That would be interesting, seeing as Daniel Erickson unceremoniously left the company during the F2P switch. Indeed, my pet conspiracy theory about class stories is that the big attitude shift against them had a lot to do with them being Erickson's (and only Erickson's) project, like Legacy, such that without him no one particularly cares. Or more realistically, no one is particularly interested in dealing with the complexity James Ohlen warned against. "'Don't be scared about adding voice over and cool cinematic content,' he advised his audience, 'but do be careful about adding lots of choice with consequence because that adds to QA cost and development cost and makes it hard to design everything.'" Perhaps a cost Erickson was willing to risk, but Ohlen, Hickman, Schubert et al are not? Don't get me wrong, Schubert in particular saved this game, which I certainly appreciate. But it's telling that a) Erickson's departure wasn't even officially acknowledged, and b) to my knowledge, he was also never replaced. Who is the creative director of SWTOR right now? This I'd give a few cartel packs to know.

I think the least we can do is keep this thread on the first page. If Magnus got his Revan set changed, who knows?

The man-power isn't shorter by necessity, just by choice. It's well documented that the move to F2P increased, rather than decreased, their profit margin. They're making a lot of money: the issue is where (and on what) they invest it. This is why I think the OP has an excellent point with this thread. If we can discuss things like the content of cartel packs with the developers, we can discuss what we want from the game itself, and what they're willing to give us. (And what we're willing to give them back in return. The cold calculus of profit.)

I'm sure they do, if we start leaving the game that's paying their salaries. (And less cynically, it's possible they care about satisfying their customers with token gestures, such as what the OP and myself are discussing. By no means is full reinstatement of those infamous four datamined planets on the table.) Edit: But nor is Makeb enough. There's 'token gesture' and there's a token of a token, as it were.

I don't believe I've posted in the forums before, but let me just say that I too am questioning my subscription (at least) to the game, given this obvious developer - or more likely producer - disinterest in the class story project. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the game and I've enjoyed it since pre-launch, but as mentioned above, this is a game about "your story". My story is e.g. my Sith Inquisitor's story, sensitive to what he is and what he uniquely does and who he uniquely knows, such that the Avengers-style interludes (to my mind) like Makeb can somehow matter. Otherwise it's like that stereotypical old washout for whom every new experience is a chance to reminisce about the old days (that time you killed X or did Y in the 1-50 story). There's no narrative development: just extended plot. All that said, and given the reality of the producers' reluctance to invest in class stories (which I think can be taken for granted), the kind of 'intercalated class story' the OP describes does seem to be the only viable solution. No class stories will fundamentally hurt the motivation of many of us to play, and also to pay to customise our character (to what end, besides looking cool in arenas?) - and lead to unsubscribing, and significant loss of profit. Not to mention I don't envy SWTOR's fortunes when the next generation of emergent-gameplay MMOs shows up. Developing 4 (x2) class stories seems too much for the Bioware Austin team to stomach financially. Fair enough. But: develop one story, use your instance technology (see: personal starships) to give Inquisitors, Warriors, etc. something to do that is unique to them as part of that story, have an old friend cameo in it, keep subscribers. (Or at least myself. It won't take more than such relatively meagre effort to keep me, and I don't think I'm alone.) This really is the red line marking SWTOR's reputation as a story-based MMO, or a has-been story-based MMO. Could we have some indication of whether Bioware Austin is willing to entertain an intercalated approach? Eric? Courtney?

I have never posted in this forum before, as my tolerance for forum nonsense is fairly low as it is, but I do read it. And now I post, if just to ask what on earth your issue is, Brannicus, that you want to kill our server for it? I play on Jung Ma. I have played on Jung Ma since before launch. Numbers genuinely were bad just before F2P. Now? No. No, I'm sorry, but that server you incessantly wail about isn't Jung Ma, except for the Flashpoint queues. Yes, it is indeed quite problematic to get a Flashpoint to pop if you're a DPS. Not a Warzone: just Flashpoints. And that's it. No, there aren't ~70 people on the Fleet, unless you play at completely odd times for the East Coast. No, role-play is not meaningless in this server just because that would help your argument. There are plenty of role-players, and we role-play, and we want to do so in an RP-PvP server, thanks - even if you don't specifically appreciate the difference. And you know what? Jung Ma has a community, has had a community since this game launched, and that community is one many of us, myself obviously included, love and appreciate and it makes us enjoy SWTOR that much more. It just gets to me (clearly, since I'm posting here) how callously people like you would kill it to pop Flashpoints. Transfer? Gosh, yes, by all means transfer. Enjoy the game like you want! But live and let live already.