Let's resurrect this thread, shall we? I took about 10 months or so off from the game. When I left, numbers in fleet were down to 100-150 or so. I resubbed a couple days ago, and the first thing I noticed was that Bioware seems to have taken down population indicators for servers. Not a good sign. It seemed really quiet, so I decided to log on to fleet. I knew it was low, but I wasn't expecting this. 14. On a Sunday night at 6PM EST. Something needs to be done. This is ridiculous.

Digital ***** envy. That's why.

Hi guys, I haven't been logging in regularly for a while, but I noticed that lag seems to have increased on the fleet. When I head through a group of 4-7 people (didn't count exact numbers) the screen is very choppy as my character moves forward. After coming out of the crowd, my framerate runs as smoothly as butter. Has anyone else noticed any increase in lag with the most recent patches? I haven't had this problem before, so I just wanted to check and see whether or not it was on my end. Thanks!

It's not you - Bioware did soft server merges a couple months ago. You can still transfer your character to any of their pre-selected servers. They will "force" merge you sometime this summer, though. Jon

Looked it up. You're right, I stand corrected. It was 3 years. Time flies.

I think the last major subscription MMO that went f2p was LOTRO, and they went F2P in about the same amount of time, IIRC. It'll be interesting to see what happens with The Secret World - seems like they have the best bet at staying with a pure subscription-based model.

It's bad if all you consider is the fact that SWTOR is losing subscribers and had to resort to this option. However, as long as they stay with the "unlimited" game access for $14.95/mo, all they are doing is adding other options for players. The economy's tough - people like having more than one option to pay for a game. As it stands now, I don't see anything wrong with it.

IMO PvP gear isn't really an optional purchase if PvP is what you want to do. Granted, starting off on PvP gearless is rough, but with enough time it can become balanced. PvP just takes dedication. Personally, I think myself more of a PvE guy.

Apples to dinosaurs.

It's not; I've seen plenty of whine-ese on these forums. But again, are you assuming that they will do this even for those who pay a $15/mo subscription fee, or is this only used as a method of payment for those that do not want to pay a subscription model? This is w hat I don't understand.

Actually, it was just a question of curiosity on my part. There was already a thread wining about it that came before mine. I might be inviting the whiners, but in this case, I'm just trying to ascertain the REASON for the whining, as I do not understand it.

I do not understand this f2o hatred. Every major subscription-based game that has gone F2P in the past (DDO, LOTRO come to mind) has maintained their subscription model as an option. I am confused as to the hatred of this model simply because the option still exists - if you still want to pay to get the full benefits of the product, then keep paying the subscription fee! There are a couple of things that I see people can dislike about this option. Perhaps some of you can clarify: 1. EA does not offer a 15.95/mo subscription option; 2. The SWTOR community is damaged by an influx of immature 12-year-olds. So, those who dislike this option, do your reasons for dislike fall within one of these two categories, or does it stem from something else? Jon

So which would you ratherhave - an easy leveling process or a ridiculously stupid grind? Is there a middle ground that would be better?

But WoW was the first. All of the MMOs you listed were post-WoW and were borrowing from their design, which is now considered standard-faire in MMOs. So yes, those are valid examples. Esp since I remember reading several posts like, "Why don't we have a group finder like WoW?" Discount this how you will - he asked for examples, and we gave them.

Group finder. And now people don't even like that.