EA wasn't the monster in the 80s and early 90s it is now. I mean monster both in the sense of size and villainy. One of my all time favorite games, and the inspiration behind Bioware's own Mass Effect series, was a game called Starflight. It had deep and ingenious gameplay elements, as well as a deep and interesting mystery/storyline. Even then, EA was a company that invested in startup games makers. But their initial business model was to infuse really great small-time gamemakers with great ideas with new revenue to help them get over the hump. EA cared about quality, because in ths 80s and 90s, that was the only way to succeed in video games, especially PC games. As EA matured though, they evolved into a company that stopped caring about great games and became the monster we know it as today.

A lot of points raised here are technically true, but also irrelevant. For instance, it is true that MMOs are a niche gaming market. But so what? It's true that MMOs must largely be played on PCs. So what? These limitations are equalized across the entire MMO space. WoW has these same challenges, as does ESO, and all the rest. (* don't get lost in minutiae - ESO can be played on console, but even if it couldn't, its PC version alone is more successful than SWTOR) So what is different about SWTOR relative to "larger" and "more successful" MMOs? The core reality, the foundation of mediocrity upon which are built all the other issues SWTOR faces, is this one simple fact: the game was released before it was ready. It's the single greatest error that every failed MMO has made. The premise of the OP is flawed, asking why SWTOR isn't bigger, and citing all the facts about how huge and loved and worldwide the Star Wars IP is. It is BECAUSE of how huge and loved and worldwide Star Wars is that SWTOR exists at this point AT ALL. The errors made by EA would have sunk any other MMO based in any other IP 4 times over by now. A non-Star Wars MMO would not have survived this long. History lesson: when this game came out, it's initial purchases and subscriptions were everything anyone could have hoped for. This game was HUUUUUUGEEEEEE. And 6 months later, growth was utterly dead, and we entered an lengthy and glorified maintenance mode. SWTOR lost over half its subscriptions and has done nothing but decline slowly since then. Why did this happen? It happened because the game didn't have enough content at release, and what content there was ... was buggy and needed a ton of polish. After 6 months ... which is about how much development time I personally reckon was needed prior to release (based on having never participated in MMO development before ) ... everyone but the hardcore Star Wars nerds were done, and never coming back. And even some of those guys were done and gone forever too. At some point near the end of development, a team of EA beancounters calculated that releasing earlier was more profitable than releasing later. These guys make games for a living, so I don't think they were ignorant of the fact that the game wasn't ready, or that non-ready-MMOs always fail. EA is about pleasing shareholders, not gamers. They calculated the cost of additional development time, weighed that against the extent to which they predicted that additional development would have benefited the sales and initial subs, and decided that the Star Wars IP would carry it alone. They weren't wrong. SWTOR is profitable. Is it all that we, the players and Star Wars lovers, wish it could be? No. Of course not. But did EA turn a profit? Yes. Would the profit have been higher if they had let SWTOR be more successful? Maybe. But maybe not. It's hard for us gamers to appreciate how much more it costs in development, that difference between a mostly-finished product and a product full of polish. That last 10% to get a game from 85% to 95% awesome is WAY MORE than just 10% more expense. This is why everyone hates EA, because EA has perfected the art of making the most profit off partially finished games. Blizzard cares more about quality. Bethesda cares more about quality. The proof is in the pudding of the games themselves. A lively debate could be had regarding the quality of decisions at Blizzard, Bethesda (Zenimax), et al., but a debate about whether those developers care more about the quality of their product than EA does theirs would be asinine in the extreme. Now take a second, and imagine the power of the Star Wars IP in the hands of a game developer that also cares about quality, about polish, about investment, about the long-term. Imagine the IP wasn't in the hands of a developer whose entire business model is "buy up studios that have world-leading name recognition for world-leading game development, exploit the F out of that for 3-6 game titles, and then kill it." Just imagine that any reputable developer had the Star Wars IP. Imagine what could be done. For now, until Disney axes EA, imagining it is all we can do. And there's always a good chance that Disney won't part ways with EA, because soulless large companies love each other too much to take a risk on something smaller and higher quality. Anthem won't benefit from the Star Wars IP love that SWTOR has. It has no built-in fanbase. Also, EA has tarnished the reputation of Bioware so thoroughly that even old-time Bioware fans can't be said to be bought-in on developer name-recognition alone. And EA has, outside the Bioware studio, done nothing but make extremely poor public-relations decisions in the last 24 months. It's hard to launch an MMO, and Anthem is starting out with one hand tied behind its back. On top of all that, Anthem will be a competitor to other established shooter-based MMOs. The only possible way Anthem succeeds is if it's quality is second to none. It will have to amaze skeptical players with elegance of design and quality of gameplay. But let's be real. This is an EA venture. It won't do that. Anthem's goal isn't to succeed. Anthem's goal is to turn a profit. Once Anthem's development reaches a point where EA beancounters calculate additional dev time won't have an appreciable effect on sales in the short term, Anthem will be released. The game will be expensive to purchase, like maybe $75 for a regular non-collectors edition. They will tell us its worth it. There will be slick marketing videos. EA's goal is to turn a profit on initial sales. Anything the game manages to do afterwards in subs or loot-crate sales will just be icing on the cake. But if the game manages not to make a lot of money in subs or loot-crate sales, and the game turns into yet another in a long line of half-baked EA mediocre products with very little left to offer anyone, so be it. EA has "learned its lesson" after their attempt to do "games as service" with Battlefront. Their initial business model for Anthem probably was something like "games as service" with the intent to turn a long term profit on subs or pay-to-win crate-sales. Now that they know they can't, they are shifting gears to "make a profit on initial sales and initial subs, and call it a day." Because in the end, EA doesn't make games to make great games. They make games to make the most efficient profit.

+1 all of that OP.

Internet tough guys think it's good to be bad. Too few think it's hip to be square. Suddenly I want to start a cover band where the gag is I sing Huey Lewis songs while wearing a bad comb-over wig and orange-crush body toner and call my group Huey Lewis and the Fake News.

Honestly, I have great admiration for your poise Vulkk. You experienced a few technical difficulties that turn other streamers into eyes-wide panic-stricken hyper-self-conscious saps who lose control of their interview and start talking too fast and awkwardly. But not you ... you handled that stuff like a real pro. Bravo on a great show.

It's almost like their design goals are painfully obvious - how this escapes people I have no idea.

Next Expansion is confirmed - GDP WARS: RISE OF THE TRADE FEDERATION Dude, I'm psyched!

So the Stronghold Defender weapons now available for direct sale on the CM are ... NOT? ... available to unlock in collections? And this is a known issue dating back years? Why would they put these weapons on direct sale bugged like that? I'm glad I read this, I was about to buy these and ... well ... now there's no reason to. My sympathies to others.

We are a small, snowflake guild that caters to a narrow slice of the gaming public. If you are a DPSer (ranged strongly preferred, but we aren't turning away mDPS who fit the culture), and you're looking for a new group to raid operations with competently, then please review the following checklist. We are right for you if: - you are interested in HM/NiM raids, - you are a busy adult who chooses to raid 1 night per week, for a maximum of 3 hours, - you have a special combination of "maturity that allows you to focus," and "immaturity that forces you to be maturely focused at kicking *** in a video game." - you recognize that placing real life first doesn't mean you can't beat NiM content, it only means you won't get there first, second, tenth. You care only about beating it pre-nerf. Most people who fit this bill are reformed hardcore raiders who grew into a real life that makes it impossible to spend 20 hours a week in-game, but who can never grow out of a need to push themselves to ever greater heights of achievement. It's a small subset of what is already a small subset of the playerbase. Delusions has been raiding HM/NiM content since 1.0, and we've never not been successful at it. We are the kind of players who clear NiM content even though we only raid 3 hours per week, total. That means we don't have time for the usual NiM shenanigans of people being passive aggressive, or flat out aggressive aggressive, about making mistakes. No one is going to yell at you or belittle you in this guild when you make a mistake during progression. We are the kind of players who are, each of us individually, our own sharpest critics, and because we are focused not on what the next guy needs to improve for us to succeed, but what each of us must improve individually, we are able to collaborate quickly, effectively, and amicably. No politics, no stress, no tension. We have a ton of laughs while we progress. Some HM/NiM raid groups can't succeed without hour after hour of stressful contentious iterating on strategy. We do it quicker and happier. If you are, in addition to everything above, intelligently nerdy without also being smugly intelligently nerdy, then we are the family you didn't know you were missing. ** We raid Saturday Nights, 5-8pm Pacific time (or Sunday afternoon if you're APAC, and some of us are). PM me here on the forum for details, or simply reply to this thread. We use Discord and StarParse.

/5char

The Omenbringer headpiece, available cheap on a vendor on the Republic Fleet, is a legacy-bound helm (meaning you can mail it to your Imp characters if you want) and it's just a thin little headband that will overwrite the hood. It leaves your hair unmolested. It still requires you to have a "thing" on your head, but when your options are between "hood you don't want that obscures 90% of your character's head" and "head circlet you don't want that obscures 2% of your character's head," many people choose the circlet. It's the only option aside from just finding a chest that doesn't have a hood.

The Ashara romance is, imo, the most twisted romance in the game IF you play it Darkside. And you can. Darkside Ashara romance is also the most troublingly realistic. Let me explain, for those of you who haven't, or simply wouldn't, do this. My male Darth Nox took every opportunity in Ashara's recruitment mission on Taris to hit her with lightning. And there are a lot of chances. He also convinced her to murder, in cold blood, a vanquished and surrendered Sith. THEN he got her to justify it, led her along the prim rose path to the conclusion that she had to do it, because if she hadn't done it, then she would personally have been responsible for any one that Sith might have hurt or killed in the future. Put aside the fact that it's a ludicrous supposition, it is NOT ludicrous that Ashara could be induced to believe it. Understand the ability of an evil abusive ahole to twist the minds of vulnerable people. Then, in ship conversations, my Darth Nox fought with her and belittled her and mocked her on every opportunity. The only time my Darth Nox did not openly antagonize her was to occasionally flirt with her, and the writers made sure there are flirt options leading you into the romance that are not exactly loving or thoughtful. In the parlance of internet trolls, you can neg her till she loves you for it, till she decides to marry you. And no matter how harshly you tortured her within literal minutes of meeting her, no matter how much you demean her and ridicule her, no matter how many times she watches you torture and murder other people, some of them arguably deserving, and others completely innocent, she never fails to project ONTO you the single idea she's invented to justify HER choice to join you: she's going to change the Empire for the better. That's her delusional mission, and no matter how evil or abusive you are, she imagines you have some goodness within that you simply don't. If that doesn't sound familiar to you, then count yourself lucky, because it means you have never yourself been in a psychologically, emotionally, or physically abusive relationship, or you have never been close to someone else who has. But if this looks familiar to you, then you see it for exactly what it is. In this game, if you play Darth Nox, and you play him properly, you can be a domestic abuser of the highest order. It doesn't matter that a Light Side Inquisitor may be working actively for the goal Ashara was assigned in the writing room. When you play Dark Side, you as the PC are not working for that, and there's no alternate path for Ashara in the game, no trigger that flips the tracks so that she deals with an evil player-character as if he were evil. They didn't do the Jaessa thing. Maybe they meant to? It got cut for time/cost? Or maybe they pointedly wanted a fallen Jedi companion for a Sith character who never really gives in to the darkside. Who knows. It doesn't really matter this far down the line anymore. The fact of the matter is that the developers' decision not to give the Ashara a dark side persona left us all with the opportunity to live out our domestic abuser fantasies. I don't think they meant to do it. But they did do it. And they inadvertently made it the most realistic romance in the game. There are far more people out there like this than innocent-minded people tend to think, people in relationships with abusive, gaslighting losers who nevertheless manage to see a Light Side in them in contrast to all factual realities. The lovey dovey romances in this game all rely on a certain suspension of disbelief, and none of them are perfectly realistic. The Dark Side Ashara romance is utterly realistic. They kind of righted this during her return. Now if you choose to insult her, try to control her, or attempt to torture her, she stands up for herself and says "no more." And then she simply walks away. Naturally, it strains credulity that Darth Nox would permit this, but consider the narrative alternatives. If there were a kill-option, then Bioware would have enabled the players who chose to explore their domestic abuser fantasies to carry those through to their darkest possible conclusion. Consider that narrative arc from start to finish, and then decide if you think internal consistency with the relative power differential between Darth Nox and Ashara is important enough to warrant a kill option. I'll display the whole arc, for clarity: You meet a frustrated, angsty girl at odds with the two men she considers her family (Masters Ryan and Ocera), and you stage an attack on her so you can pretend to save her, and then you torture her, force her to murder a guy, then torture her some more with lines about her suffering until she learns to submit, then you slaughter her family, dangle her as bait, allow her to watch as you demonstrate a level of power which VASTLY exceeds her own, and then you give her an ultimatum while again torturing her, that she can join you or die. You've exploited her, tortured her, slain her family, and made her run off with you. K ... now ... imagine she's a cute 20-something blonde college drop out, and the player character is just some random ahole dude. Still thinking this is a good narrative to have in our Star Wars game? But we're not done. After you force her to run away with you, you embark on a campaign to emotionally and psychologically abuse her until she thinks she's in-love with a man who wants to make the world a better place, when in fact all he wants to do is to exploit, hurt, and murder anyone it takes to get his way. Then you continue to abuse her emotionally until she decides to marry you. You systematically deconstruct her relationships to anything that mattered to her before you came along, allowing her to talk to a revered Jedi Master, suspecting or knowing he will reject her, and when he does, you twist that to make her further doubt her place in the galaxy, and then tell her that her place is with you. It's diabolical. And then she marries you. And then - blessed day, she's free. Her abuser is locked away for 5 years. Then he gets out, on a kind of space-parole. He immediately returns to his old ways, exploiting and using and murdering anyone he chooses, acquiring power and influence. She spends the next year staying as far from him as possible. She's not sure she's strong enough to face him again, but she VERY MUCH likes the new woman she became once her abuser got locked up. She's worried about losing that new stronger, independent side of herself to Darth Nox again. But then he finds her. And he wants to pick back up where they left off. He wants to insult her, hurt her, and make her come along. Now ... some of you want there to be an option where she stands up to him, and he Fing KILLS HER FOR IT? Look, I get it, maybe you played a female Inquisitor, or a non-romantic male Darth Nox, and Ashara's delusional insistence on adhering to Jedi philosophy while simultaneously following an evil Sith on missions throughout the Empire in opposition to the Republic's war efforts on Hoth, Belsavis, Voss, Corellia, Ilum, and Makeb ... it's irritating. You inquisitor wants to kill her. But step outside yourself for just a second, and consider this: Most of the complaints about there being no way to stay true to Darth Nox's Dark Side tendencies and ALSO keep Ashara ... they amount to, and in some cases literally are, an insistence that player agency trump Ashara's agency. Maybe you don't see the real world parallel there, and if you don't, then nothing anyone says will make you see it. But for the rest of you, do you see now why a kill option for Ashara is a lot more trouble than it's worth. Even if you can't find the compassion to think about the impact this kind of thing might have on a real player who has themselves been the victim of abuse, then at least think about this with some cold logic. The kill option for Ashara in the midst of the #metoo moment would be especially poor optics, and EA cares about that kind of thing, even if they are often inept at managing it. Other options less severe than murdering Ashara are also, for the same reasons, problematic. She escapes her abuser, finds a new more powerful and independent side of herself, and when her abuser tracks her down, he tortures her enough that she breaks and rejoins him? K ... that may be a thing that happens in the real world, a dude gets out of prison and returns to his old ways and manages to tear down a woman who found herself during his absence, and also it may be a thing that Darth Nox in the game world could achieve ... but do you really want that narrative in the game? Don't get distracted by "butwhatabouts" with the Wrath and Vette. Just consider whether or not THIS narrative, as I've described it about Ashara, is a narrative you want to exist in this game. I don't. I much prefer the optics of Ashara standing up to a Dark Side Darth Nox and saying, emphatically, "No more." And then walking away. I like that a lot better. You ought to also. If you don't, maybe this a mirror on yourself into which you should peer carefully.

Well, unlike other threads about 6.0 suggestions, *I* can speak with an English Ahk-sent.

Should probably just be an *option.* Like, the Jedi Council might not appreciate your Dark Sided Consular flinging lightning around, so you would save that for when it's safe to fry someone. Honestly, I'm not sure which is more brutal, bludgeoning someone with stones, or cooking them with lightning. Either way, this is not likely to be an option in-game due to various constraints imposed by the new faction-switching engine, which I'm not sure is totally confirmed.

How many of your PCs have been more loyal to your 1.0 love interests than you have been in the real world? Like, consulars who are still holding out for Felix after all this time ... how many of you have changed your real life relationship since the start of KotFE?

Cross faction guilds will be a thing in 6.0. That's a tertiary reason for the big Conquest Redesign. The backend mechanics of that system needed to be ready for cross-faction guilds. So you won't even have to change guilds when you change factions. Don't worry guys, the devs have this covered!

Perfect! Gorgeous. Back to back posts with people explaining they want the majority (if not all) of their characters to switch to a specific faction ... and each wants the opposite one. Fear not, brave SWTOR subscribers! Faction switching is most definitely something they are going to do*!!! * Or they should, because whatever hand-waving they do to RE-reset the galaxy minus faction switching will be met with much trollfacing from the masses.

*Of course* they have time and money for 16 class stories. It wouldn't even be that hard or expensive. Keith was supposed to do a whole "wild west train robbery" thing with our Umbara strongholds, and he totally didn't, and I can't think of any reason why that development was shelved except but to make room for the new faction-switching narratives. Besides ... like, after being the Commander of the Alliance, do you think the Republic military is gonna be all like "hey trooper guy, come on back and just run a single little spec ops team, we totally forgive and forget your efforts against us." Or the Dark Council is going to be all like "heyyyyy Darth Noxxy baby! We're so glad to have you back, we TOTALLY forgive all that stuff you did as Emperor of the Eternal Alliance. You'll just take your seat back at the Pyramid of Secrets, amirite? aww ... THIS GUY /headnoogie on Darth Nox." I mean, they're gonna have to completely blow up all our character narratives to have it make any sense for even for Imps to go back Imp and Pub to go back Pub, so while they're in there doing ALL NEW things ANYWAY ... you know ... faction switching can be a thing now. It's gonna be amazing. I know it.

Don't get me wrong guys, I'm as excited about faction switching as you all are, and I honestly can't wait to see what they do with the 16 new class stories, but the thing I am --MOST-- excited about BY FAR is the emergence of the Eternal Darth Revaphess Reborn Again, Junior. This game needs more iconic adversaries, and nothing could be more iconic than this trinity of evil all wrapped into one guy.

So, when the Alliance meets its inevitable end, I think you guys should make crossing over a real thing. My Triple-Agent wants to make a permanent home in the Republic. My ruthless Dark Side Trooper is sick of namby pamby pubs, and he wants to join the Empire - maybe Tavus had it right all along. My Light Side Warrior wants to purge all traces of the Emperor from herself, and believes that joining the Jedi Order and meditating with the wisest seers in the galaxy might bring her lasting peace. My Fallen Knight sees a power vacuum in the Empire, and can think of no one better to fill it than himself. My Fallen Knight doesn't want to annihilate the galaxy, but he's seen the kind of power the Emperor had, and he wants a little bit of that power to control people, to live eternally, and yes, maybe that's a slippery slope, but he thinks he can handle it ... because of course he thinks that. Crossing over doesn't mean Smugglers get red shields and Warriors stop being all red-faced. It doesn't mean that Troopers forsake their cannons in favor of pistols, or that snipers forsake their rifles for pistols either. Everything stays the same, but now you're just on the other faction. Now, I know Inquisitors joining the Republic and the Jedi Order would have to stop flinging lightning, so that's a complicating factor, but I'm sure you guys can work that out. Also, this means 16 class stories for the xpac in 6.0. You can do it. Also, get your animation department on the lightsaber-whip-thingy. Imagine the money you'll rake in when you direct sell a platinum-rarity lightsaber-whip-thingy that actually swishes around. Heck, for that you could invent Diamond-Rarity and charge 5 figures of CCs for it. Lastly, we need a Stronghold on Copero, or maybe Makeb. Actually, how about both. These ideas should all be really easy to implement, but if you have any questions, just ask me. I haven't even run my newest idea by you guys yet. I'm still working on it, but the rough draft is this: "Valkorian/Vitiate lives on, having transferred his consciousness yet again to another creature, the ultimate host of that storied consciousness: a heinous Sith-Alchemical merging of DNA from Kephess and Revan. Think of it - the Eternal Darth Revephess Reborn Again, Junior. The most terrifying antagonist in the entire Star Wars IP since SAND ITSELF!" There might be a few kinks in that idea, but I think you get the gist of it. Can't wait for 6.0 guys!

Basically, yes. They ask for feedback to give feedback-giving folks the idea that their feedback matters. Forum feedback only has a single real utility for a game developer with an MMO: it gives flavor and context to the data they have on the backend. So if suddenly everyone gives up on conquest and the game loses players, and the devs can't figure out why, then your lamentations will color their interpretation of their own data. But if you guys could see how many times the forum-base trumpeted the end of all things and massive waves of cancelled subs against the number of times those waves actually happened ... /shrug Do you remember the Galactic Command system? BWA is no stranger to wasted development time. Just because I offer an explanation for the changes does not mean I endorse them. Also, you'll forgive me, I hope, if I take your "my guild is dead because of conquest changes" statement with a grain of salt.

Well, their design goal was the the mega guilds would all compete for the high yield planet, and these changes would allow a bit more competition among the mega guilds, flattening the curve of their power users, and breaking the ability of those guilds to have satellite guilds that also win planets. The legacy restrictions force mega guilds to commit to one guild. For example, on Harby in the past and on Satele Shan now, a certain guild, we'll call them AAA for short, had like 6 guilds, AAA1, AAA2, etc, and those guilds were highly coordinated and nearly impossible to beat for #1 position, even for other mega guilds on Harby/Satele. These changes make #1 more competitive than it was before, for those in the mega guild classification. The problem is that the mega guilds don't HAVE to go for the Large Yield planets, and the disparity in rewards between high, medium, and low yield planets doesn't really motivate anyone. So they'll need to fix that somehow. Then, for literally every other guild on every single server, save the tiny snowflake guilds with like 10 actual players in them, the rest of the conquest system is now wide open for competition. Anyway, I'm still not saying I think these are good goals. I'm just saying that these are the design goals of the new system. I agree, a straightforward explanation would be better. Players are whiney and entitled and generally completely ignorant of what makes a good game, so straightforward explanations are not always warranted. But sometimes they are, and I think this is one of those times.

They will give these changes like 6 weeks. We're 2 weeks in. Even if people "quit" (lol the most useless threat and debate point on a forum where people are 99% full ofs hit about it), only around 1/12th of the playerbase will actually see their sub run out in the test window. I bet we see a somewhat sensible system in place within just a few more weeks. They can't exactly put this on a test server, because they need the entire population of the game to beta test these conquest changes. Keep gnashing your teeth for the cathartic value of it, if you must, but don't think for a second that your lamentations mean anything substantive to the decision making processes at BWA. The data will tell the tale, and we don't get to see that. They do. I trust they'll have exactly they system they want in place within a few more weeks of iterations.

Guys, this is an asinine request, stop embarrassing yourselves by asking. If it worked this way, then my 37-alt legacy would be worth more than your 25-alt legacy, and less than Keith's 1,000,001-alt legacy.

Joonbeams, I agree with you. Their objective (making alts hard) might be bad for the game. But they are doing a "test-and-learn" to see how bad it'll be. Simple as that. Their primary objective isn't "makes alts hard," but really it's "break up the too-big-to-beat mega guilds." They want to break the strangle hold of the mega guilds and actually make the thing more competitive. Breaking the ability to hit the target on 20 alts per week also means making it hard to hit the target on 1 alt per week. Such is life. Is it a GOOD IDEA? I won't offer an opinion. I don't know what they do. Judging reactions on the forum as a way to gauge actual impact on the game is never a worthwhile activity.