Wow, that's a depressing prospect. But you may have a point. How fast is level progression these days?

I got an itch to play again after hearing about all the changes so I resubbed. When I logged in again, though, I was bombarded by tutorial screens about a zillion new things they've added since I last played. It's pretty overwhelming trying to make sense of it all and make it mesh with what I remember about the game. I have a lvl 50 consular with a clean slate, but I don't know where to start. Can anyone point me to a primer for returning players that sort of explains what's changed?

I think they made a mistake by farming out the artwork to studios in China and Eastern Europe. It should have been done in-house and directed by someone with some vision. It resulted in an overall artistic feel that's pretty utilitarian.

Or it might be that your are underpowered, undergeared or .... well, you get the idea. The bubble is not all that strong to a well-geared player. It goes down in seconds and then it's all over.

Of course, companies fudge their books all the time. But explain to me how a company would fudge a subscription count? People are either subscribers or they are not. We're not dealing with any gray areas here -- not even the people still in their first free month. If they went as far as buying the game and signing up for a subscription, they are subscribers.

What's your point? At any given point in time, there are always going to be subscribers working off of the first free month they get with their game purchase. And since we're pulling quotes from the story, how about this one: “This has been the most rapid scaling of an MMO ever, based on our research,” Brown commented. Or this one ... "Brown said EA was actually able to add a lot more users on a per-server basis, thanks to some technical improvements. He also noted that about 40% of the units of the game sold during the quarter went over the company’s Origin digital-distribution channel, which is not tracked by market researchers such as NPD."

WoW launched November 2004, and I doubt they got 5 million subscribers in one month's time.

So now the haters think EA is lying in their financial reports.

"Star Wars: The Old Republic is developing a committed community of players with more than 1.7 million active subscribers and growing,” said Chief Executive Officer John Riccitiello. That's straight from the EA press release. He said it's "growing." If you think he's lying, you should call the Securities and Exchange Commission, because that would be a criminal offense and he would be put in jail for lying to investors. EDIT: The conference call is in a few minutes. It's public and you can listen in for yourself if you're in disbelief: Listeners may access the conference call live through the following dial-in number: 773-799-3213 (domestic) or 888-677-1083 (international), using the password “EA” or via webcast at http://ir.ea.com.

Which one?

I've played a lot of games and the most memorable PvP battles I had were in Planetside. Lots of players and gunfire, lots of tactics, lots of excitement. Nothing could beat jumping out of a dropship with seven squadmates for a quick commando strike on an enemy base control center. I've actually been involved in some epic battles in Ilum that make me believe SWTOR has the potential to be great PvP. Bioware has to figure out a way for those types of battles to happen regularly, rather than by accident.

Twenty-seven bags? Give me a break, I can get that many bags in a week without trying too hard. Congratulations, you just earned the title of Crybaby.

Was going to say the same thing. When was the Rift funeral announced, because I missed it. Does everyone think if you don't have 10 million subscribers like WoW, you're dead?

After reading a lot of threads about which class is better, which class is most feared, etc., and seeing how classes perform in the hundreds of warzone matches I've played, I'm now convinced that any of the SWTOR classes can shine in PvP if you play them right. I'd stick to the one that has the playstyle you like the most, i.e., range vs. melee, dps vs. tanking vs. healing, etc.

Wait, don't Battlemaster bags give Champion commendations, which you can use to get your Champion gear? Being only valor 50, I haven't opened them yet.