Have I missed something, or have BioWare stated somewhere that they're not banning exploiters?

In short? Because they're bad players and dislike having the game reward other people for being better.

I don't think that's a fair summary of what BW have achieved with SWTOR. Yes, WoW is currently a more polished and stable game - after being live for over SEVEN years. But the storyline elements of SWTOR are great fun and immerse you far more in the world than WoW has ever managed to.

Of course hybrid is fine for leveling. But end game? Nah.

Oh, absolutely it's a generalisation. But I think it's far more true than "people like doing things that are easy and gain satisfaction from trivial content" for the population. I don't think we would have gotten where we are as a race if so many of our number were content with just being 'satisfactory' and taking the easy ride. But humanity has disappointed me before!

Right. Only a very very small percentage of people use them. This is not only true when DS is in, but when it is out too. If someone has a role in PvE, of course they're going to be fully specced in their ROLE. Having undefined roles like, oh hey, you're kinda healy but also kinda DPS doesn't work. You want to save a type of playstyle only a minority care about at the expense of the majority's desire for greater flexibility.

Hilarious. Thanks for the laugh! You can always count on the Daily Fail to take your expectations about humanity and set the bar so much lower.

No, his stat is Aim. Just keep doing quests until you're offered a reward weapon for companions. There should be a techstaff at some point meant for Torian.

I've already given you my reasons why I think this will become closer to WoW, rather than a fun game where everyone runs around with magical fairies who make everyone smiley and happy because playing a game where you're not challenged is so much fun. And don't forget that when WoW was released it was identical to SWTOR in many respects, with a restricted UI, no mods or addons, full of bugs and with unchallenging PvE content. Hell, your average player had no idea how stats affected their abilities or what gear would work best for them. There's no way anyone wants to overload new players or complicate things needlessly to begin with. That's not a smart move. But a few months down the line, when everything is starting to become a little boring and old...yes, that's the right time to make things more difficult and get people talking. To raise the bar, keep subs and attract new ones. As you yourself pointed out, the game runs on hard numbers. There's no getting away from them because humans will always seek out competition and challenge. It's not about what kind of game I want. It's about what makes human beings tick, and I don't think you're in the majority here with wanting no difficult or challenging gameplay. But like I said, we'll see

You're talking as if what you're saying is fact. It's not. We'll see what kind of game this is in 6 months, hmm?

Immature, childish and pathetic. Respeccing for different activities in no way makes anyone a bad player.

Wrong. Switching between specs several times a day is not viable for me. I don't have that sort of time to waste, I'd rather do or play something else. If DS isn't implemented, I'll just unsub and I will be far from the only one. They'll put it in before that happens, though. If I get a character to 50, I should be able to PvE AND PvP with them. I picked my class for a reason; I enjoy playing it. Specs are not equally good so in both so it's perfectly right to want to have an optimal spec for both types of gameplay. I did not pay for half a game. Then clearly you're missing the business & economics sensibilities needed to put any knowledge on the subject to good use. Competition is necessary for MMOs. People need to keep striving to be better, and that won't happen without difficult encounters, min-maxing and an elite developing.

You are frankly so stupid that I'm not going to bother tearing into you for this ridiculous post. Rejuggling hotbars IS tiresome and time-consuming, and other successful games in this genre save your choices and allow DS. SWTOR will be next. I don't have the time to spend doing pointless crap, which is why I'm keeping this short. Fair enough if you want to spend time polishing your sword in-game before every fight, but not everyone is retarded enough to want every aspect of reality mirrored in a game. That is why we have games. I should know better than to expect an imbecile to grasp that, though.

Plenty of people who expect DS don't visit the forums, much less post on them. Rubbish evidence. Also, you don't have a clue about the way "the game was designed" - you're not a developer, so get off your high horse. This game was meant to appeal to all sorts of gamers, min-maxers and the hardcore included - otherwise they'd never be making back the money spent.

I'm not the minority, bro. DS is going to happen. For this game to be effective, it's essential. Stay in your box, but don't claim everyone is happy in there.