Apparently, SWTOR isn't listed as one of the games they're on strike against.

I know I'm absolutely the minority, but while I don't approve of any type of harassment or abuse, I also don't approve of censorship. Words from other players are just that: words. It's been a good number of years since I've allowed myself to feel harassed, bullied, bothered or offended by someone's words, especially from someone online. Hell, the last time I used the ignore feature on a player in a game was only so I didn't get grouped with him in the party finder, as he was an awful player who wouldn't take advice or even respond to other members in the group on how we could successfully down a boss. Besides, in the dank wall of text that is Fleet and DK chat, there are some real comedic gems to be had lol...

I understand. I was approaching it from my own point of view and I only did the occasional story Ops and WBs with the guild when I was feeling saucy. I could play naturally (only doing things I enjoy, etc.) and obtain all the Data Crystal tiers for what I want: gear not just for numbers, but also for fashion, Rank 6 Companion gifts and other miscellaneous items such as decor. My point is I lost the ability to choose what I do with my commendations and so I can either pay credits for what I want (Companion Gifts, decor, crafted gear, etc.) or I can hope I get what I want out of the occasional grab bag. I haven't perfected the art of deadpan sarcasm on forums.

Just because RNG is or was an industry standard for MMOs, that doesn't mean it's a good system. I've said it before, but players had the option of RNG gearing prior to GC and we chose not to. We had the option of taking our Data Crystals/commendations/etc. to the vendors, closing our eyes and blindly purchasing items. After we opened our eyes and saw that we accidentally purchased something we could use, we could keep it and then with everything else we don't want, we could have just sold back to the vendors while deleting a few to ensure we only have a fraction of what we started with to put towards our next blind buying spree once we earn more commendations. So, to break it down... Commendations/Data Crystals/tokens, etc. = Command Experience Blindly buying random items from vendors = Command Crate Sell items back to vendors while deleting a few = Disintegration Why didn't I choose to RNG gear this way before Galactic Command was implemented? Because I'm not an idiot. Unfortunately, BW must have thought I was one when they came up with GC. Somehow, they believed I didn't want to prioritize how to spend my currencies and that I would rather roll the dice and let the game decide for me.

Funny thing, super nerds have money, too. I'd pay much more than I pay now for actual content in a game - I've said it in the past, I but would have paid upwards of $300 for a single expansion if it was of the same caliber of Vanilla. I'd pay up to $50 a month for actual content updates... and take that times two for the husb. The problem is, even if we pay out the same money over time as these crate-heads, content takes effort. It takes imagination. It takes the talent to create and maintain an entire fictional universe that keeps players engaged. Anyone can come up with some reskins and a cheap interface but it takes a lot of talent and a lot of passion for the game and the fictional universe it's set in to keep someone like me engaged and ready with my wallet open to see what the game presents to me next. Unfortunatly it's just cheaper for them to keep cranking out items and packs rather than maintain the fictional SWTOR experience. It takes more than a slot machine and the mediocre story bone thrown to me to keep me paying money while other players are having a blast clicking on a pack, revealing some items and watching the pretty lights. I've realized I'm just not their target audience anymore. Vanilla got me hooked - I was immersed. I teetered with RotHC and SoR, and my immersion experience has been in a freefall since KOTFE... but at least people can still record themselves clicking on a box and watching those pretty lights...

That was a big thing for me when GC first came out. The first red flag was how hard they were selling GC because a good product will essentially sell itself/your customers will sell it for you. Secondly, when the players saw GC for what it was, the devs started telling us how exciting and thrilling GC is... as if BW believes we lack the mental capacity to decide for ourselves what is exciting and thrilling. Then after all this feedback at the beginning, BW went months without even addressing there was a problem as they doubled down on what exactly the players didn't want. While they now appear to be in panic/band-aid mode, they still haven't resolved the core issues the players have with the system: RNG on a crap loot table and the time it takes to grind just to compete in (PvP) or complete (NM Ops) the old content they could do before GC. That alone is asinine. Did they not have anyone on staff who said, "Hey guys, let's rethink this... the players may get kind of mad if we take away the stuff they've been enjoying for years and make them RNG-grind it back doing other content they don't enjoy doing? Typically, this is the point where gaming companies release new content to work towards..." It reminds me of my older brother acting like a jerk growing up and taking a toy of mine and then making me jump through hoops just to get my toy back. Put all of this together and you've got a MMO gaming developer who doesn't actually appear to play MMOs and consistently insults their customers' intelligence and alienating them. All of this just so they can push an outdated gaming "experience" of a RNG-grind for end game gear in order to complete three year old content and obtain a few items. I thought I finally escaped that archaic and annoying system when I quit Asheron's Call back in 2002... back when killing mobs for gear and items was the original Thrill of the Hunt™, not opening boxes through a garish interface that has all the class and sophistication of a slot machine in the Las Vegas airport.

Players need it to do existing content in PvE (NM Ops) as well as effectively compete in PvP. Since I do neither, end game gear doesn't actually do anything for me and so I have no vested interest in end game gear and Galactic Command in general.

I just posted this in another thread, but I think it applies here, as well: Other than the main scenario Chapters, Cartel Market and Galactic Command, the impression I get is the dev team treats every other aspect of the game with some type of mild indifference. As in they don't care if something is bugged as long as it essentially functions. Side note... I don't know why, but I can't fathom why they let so many bugs go unaddressed for so long. I mean, are they all sitting around the conference table high-fiving each other on how awesome they are at maintaining and updating this game or is morale so low that they've lost all pride in their work and are doing the bare minimum each week just to collect their checks?

Other than the main scenario Chapters, Cartel Market and Galactic Command, the impression I get is the dev team treats every other aspect of the game with some type of mild indifference. As in they don't care if something is bugged as long as it essentially functions. Side note... I don't know why, but I can't fathom why they let so many bugs go unaddressed for so long. I mean, are they all sitting around the conference table high-fiving each other on how awesome they are at maintaining and updating this game or is morale so low that they've lost all pride in their work and are doing the bare minimum each week just to collect their checks?

SWTOR isn't listed as one of the games they're on strike against. More information on the strike can be found here. As far as Jaesa returning goes, I'd love to see everyone's favorite Companions returned to the story in some meaningful fashion and not like how Elara Dorne and Malavai Quinn got the shaft.

Same... for me, I always feel burned out rather than I accomplished something in KOTFE/ET when I complete a Chapter. As you said, they're similar to Flashpoints, except you don't have the option to group and the Chapters end up feeling tedious and annoying rather than fun and challenging. I know that's subjective, but that's how I feel about KOTFE/ET Chapters. I could binge-play my Warrior multiple times in vanilla because there were many different things to do other than the main scenario (Class mission) such as Companion Missions/romances, Planetary Missions, Exploration Missions, datacron collecting, Flashpoints, or even just exploring a planet's terrain. I tried binge-playing KOTFE/ET to refresh myself before Iokath, but I could only do one or two Chapters at a time and ended up never making it past Chapter 13 in KOTFE.

I'm one of the players who want the Empire vs. Republic conflict and have posted as such in the past... but done correctly. Ending the Cold War and resuming full scale war is what Vanilla was leading up to and I couldn't wait for my Wrath to take on the Republic... and this is where BW missed their chance for a legitimate Empire vs. Republic war. It would have been an easy transition from defeating Malgus to the Republic saying that the Empire is the Empire, new or old, and then escalating to full scale war from there. For me, the whole point of Vanilla was to set that stage, but BW decided that full scale war wasn't such a good idea for whatever reason and we really needed to futz around with the Emperor for a little bit before having to deal with the Eternal Empire. "Who?" After all of KOTFE/ET...my character now RULES THE GALAXY and where exactly does a writer go from there? I have no idea. BW probably doesn't either, which is why they've defaulted back to Empire vs. Republic. That conflict should be irrelevant now, but BW is making it just as "relevant" and nonsensical as the Eternal Empire entering the stage when the story was building up the Empire vs. Republic war. If BW didn't deviate from the Empire vs. Republic conflict in the first place, we might not be in this faction/plot identity crisis. Yes, I want the epic Empire vs. Republic conflict, but BW essentially blew it for me when they didn't take the ball and run with it after Vanilla.

When the "improved" galaxy map first came out, I ran into this on one of my characters, too, as it never occurred to me that traveling to Belsavis would take my character who's still on her Class story, to the high level daily mission area by default. Also, I never thought traveling to Belsavis, regardless of where on Belsavis, wouldn't complete my mission step to "Travel to Beslavis." The default travel selection to Section X makes no logical sense, especially for newer players who wouldn't know the difference between the full planet and an instanced daily mission area.

Nice! Reverting his name back to his full name would make him seem less like an afterthought.

Sarova, in your sig, I'm surprised you didn't also mention his name change.

Like AscendingSky said, Companion interactions default to whatever the BW chose when players using a Character Level Token, so the technology is already in game, so just add a dialogue box that explains story and Companion defaults when changing genders and you're good to go. I know this doesn't address people who want to change genders and then romance a Companion that wasn't previously romanced in the story, but it's something.

The husb made the same point to me about Scourge and the Emperor being dead, which is a good point. Also, Malavai Quinn and Elara Dorne both came across to me as very career-driven, just like Talos, so I don't see it as a huge stretch. Talos' archaeology expertise supplements the Inquisitor's goals just as much as Quinn's military expertise supplements the Wrath's own goals, etc.

I'd love to see Scourge, but the only way I see it happening is for the writers to retcon some story gimmick that ends up basically being, "oh, well this one person alone was able to shake some feelings out of him," or some other such nonsense. I doubt it could be really well Talos is my second choice - that could actually funny and endearing with the right Inquisitor. I'd also love to see cross class romances beginning at KOTFE. I think a Smuggler could have fun with Gault (sorry Hylo,) a Wrath could have fun with Scourge and a female Dark Jedi could have fun with Dark Jaesa. Basically, I'd love to see all options available for what everyone wants (Arcann, and other misc. NPCs (Lieutenant Sykes!) but I just don't think BW has the want and/or the resources. I just feel lucky that the one person I like romancing the most in game is available to me on the class I want.

I really don't know why gender change isn't already available, as it could be a money maker. If they don't want to retcon any of the Companion romances that may have taken place in the Vanilla Class stories, they could just throw up a dialogue popup window that says that no existing romances will be taken into account at this point.

Human, and only because I like making my characters look like me as much as possible for whatever reason. The only exceptions in my 18 years of playing MMOs have been playing a Chua in WildStar and a Lalafell in FFXIV. If I could somehow be a Chua in SWTOR, I think that would be amazing. Regardless, I like humans in SWTOR/Star Wars in general because they're the most relatable... however, all the species as a whole makes an awesomely diverse galaxy.

Unfortunately, I think this just might be true. Either people want to gamble for an item until BW releases the slightly different item that they want to gamble for next or they want to pay for traditional MMO content in the form explorable areas/planets, quests/missions, story, lore, puzzles, Easter Eggs, etc. I don't think I can convince anyone to stop supporting BW by purchasing gambling packs that come with rigged rewards any more than the gamblers can convince me to stop waiting for the next game that's going to offer me the traditional MMO experience with 2017 graphics. They're two completely different demographics. My disconnect is that I felt Vanilla catered to my play style while everything afterwards seemed to cater to the gambling pack demographic with the occasional bone tossed towards MMO traditionalists.

I haven't yet seen the version for Corso Riggs, but it sounds funny rather than disturbing...

When I happen to engage in something boring, tedious or trivial, my first instinct is to look for something more interesting to do. Why in the galaxy should I have to spend my own time jumping through hoops in order to jerry-rig a game to be more challenging and enjoyable while I, at the same time, give the developers my subscription money that ultimately supports things that aren't challenging and enjoyable*? Personally, I really wish there were different difficulty modes for all aspects of the game, especially repeatable Vanilla Class stories, Planetary Missions and Exploration Missions. That way, players of all demographics would have the potential to enjoy the game on their own level. *Cartel Market

So... how do we solve this in the gaming community? The only thing I can think of is to somehow effectively shame all of the dumb players who apparently have the most money to throw at gaming companies into understanding that they're just giving corporations money for pixels... rather than money for an experience. No one in my gaming circle, who have all been gaming for almost two decades, thinks it's fun to be able to just hit #1 on the keyboard and strafe around a little bit in order to get to the ending credits. I really want to know who these players are that think fun is a Star Wars MMORPG where the only way they can essentially die is to fall off a ledge while paying $60 for a single set of pixels that resemble a lightsaber from a movie. At this rate, players will eventually just pay $60 for the staff roll without ever even playing the game.

On the subject of Ops, I think one of my most memorable moments in game is when I went on a Scum and Villainy run on my DPS Jugg and got trapped in Dread Master Styrak's nightmare. As soon as I got my bearings and realized what was going on, I saw that my nightmare was... I know other DPS Classes also have their romanced Companions do the same thing during this encounter, but I think this hit a little closer to home for my romanced Wrath. When this happened, I had no idea it was one of the mechanics during the encounter, as I'm one of those lazy players who don't bother reading the mechanics to story mode before going, and so I was really taken aback. My husband, who was playing his healer Sorc at the time jumped when he heard me say, "Malavai, noooooooo...." I haven't read any fanfics that refer to and/or elaborate on this encounter and I think that's unfortunate - it's got a lot of potential.