys/Polls sustained to measure members' satisfaction on each charter poing, to both a) ensure that the right elements are in place, and b) are reasonably being executed No Surveys/Polls - but welcome input, so we can explain why it is the way it is and will not be changed Charter is set in stone, feedback is not welcome Does not apply Comments: Section 3: Focus and Approach Q18: Focus and Membership Qualifications Membership and/or Slot recruitment determined by rigorous standards of class and skill level Progressive skill building and activities from beginners up Casual environment, participate at your discretion and enjoy Does not apply Comments: Q19: Activity Levels in Gameplay Area of Focus (see Q2) Scheduled times and leaders, at least weekly Both scheduled and spontaneous events, at least monthly Events spontaneously by players, at least weekly Events spontaneously by players daily, or close to daily Activity level is not specified, occurs upon demand Does not apply Comments: Q20: Combat Activity - Communication Voice Chat with microphone use mandated for all group members Voice Chat mandated for group members, with active mic for raid leader Voice Chat encouraged for all group members Does not apply Comments: Q21: Combat Activity - Class Skills Expectation for class skill mastery, immediately or quickly, to sustain slot or membership Players enjoy class skill progression, are proactive learners towards mastery Casual approach to class skills, real life priority, best efforts Does not apply Comments: Q22: Combat Activity - Teamwork and Roles Basic competency of combat roles; Tank, Off-tank, Healer, DPS, CC, etc. Solid combat role mastery and situational response Solid teamwork through communication, preparation, and progressive learning Does not apply Comments: 23: Policy regarding Alts Focus on main avatar as sole focus, mastery of one class as sole priority Focus and support on main for group activities, though alts welcome in guild As many alts as members like and can be self-sufficient with Does not apply Comments: Q24: Other Areas of Focus Activities/goals are established for Crafting Activities/goals are established for RP Activities/goals are established for Social, World events and activities Ac tivity/goals are established for multiple of above areas Does not apply Comments: Section 4: Community Q25: Community Primary Priority Achievement of Gameplay Area of Focus Goals (see Q2) Environment of casual friends and family Supports individual player’s enjoyment All of the above Sustain Guild Charter success through effective leadership and member engagement Does not apply Comments: Q26: Language and Tolerance Anything goes – we’re adults PG-13, be respectful and tolerant of all races, religions, politics, preferences, etc. Children-friendly environment Does not apply Comments: Q27: Participation – Forums and Voice Chat Active participation in both is expected to support community and stay informed Active participation in both is requested, real life comes first Active participation in Forums is requested, real life comes first Active participation in Voice Chat is requested, real life comes first Does not apply Comments: Q28: Policy regarding Family or Children Approved member only, no family members or children unless approved as members Spouses welcome, children welcome if meeting standards of behavior per Q7 Family and Children generally approved, see leadership Age limits apply – see Q7 Family and children of members are welcome Does not apply Comments: Q29: Expectations for Participation Real Life comes first Casual, no requirement for participation Frequent participation and support of guild’s Area of Focus (see Q2) Does not apply Comments:

Practice critical thinking and listening skills. New content and gear grind are not the same thing, and nobody is arguing against new content. We are arguing against the gear grind caused by level cap increases. This has nothing to do with Diablo 3 or stale. This has to do with unnecessary gear gating when we could be enjoying content. My clan logged into Counterstrike for multiplayer combat fun for "years" with the same content and no gear grind. Years. Because... it was fun. Why... it was teamwork, it was skill. Those two things alone provide challenges for people enjoying activities. Those two things alone provide various skill levels for both roles and class skills, teamwork and communication skills, that allow teams to go in and stumble at entry level challenges, and others to progress to harder levels of challenge. No need to throw gear into the gate to block opportunity to enjoy challenges, teamwork, and skills. Instead of saying, "we can't do that, we don't have a geared tank," that we hear all too often, we could instead hear, "we can do that, just have to hop on my tank. And oh yeah, John's new, let's show him the ropes and get some experience at it." Due to that very gating, that totally unnecessary gating, only a small population of gamers enjoy the content, and the levels of content, that the developers spent so much time developing, for so few players to be able to enjoy. Ridiculously flawed. So while players are trying to gear up alts (and enjoy a game based on alts and stories), to provide access to content past the gates that befall us so often, just as soon as we finally get near to providing that flexibility to have enough geared and skilled players, who can do the challenging teamwork... the level cap is increased and it was all a complete waste of time, a complete mousewheel, for no purpose, no enjoyment. We were stuck on grinding gear and alt's gear to be able to fill a guild raid with members online at any time, instead of enjoying endgame content. We don't need any of that. Take that one thing out, and we still have gates based on ability to execute on class and combat role skills, on teamwork, on communication, on building a guild community that can deliver on that, on building skills of guild's individual players in the above to bring them along for the ride. That's the bane of every MMO out there thus far, and the TOR devs fell right into the same mistake. Take that one thing out, and put other carrots in the instances to make players and guilds want to revisit it - aside from the fun of the teamwork, class skill honing / sense of achievement, and guild fun. This is so outrageously ridiculous. I can't tell you how many guilds over how many decades have wanted to participate in endgame raids, and never have the critical mass of "raid-ready" gear to make it happen, and it causes untold and unnecessary grief, game dissatisfaction, and guild dissatisfaction. It's so negligent in MMO development leadership, its criminal.

To the OP, bless you. Thank you. I agree emphatically with you. This is one of the fundamental flawed assumptions devs make in MMO's - they're SO wrong. Short version: See me saying the same thing in my own words in Section IX of my Definitive Issues thread (see Sig for URL): Section IX - GEAR GRINDING ≠ ENJOYABLE END GAME I'm still leveling alts. I tried endgame during the first quarter of launch. However, the fact that TOR developers offer zero guild seeking and charter support, its pure and utter chaos for an adult player to find a good fit with a decent guild community AND it takes a decent guild community to enjoy endgame as an adult. On that issue, see Section VI of my Definitive Issues thread (see Sig for URL): Section VI – PLAYER GUILD SUPPORT – OCCUPY SWTOR So, in the end, I agree with you 100%, spot on right. There's fundamental flaws with this game's design across many dimensions, and this is one of them. See sig for the others.

Thanks for reading the entire material, and for your post. Though the initial response seems to be paraphrased as, "can't do much about those," or "not sure I see it that way", I might suggest you give it some more thought. Alot of the responses skim the surface without asking for the root causes, or what the opportunities are - which makes sense with a first pass. I think the material might resonate more with the devs, who as leaders should know what a sacred cow is (what with TOR full of them). I'll touch on one of the response points as an example, and selected Guild Tools (Section VI) as it matters to any MMO more so than any other gaming genre. You didn't see the value in helping guild leaders provide more clarity for their charters, that ratings might be rigged (abused) by guild leaders. Remember the needs that the guild tools would be designed to address: Help leaders better clarify for themselves and for their members - what they want for and of their community Help players better define for themselves what they're looking for in a community (Fair to say that both stakeholders in the two points above could use a little more clarity in MMO's today, to help find better community fits) Help players search for guild communities Help players land in better suited communities Help leaders and players, both, be among like-minded players with like-minded needs That said, here are some considerations to your points: With the above purposes, all stakeholders would benefit from the system. This means that it would be appreciated for the value it brings for all involved, better thriving guilds of like minded players having better clarity of what their guild is designed for, and likewise what it's not designed for. To misuse (game) the tools would be counter-productive to the success of the entire guild, for both leaders and members. Learned in business long ago that you don't forgo "providing great service" or suboptimize the "design of systems to provide great service", for the sake of abuses. Yelp and Tripadvisor seem to do just fine. I contribute to both. While I don't believe we'd need more than self-monitoring of the tools, since the search would be on charter points, not ratings, leaders have the opportunity over time to effect the outcome of ratings, and the final accountability or consequences of gaming the tools would be by departing players, see next bullet ... Example of how it would benefit all stakeholders and why trying to game the tools doesn't work: Joined a guild once that was rare in that it did have a lot of material speaking to its activities and purpose (case of abuse by false advertising). It didn't live up to any of it. After some time and observation, being an adult in a guild of adults, I discussed this with leaders. They said, "well, its a work in progress" or "we used to do that" and alot of other reasons why the charter material was not remotely accurate. What they did was post alot of things that "sounded good" as a charter, with no tangible plans or attempts to execute. So, they had a revolving membership door like any other guild, with alot of unsatisfied members, and were not thriving as a community. They had stated their charter, they just didn't deliver on it - might have been more acceptable if they were delivering on any of it. This period of time was a "learning moment" for their leaders, having a good charter and getting feedback from many, and their go-forward success derives from their ability to learn from those moments. Kudos to them for putting a clear charter out there, and hopefully they learned from setting expectations, underperformance, and feedback. At least they had going for them that they started from a base of like-minded players who all wanted what the charter described. With each of so many clans and guilds I've endured over the decades, the tools would have "spared" me and infinitely countless other players months of dissatisfying MMO experiences (hey, if we log off dissatisfied from the game, from gameplay or from guild experiences, it's still a dissatisfying feeling on logging off that reflects directly on the enjoyment of the game itself) if we had known that before joining. Fact is, after decades of clans and guilds, I've been without a guild for ... oh, six months or so, and gave up looking. It's a huge shame, and huge missed opportunity related to TOR and endgame, but I'm so tired of the blind guild "jumping in." Talking to others ingame without a guild badge, they say the same thing. A huge suboptimized group waiting for better service, as well as the countless other players who are in guilds, but are not satisfied. Wake up, MMO developers. Believe you me, I have no compunction in sharing my ratings (as an avid Yelp and TripAdvisor user) and constructive thoughts. Why? Because by doing so helps make everything "better", raises the bar for all stakeholders. More clarity, accountability, opportunity to see weaknesses and address them, more visibility, promotes better communication on charter tenets. As a leader, I'd be a fool to circumvent such valuable tools, or not take advantage of them, as it would be to my own detriment. Frankly, these tools would revolutionize guilds and MMO satisfaction for any MMO, and would blow your minds after seeing the effects on player satisfaction surveys. It would give those thinking about starting a guild a sense for expectations and what leading a guild means - to get ready to learn and evolve as a leader! If some developer wakes up and provides these services, the landscape and success of guilds would change dramatically.

Will post updates here, and thoughts on sandbox vs. themepark that impact many dimensions of gameplay in the above. Always a great discussion Also, let me be the first to say, for those so inclined... "To OP, too many words" "Wall of Text" "Didn't Read" Yeah, yeah.

Preamble: This thread is redrafted from another originated from a prior account, of 4 total accounts held in my household since cancelled, and am down to this last remaining account. I've updated it for the few items that have been fixed since it was originally posted in April, 2012, tightened it up, and added a prologue about what works well in TOR. Most of these fundamental issues have not been scratched. _________________________________________________ I – STORY, The 4TH PILLAR, IS STILL CRUMBLING _________________________________________________ II - SURNAMES - BROKEN MMO EXPERIENCE _________________________________________________ III – BROKEN ELEMENTS THAT SIGNIFICANTLY ADD UP _________________________________________________ IV – COMPANION AFFECTION, AND DIALOGUE TRIGGERS _________________________________________________ V - COMMUNITY EFFECTIVENESS – SWTOR FORUMS INADEQUATE _________________________________________________ VI – PLAYER GUILD SUPPORT – OCCUPY SWTOR _________________________________________________ VII – ENDGAME GUIDANCE _________________________________________________ VIII – BROKEN CLIENT/SERVER SYNC UNDERMINES GROUP COMBAT & TAB TARGETING _________________________________________________ IX - GEAR GRINDING ≠ ENJOYABLE END GAME _________________________________________________ X - SPACE ON RAILS _________________________________________________ XI - MMO ON RAILS _________________________________________________ XII - GAME/SERVER SERVICES _________________________________________________ THAT'S GREAT, BUT WHAT IS GOOD?

Thanks for asking. I LOVE the direction you've taken to make any outfit the outfit we can wear if we want to, our cosmetics of choice, by having flexible mods. Awesome. The variety is great, and swapping mods makes it flexible. Mod flexibility grade: A+ I'd like better customization of the cosmetics themselves. The Chest color drives all. Please change that. Give us 2 or 3 different elements of any individual piece, such as body, hem, accent, that we can color up to 3 elements of one piece, and then do so for all other pieces either with a match, or individually to the 3 elements of the boots, or the 3 elements of the gloves, etc. It's very rigid on cosmetics currently, needs much attention. The fact that I hate green, but like the outfit design, and am stuck with a green outfit... terrible execution. Per above, need to be able to change not only our favorite cosmetic outfits from the (insert color) we hate, but apply - for example - the Blue fabric, Silver hem, and Black sleeve, all three to the chest piece, and if we decide that all 3 color components of the pants should all be black, then we can. What's key to MMO design? Flexibility and choice. Cosmetic customization grade: D Finally, hate the gear grind. Simplify the gear levels. Tionese, Elite War Hero, Columi, OMG. Give us other reasons aside from natural pure joy from great teamwork and class work in a Raid, to continue to get goods for individuals, guilds, etc. and get us off the Gear grind. I can list 100's of things to motivate Raid participation other than gear. Gate content on 2 dimensions (class competency, teamwork/role competency) rather than adding a 3rd tier competency of Gear. Gear gates participation unnecessarily. We should be able to say, "yes we can get a group going because I can jump on my Tank, " instead of what we have today, "we can't do it because we don't have at Tank." Challenge and achievement can come from the 2 dimensions without the gating of the gear. I'm not saying we should be able to go in with poor gear, but do we really need so many variants? The problem is, by the time we get a player who's skilled in various classes, to jump from Tank to DPS because that's what's needed, they had to kill their marriage to grind both or 3 classes to twinked gear, a carreer's worth of time, and even then, we can't enjoy it once we have because by that time you raise the level cap and we're grinding again. In the mean time, because of the lack of gear, the uber content challenges are only participated by a very small segment of the number of players who have the skill but can't participate because they couldn't contribute a career and marriage-breaking commitment of time, and enjoy other aspects of an MMO that they should be able to. Find other carrots geared towards indivduals and guilds to motivate participation (frankly, my prior CounterStrike clan logged in eagerly to particpate with skill and teamwork FOR YEARS and there was never any gear carrot motivating them, gameplay and teamwork was satisfaction enough), such as badges, stats, cosmetics, or guild awards such as banners, cap ship modules (cantina), ... I mean I could list carrots other than gear to throw out there for hours. Gear complexity grade: F

Yes, my response to the blog is that we didn't get a State of the Game, and I'd like to get one. The SotG was oriented on 3 isolated and short-term issues. Let's get back to big picture. Many developers left the building, the game wasn't meeting any stakeholders' expectations, and I'd like to know where the leadership and vision is going on various segments of gameplay and game development.