Yeah, a few bugs and glitches would be fine. Unfortunately, SWTOR doesn't have a few, it has TONS. From simple graphical errors (eyes clipping through cheeks, capes and lekku clipping through bodies and vibrating, objects in cut-scenes appearing as a black, empty space, jedi/sith holding their sabers by the light, etc.) to minor annoyances (gathering nodes that STILL aren't gather-able, camera zooming in every time you're in an enclosed environment, companions re-activating abilities you've turned off, quests you inexplicably can't abandon, etc) to major problems (people that don't show up in Operation Frames, frames displaying incorrect information, story and companion quests that can't be turned in, etc.) to game-breakers (bosses with loot chests not awarding loot if there's a wipe, Operations, the mysterious and hotly debated ability lag, Ilum, etc.). There are also 2 other big red flags: getting a hold of a real, human CSR is darn near impossible and all the seemingly minor bugs that have existed since Beta. I participated in the launch of the last 'big' MMO - Rift - and have expectations of how an MMO should be released in this decade. Rift was created by a new, no-name company with a MUCH smaller team and budget yet their game was far more polished. It had all the creature comforts I've come to expect (eg. combat log, 'triple spec', customizable UI, a world that promoted exploration, crafting that mattered, and much more). Yes, it had bugs and glitches but the team was communicative and quick with their fixes. Wish SWTOR had such devoted devs. Generally, I would put myself in the 'hard-core' category (having been in top world raiding guilds in other MMOs with serious time /played) but I'm playing this game fairly casually (took me a week or 2 to hit 50). How ever you want to categorize me, I'm disappointed in this game. The only reason I might sub another month is my significant other is still enjoying rolling alts (no clue how, but who am I to diss someone's play-style) and I like to be helpful.

Me too! Especially if I can just follow each class's personal quests without having to run around the corridors of Nar Shadaa ever again.

The above is why a lot of people are hating on the game. The below is similar to my opinion.

I agree that they're more of a quality of life feature than a necessity. Pretty much everything else you said, I disagree with. Let's take a look at the last big MMO to launch - Rift. They had a fully customizable UI, a combat log, less bugs, 'tripple-spec', better customer service, were (and probably still are) more communicative with the community and were MUCH faster with their hot-fixes. All this from a brand new company. I'm fairly disappointed in BioWare at the moment.

Nar Shadaa is by far my least favorite zone. Every time I get to that planet on an alt I give up and go back to my main. That place is nothing but corridors with a pretty background.

***I know this is a long post, anybody with a working scroll button can see it's a long post. If it's too long for your taste, close the tab and go to another thread.*** I know if anyone comments on this, they'll mostly be saying things along the lines of, "Pandas --->," "Go back to WoW," "Idc what you think, SWTOR is the GrEaTeSt thing EVAR!" and other equally mature responses. To that I say, if you don't have anything constructive to say, why waste your time and forum memory commenting? I wrote this because there are aspects of this game that I truly enjoy but there are also some pretty extreme flaws. I want to put my opinion out there so people like me know what to really expect (perhaps someone from BioWare will take note and make improvements, who knows). TL;DR: SWTOR is a pretty darn good single player RPG with co-op options. As an MMO, it falls flat for me. - Presentation: BioWare put a considerable amount of time, money and effort into the story and voice acting of this game. The cinematic trailers were superb and they overall did a great job of making me want to play (I'm definitely not a Star Wars fanboy). - Graphics/Visuals: The environments in this game are lovely backdrops. Unfortunately, the players, mobs and NPCs populating this world are not. Their movements are very stiff and awkward. The details in their armor look like they were painted on. The hairstyles are all very plastic and helmet-y looking. Eyeballs like to clip through cheeks when characters show emotions with their faces and there are tons of other minor graphical errors that exist. Comparing the graphics in SWTOR to Skyrim is silly, but I also think comparing it to WoW is silly. Skyrim is pretty high on the realism scale while WoW is on the complete opposite end of the spectrum, and very cartoony. But it was made to look that way. I think, for what it is, WoW is stunning. SWTOR doesn't really seem to know what style of art it wants and whatever it's trying to be, isn't cutting it for me. - Music/SFX/Voice-overs: I think the music in this game is wonderful. For as much as the rumored budget for it was, it had better be amazing. It can occasionally be a bit over the top though. The lightsaber hums and clashes are great. The explosions are nice. The bullets are a little loud but not annoyingly so. Also, the sound droids make when they die. . . easily my favorite noise in the game. The voice acting in TOR was surprisingly good. Up until my mid 30s I listened to almost every bit of spoken dialogue. It was a nifty new novelty. It did grow a little stale when I realized that there seemed to be only 5-6 actors that voiced EVERYTHING (without really even trying to sound the least bit different). And it did bother me that every single female human in the game had the same voice as my character. The recycled lines got a bit old too ('Just show me where the fun is.' 'I've been looking for a reason to cause some chaos.'). Also, being in an instance and having one jerk spam "SPACEBAR" gets real old, really fast. - UI: Debate-ably the worst part of the game, the UI is large, distracting, packed with superfluous graphics and plagued with bugs. Nothing can be re-sized or repositioned (save the chat frame). Everything is bright freaking blue (my favorite color so not too much of a problem for me). And it's entirely inflexible. Operation Frames (raid frames) like to not show certain people. They like to show the wrong amount of HP for people in them and there isn't an option to show companions in them. The buff and debuff frames are TEENY-TINY on the operation frames and you have no way of knowing what they are without taking the time to mouse over them. While being perfectly serviceable (when it doesn't decide to bug out) the UI could use a bit more work and a lot of customization options. - Missions/Leveling: Nothing particularly new or innovating here. Sure, it was nice to go through it the first time and listen to the voice actors, but on my subsequent alts I was irritated by the slow pace and spacebar-ed my way through the conversations. Companion affection isn't really something I'd put in this category as you can easily up your affection (canceling out any losses caused by conversation choices) with a few well chosen gifts. The main things that detracted from the leveling experience, for me, were the 'sharded zones' (made the world feel empty), the lack of quest rewards on the quest summary, and the heroic missions that required me to spam chat seemingly forever to get a group to complete them with (I'm not much of a people person as it is). While the leveling process is definitely the highlight of this game (for me at least), leveling alts is barely any fun at all. Yes, the new character's class quests are new and their personal story is interesting, but you can't JUST do the class quests to hit 50. You HAVE to do quests in the various zones. The linearity of the world and lack of questing options really ruin rolling alts for me. I always lose interest when I hit Nar Shadaa because that place is TERRIBLE! - Flashpoints: Again, nothing particularly new here outside of the voiced conversations. I found the vast majority of the flashpoints to be unchallenging and boring. Many of the boss fights were tank-n-spanks and none of them took place in particularly interesting areas. The best part of the flashpoints, for me, is how short they are. Colicoid Wargames was the most fun and engaging of the flashpoints but if you have. . . for lack of a better term, stupid people in your group, it can be down right agonizing - far more so than most instances. When it comes to the max level 'hardmode' dungeons, BioWare completely failed. I was irritated with Trion's recycling of instances in Rift. All they did was add a new wing or two with a new boss or two and up mob HP and damage output. BioWare did even worse as ALL they did was up mob HP and damage output. They didn't even bother to change any of the conversations (which ruined immersion). - PvP: Easily one of the weakest part of this entire game. The PvP in SWTOR is EXTREMELY disappointing. World PvP barely exists. Unless you're in the PvP specific zone (Ilum) or go out of your way and travel to the opposing factions towns, you're highly unlikely to find any. In my 150+ hours of game-play I think I've ran into 2 people from the opposite faction. Rewards for world PvP are nothing special and lots of people are just exploiting their way through the PvP ranks. The Warzones are also disappointing, unoriginal, and there are only 3. For those who played WoW, you'll recognize Arathi Basin, Strand of the Ancients, and Warsong Gulch. For those who played Rift: Codex, Black Garden . . . I think you get my point. Now, lets add the fact that you can't choose which Warzone you queue up for. There's also the mysterious and highly debated 'ability lag'. The lack of level brackets means players of all levels (including max level characters with all their abilities and PvP gear/stats and brand new players with only a few abilities) are playing against each other. As icing on this awful cake, let's just throw in the fact that there is no real ranking/ladder or progression system outside of grinding Valor. - Crew Skills: Yeah, it's great to send your companions out to gather stuff. But when it comes to actual crafting professions, this system irritates me. If I have some time to kill, I can't head over to the crafting area and put stuff together. I just stand there in the fleet while my companion runs off and makes 5 of whatever I need. What if I want a dozen of a certain item? I have to send that companion out 3 times to make the same bloody thing, or send 3 companions out to do the same thing. That irritates me. Then there's the cost. My main character (assassin) worked on crafting professions (archaeology, underworld trading, synthweaving) while leveling. I was barely getting by. Between crafting missions, durability repairs (I honestly didn't die much at all - maybe once every 10-20 hours), ability training and speeder training, I was pretty broke almost all the time. I was doing flight missions over and over to supplement my finances. - PVE Combat/Rotations: As stated in my review of the flashpoints, the boss fights in this game are extremely unchallenging and bring absolutely nothing new to the table. As far as rotations are concerned, I honestly believe that this game has far too many abilities. Between that and the lack of a combat log, it can be a bit daunting for the average gamer to sit down and figure out their best rotation. Yes, the tool-tips are wonderfully accurate (a surprisingly rare thing in MMOs), but using them is considerably less fun than plugging away at a combat dummy for a few minutes and, for people less mathematically inclined, more time consuming. - Space Combat: A lot of people complain that it's on rails and not what they wanted/expected. I cannot change that it wasn't implemented the way they wanted but I can say that if you followed the development of this game at all, it is EXACTLY what they said it would be. And I happen to love the space missions. They're fairly quick, they're tons of fun, they're VERY rewarding (in terms of both experience and credits), they're very Star Wars-y, and they're a fun little change of pace. I would love to see more done with them though. Some ship customization would be nice. Or at least make the upgrades that already exist change the aesthetic of your ship once equipped. Co-op space missions and perhaps even large scale PvP space combat! - Companions: This is another area I felt BioWare dropped the ball a bit. It's a bit of an immersion killer to see tons of people with the exact same companions following them around - sure they may be a different color or have a new helm, but they're still exactly the same. Companions in Dragon Age and Mass Effect were fun and interesting. Their banter was the source of much amusement as I played and I often found myself anxiously waiting to see how they would interact with one another. In SWTOR, I'm DYING for an option to turn off companion commentary. They all have about 5 things they say regularly and they get old REALLY fast. They really don't serve much of a necessary role. Yes, they allow you to most everything solo but, it's my opinion that if you want to play a game by yourself, MMOs are not for you. More often then not they're just a hassle. They disappear until re-summoned if you mount or change zones. They like to sit at the top of elevators and not come down. If you command them to switch targets they spend a second or three just standing there doing nothing. They like to walk in your way every time you have to click on an object. Their AI is terrible. Healers using damage abilities when they should heal and if I turn off their damage abilities so they heal when I need them to, they spend too much time just standing around (also, every time you zone/re-summon them they return to default abilities). Tank pets can't hold aggro past level 20. They stand in AoEs until they die. And winning their favor is just another grind (albeit an extremely easy one). Also, I was extremely let down by 'love scenes' in TOR. - Direction: Throughout the leveling process, the game is very good at making it obvious where you need to go next, sometimes a little too good. Once you hit 50, everything just seems to stop. It took me a little while to figure out exactly how one acquires token gear (particularly PvP gear as you have to go through a completely unexplained and seemingly unnecessary step). - Bugs: This game is plagued by tons of various bugs. They seem to effect some people far more than others. Some, including those with top-of-the-line rigs, suffer from low and/or stuttering frame-rate for no apparent reason. Plenty of settings in the options like to reset themselves to default. Companions have a multitude of bugs. I have yet to not encounter a bug in a Flashpoint (various things from amusing graphical glitches to entire groups of mobs being invisible/not target-able to bosses not dropping any loot). I haven't done much in the way of operations (having decided to play TOR relatively casually), but they seem incomplete (bosses with names like 'boss monster 1') and, according to the forums and in-game general chat, buggy to the point of being un-playable. - Customer Service: The customer service for this game is positively abysmal. Of all the tickets and bug reports I've put in, I've gotten absolutely nothing but the EXACT same generic, automated response from 'customer service droids'. Upon hitting max level, I experienced multiple bosses from 'hardmode' flashpoints not dropping loot/commendations and customer service hasn't addressed that problem or awarded them retroactively. My boyfriend was stuck on absolutely nothing in the middle of an empty hallway for 8 hours. He put in a ticket and updated it every 5 minutes or so for almost 2 hours before giving up and going to bed. BioWare did NOTHING. Didn't even give him a real person to talk to. He had to wait until his Emergency Fleet Pass came off cool-down. Yes, he ran in every direction possible, yes he used both his keyboard and his mouse to try to move, yes he tried jumping, yes he tried his hearth, yes he re-logged, and yes he restarted his computer. It's also worth noting that while they haven't fixed any of the bugs (many of which were reported in Beta) or given us a (much requested) better UI, they put out a patch that allowed us to use emotes while mounted. Rift failed at a lot of things, but they were quick with their fixes and very communicative with the community. In Closing: I really enjoyed leveling my first character. For a time, I enjoyed the novelty of the voice-overs. The instances and quests are pretty much the same as they are in every other MMO. Perhaps in a few months they will fix all the problems currently in the game. Maybe that will bring back people who have left. I doubt it though. It's hard to make a second first impression, especially with the things waiting on the horizon (D3, Tera and GW2).

I know if anyone comments on this, they'll mostly be saying things along the lines of, "Pandas --->," "Go back to WoW," "Idc what you think, SWTOR is the GrEaTeSt thing EVAR!" and other equally mature responses. Cool. I wrote this because there are aspects of this game that I truly enjoy. However, I'm choosing to take my time and money elsewhere and I would like to share why (perhaps someone from BioWare will take note and make improvements, who knows). TL;DR: SWTOR is a pretty darn good single player RPG with co-op options. As an MMO, it falls flat for me. - Presentation: BioWare put a considerable amount of time, money and effort into the story and voice acting of this game. The cinematic trailers were superb and they overall did a great job of making me want to play (I'm definitely not a Star Wars fanboy). - Graphics/Visuals: The environments in this game are lovely backdrops. Unfortunately, the players, mobs and NPCs populating this world are not. Their movements are very stiff and awkward. The details in their armor look like they were painted on. The hairstyles are all very plastic and helmet-y looking. Eyeballs like to clip through cheeks when characters show emotions with their faces and there are tons of other minor graphical errors that exist. Comparing the graphics in SWTOR to Skyrim is silly, but I also think comparing it to WoW is silly. Skyrim is pretty high on the realism scale while WoW is on the complete opposite end of the spectrum, and very cartoony. But it was made to look that way. I think, for what it is, WoW is stunning. SWTOR doesn't really seem to know what style of art it wants and whatever it's trying to be, isn't cutting it for me. - Music/SFX/Voice-overs: I think the music in this game is wonderful. For as much as the rumored budget for it was, it had better be amazing. It can occasionally be a bit over the top though. The lightsaber hums and clashes are great. The explosions are nice. The bullets are a little loud but not annoyingly so. Also, the sound droids make when they die. . . easily my favorite noise in the game. The voice acting in TOR was surprisingly good. Up until my mid 30s I listened to almost every bit of spoken dialogue. It was a nifty new novelty. It did grow a little stale when I realized that there seemed to be only 5-6 actors that voiced EVERYTHING (without really even trying to sound the least bit different). And it did bother me that every single female human in the game had the same voice as my character. The recycled lines got a bit old too ('Just show me where the fun is.' 'I've been looking for a reason to cause some chaos.'). Also, being in an instance and having one jerk spam "SPACEBAR" gets real old, really fast. - UI: Debate-ably the worst part of the game, the UI is large, distracting, packed with superfluous graphics and plagued with bugs. Nothing can be re-sized or repositioned (save the chat frame). Everything is bright freaking blue (my favorite color so not too much of a problem for me). And it's entirely inflexible. Operation Frames (raid frames) like to not show certain people. They like to show the wrong amount of HP for people in them and there isn't an option to show companions in them. The buff and debuff frames are TEENY-TINY on the operation frames and you have no way of knowing what they are without taking the time to mouse over them. While being perfectly serviceable (when it doesn't decide to bug out) the UI could use a bit more work and a lot of customization options. - Missions/Leveling: Nothing particularly new or innovating here. Sure, it was nice to go through it the first time and listen to the voice actors, but on my subsequent alts I was irritated by the slow pace and spacebar-ed my way through the conversations. Companion affection isn't really something I'd put in this category as you can easily up your affection (canceling out any losses caused by conversation choices) with a few well chosen gifts. The main things that detracted from the leveling experience, for me, were the 'sharded zones' (made the world feel empty), the lack of quest rewards on the quest summary, and the heroic missions that required me to spam chat seemingly forever to get a group to complete them with (I'm not much of a people person as it is). While the leveling process is definitely the highlight of this game (for me at least), leveling alts is barely any fun at all. Yes, the new character's class quests are new and their personal story is interesting, but you can't JUST do the class quests to hit 50. You HAVE to do quests in the various zones. The linearity of the world and lack of questing options really ruin rolling alts for me. I always lose interest when I hit Nar Shadaa because that place is TERRIBLE! - Flashpoints: Again, nothing particularly new here outside of the voiced conversations. I found the vast majority of the flashpoints to be unchallenging and boring. Many of the boss fights were tank-n-spanks and none of them took place in particularly interesting areas. The best part of the flashpoints, for me, is how short they are. Colicoid Wargames was the most fun and engaging of the flashpoints but if you have. . . for lack of a better term, stupid people in your group, it can be down right agonizing - far more so than most instances. When it comes to the max level 'hardmode' dungeons, BioWare completely failed. I was irritated with Trion's recycling of instances in Rift. All they did was add a new wing or two with a new boss or two and up mob HP and damage output. BioWare did even worse as ALL they did was up mob HP and damage output. They didn't even bother to change any of the conversations (which ruined immersion). - PvP: Easily one of the weakest part of this entire game. The PvP in SWTOR is EXTREMELY disappointing. World PvP barely exists. Unless you're in the PvP specific zone (Ilum) or go out of your way and travel to the opposing factions towns, you're highly unlikely to find any. In my 150+ hours of game-play I think I've ran into 2 people from the opposite faction. Rewards for world PvP are nothing special and lots of people are just exploiting their way through the PvP ranks. The Warzones are also disappointing, unoriginal, and there are only 3. For those who played WoW, you'll recognize Arathi Basin, Strand of the Ancients, and Warsong Gulch. For those who played Rift: Codex, Black Garden . . . I think you get my point. Now, lets add the fact that you can't choose which Warzone you queue up for. There's also the mysterious and highly debated 'ability lag'. The lack of level brackets means players of all levels (including max level characters with all their abilities and PvP gear/stats and brand new players with only a few abilities) are playing against each other. As icing on this awful cake, let's just throw in the fact that there is no real ranking/ladder or progression system outside of grinding Valor. - Crew Skills: Yeah, it's great to send your companions out to gather stuff. But when it comes to actual crafting professions, this system irritates me. If I have some time to kill, I can't head over to the crafting area and put stuff together. I just stand there in the fleet while my companion runs off and makes 5 of whatever I need. What if I want a dozen of a certain item? I have to send that companion out 3 times to make the same bloody thing, or send 3 companions out to do the same thing. That irritates me. Then there's the cost. My main character (assassin) worked on crafting professions (archaeology, underworld trading, synthweaving) while leveling. I was barely sc****** by. Between crafting missions, durability repairs (I honestly didn't die much at all - maybe once every 10-20 hours), ability training and speeder training, I was pretty broke almost all the time. I was doing flight missions over and over to supplement my finances. - PVE Combat/Rotations: As stated in my review of the flashpoints, the boss fights in this game are extremely unchallenging and bring absolutely nothing new to the table. As far as rotations are concerned, I honestly believe that this game has far too many abilities. Between that and the lack of a combat log, it can be a bit daunting for the average gamer to sit down and figure out their best rotation. Yes, the tool-tips are wonderfully accurate (a surprisingly rare thing in MMOs), but using them is considerably less fun than plugging away at a combat dummy for a few minutes and, for people less mathematically inclined, more time consuming. - Space Combat: A lot of people complain that it's on rails and not what they wanted/expected. I cannot change that it wasn't implemented the way they wanted but I can say that if you followed the development of this game at all, it is EXACTLY what they said it would be. And I happen to love the space missions. They're fairly quick, they're tons of fun, they're VERY rewarding (in terms of both experience and credits), they're very Star Wars-y, and they're a fun little change of pace. I would love to see more done with them though. Some ship customization would be nice. Or at least make the upgrades that already exist change the aesthetic of your ship once equipped. Co-op space missions and perhaps even large scale PvP space combat! - Companions: This is another area I felt BioWare dropped the ball a bit. It's a bit of an immersion killer to see tons of people with the exact same companions following them around - sure they may be a different color or have a new helm, but they're still exactly the same. Companions in Dragon Age and Mass Effect were fun and interesting. Their banter was the source of much amusement as I played and I often found myself anxiously waiting to see how they would interact with one another. In SWTOR, I'm DYING for an option to turn off companion commentary. They all have about 5 things they say regularly and they get old REALLY fast. They really don't serve much of a necessary role. Yes, they allow you to most everything solo but, it's my opinion that if you want to play a game by yourself, MMOs are not for you. More often then not they're just a hassle. They disappear until re-summoned if you mount or change zones. They like to sit at the top of elevators and not come down. If you command them to switch targets they spend a second or three just standing there doing nothing. They like to walk in your way every time you have to click on an object. Their AI is terrible. Healers using damage abilities when they should heal and if I turn off their damage abilities so they heal when I need them to, they spend too much time just standing around (also, every time you zone/re-summon them they return to default abilities). Tank pets can't hold aggro past level 20. They stand in AoEs until they die. And winning their favor is just another grind (albeit an extremely easy one). Also, I was extremely let down by 'love scenes' in TOR. - Direction: Throughout the leveling process, the game is very good at making it obvious where you need to go next, sometimes a little too good. Once you hit 50, everything just seems to stop. It took me a little while to figure out exactly how one acquires token gear (particularly PvP gear as you have to go through a completely unexplained and seemingly unnecessary step). - Bugs: This game is plagued by tons of various bugs. They seem to effect some people far more than others. Some, including those with top-of-the-line rigs, suffer from low and/or stuttering frame-rate for no apparent reason. Plenty of settings in the options like to reset themselves to default. Companions have a multitude of bugs. I have yet to not encounter a bug in a Flashpoint (various things from amusing graphical glitches to entire groups of mobs being invisible/not target-able to bosses not dropping any loot). I haven't done much in the way of operations (having decided to play TOR relatively casually), but they seem incomplete (bosses with names like 'boss monster 1') and, according to the forums and in-game general chat, buggy to the point of being un-playable. - Customer Service: The customer service for this game is positively abysmal. Of all the tickets and bug reports I've put in, I've gotten absolutely nothing but the EXACT same generic, automated response from 'customer service droids'. Upon hitting max level, I experienced multiple bosses from 'hardmode' flashpoints not dropping loot/commendations and customer service hasn't awarded them retroactively. My boyfriend was stuck on absolutely nothing in the middle of an empty hallway for 8 hours. He put in a ticket and updated it every 5 minutes or so for almost 2 hours before giving up and going to bed. BioWare did NOTHING. Didn't even give him a real person to talk to. He had to wait until his Emergency Fleet Pass came off cool-down. Yes, he ran in every direction possible, yes he used both his keyboard and his mouse to try to move, yes he tried jumping, yes he tried his hearth, yes he re-logged, and yes he restarted his computer. It's also worth noting that while they haven't fixed any of the bugs (many of which were reported in Beta) or given us a (much requested) better UI, they put out a patch that allowed us to use emotes while mounted. Rift failed at a lot of things, but they were quick with their fixes and very communicative with the community. In Closing: I really enjoyed leveling my first character. For a time, I enjoyed the novelty of the voice-overs. The instances and quests are pretty much the same as they are in every other MMO. Perhaps in a few months, once they fix all the problems currently in the game, I'll come back. I doubt it though. It's hard to make a second first impression, especially with the things waiting on the horizon (D3, Tera and GW2).

These days I don't really have the time for games the way they used to be. That said, I REALLY wish the above were still in effect.

WRONG Let's see. I hit 50 3 days ago. I took 4 days off the game to spend time with my family for the holidays. I'm married and I have a kid. I cook dinner and make dessert almost every night and we like to watch movies/TV in the evenings. I maxed out 3 professions while I leveled. I did all the flashpoints at least once and my first time through listened to all the dialogue. I didn't do much PvP at all until 50 because the lack of brackets made me feel like my low level was just gimping the team. I do my space combat dailies every day. I listened to all of my class quest's dialogue but did spacebar through (I still read it all) the last 2 planets of quest dialogue (don't need to listen to some dude talk for 5+ minutes to figure out where to go to kill/collect X of Y, in my opinion). Oh, and I took a lot of time off my main to level 2 alts (Agent and Warrior) that are in their 20s (with 3 appropriately leveled professions each). Also, I don't play at all between 7 and 1530 due to work, Monday through Friday (that's when I troll the forums).

Companions in SWTOR are nothing more than glorified pets. If they were of the caliber that Alistair, Morrigan, HK-47 and Kreia were, perhaps I would call them companions. As they are, they're pets just like the hunter, warlock and necro pets from other games.

Can't rearrange the abilities on your pet's bar.

Awe, aren't you cute with your little Wiki link?! I was joking about the "nice adult" bit. Nice adults don't typically partake in forum idiocy. That said, I cannot help but ruffle fanboy's feathers a lil'. I like this game. I'm still playing the game and don't have plans to cancel my account. But when people try to claim that SWTOR is something new and innovative I can't seem to keep my mouth shut. OP claims that this game has little to no similarities to WoW. I strongly disagree and explained why. He/she decided that it would be better to complain about the length of my post than read it and respond to the content (much like yourself). It is my opinion that that is immature and lazy behavior so I said as much. Sorry if that offends you. Actually, not really. . . Now that we've had a wee chat about my shortcomings as a human being, perhaps you can stop telling me I'm a bad person and get this thread back on topic.

OP must be a member of PETA. . .

If you read the bit that I quoted, you might understand why I compared it to WoW. That said, SWTOR and WoW are not that different at all. To claim they are is, again, ignorant. This just proves to me that you are exactly what I thought - an immature fanboi. However, as I am a nice adult, I'll simplify things so even your tiny brain can understand them without becoming fatigued (in blue as I feel red is overused). EDIT: If anyone is interested in seeing my original, more detailed rebuttal of Klarik's above quote, it's the third post from the bottom on this page. And yes, it is a bit long. ^.^

I like this game, but I really do think that you (and people like you) are so wrapped up in your biased, fanboi opinion that the only word that correctly describes you is ignorant. The only thing SWTOR has that sets it apart from. . . pretty much every other MMO on the market (aside from the obvious SW IP) is the voice acting. Outside of that, most MMOs do. . . pretty much everything else just as well, if not better. Since everyone seems to like to compare games to WoW, that's what I'll compare SWTOR to in my more detailed response. - I'll give you this one. BUT! now most people get to spacebar through 2-5 minutes of buggy 'conversations' to find out where they need to go to kill/gather X of Y instead of spending 2 seconds skimming before clicking accept. (yeah, the first 20 or so levels I listened to almost all the 'conversations' but after that it felt like a waste of time, so I hit spacebar as soon as I finished reading the line of dialogue on the screen.) - This is completely subjective. I happen to think that WoW had some pretty epic storylines. Problem is, most people don't bother to read the quests (I'm willing to bet you were one of them) so they don't know. - The only thing these conversation choices affect is your ability to use certain items. If you want certain gear, you have to go all light or all dark (non-force users have a bit more leniency here). This effectively reduces what could be a really interesting way to set leveling experiences apart, down to just clicking the option with the appropriately colored star next to it so you can continue to use the gear you have equipped. - For me, the real game always starts at level 1. If it doesn't, then maybe you shouldn't be playing that game. - Yeah, you can spend a crap-ton of credits to have your companions go out and gather stuff that other games allow you to gather for free. Outside of the fact that SWTOR companions allow you to spend your time doing other things (standing around in the fleet seems to be pretty common), they're the same as most other MMO's pets/familiars/summons but have worse AI and worse manageability. - Balanced PVP?! HAHAHAHAHAHA! When was the last time you queued up for a WarZone? Sure, the classes are somewhat balanced but the PvP itself? NO! How on earth is it balanced to have max level characters (with all their skills, talent points and PvP gear) facing off against lowbies who only had their stats boosted? Yes, we're about to get a separate bracket for level 50s but it's not in right now, so I'm afraid I have to strongly disagree with your statement about balanced PvP. - PvP rewards seem more or less the same to me, am I missing something? I grind WarZones (just like I did Battlegrounds and Arenas in WoW and Scenarios in Warhammer and Warfronts in Rift, etc.) to get better gear to continue grinding WarZones. The big difference is, I had fun with the structure and ladder system of other games. - I was far more immersed in WoW than SWTOR. WoW has big sprawling cities (that aren't mirrors of the opposing faction), WoW has smaller villages where normal people and children (where are all the kids in the Star Wars universe, by the way?!) live/work, WoW has night/day and weather cycles, WoW has a big open world that allows me to travel from one zone to another without having to traverse 3-5 loading screens. What does SWTOR have? A linear progression path in static and empty worlds with fully voiced questlines that hold my interest and attention only the first time through. Oh, and a billion unnecessary and ridiculously long loading screens littered throughout. - I'm only willing to agree with you halfway on this point. I happen to enjoy the Space Combat mini-game, so I'll give you the 'Cool Space Combat mini-game' part of your statement. However, WoW also has a bunch of mini-games that I'm sure people consider cool (bombing runs, plant vs zombies, fishing, the upcoming 'pokemon', just to name a few off the top of my head). All that said, I think it's necessary that I say, I'm really enjoying SWTOR for what it is - an amazing single player game with some co-op functionality. Maybe in time BioWare will roll out enough bugfixes, customization options and content patches to make the game feel more like the MMO I had hoped it would be. But for now, it's pretty much a crappy (in terms of it's ability to implement the good things) imitation of WoW with Star Wars painted over it.

On the positive side, at least show sith corruption finally stays off and I can emote while mounted!

As I read through your review I found some things I agreed with and some I STRONGLY disagreed with. Thus, I decided to mirror your post but with my own opinion. If you (or anyone) manage to read it all, I'll be pretty impressed. Presentation: 9/10 Bioware put a considerable amount of time, money and effort into the story and voice acting of this game. The cinematic trailers were superb and they overall did a great job of making me want to play (I'm definitely not a Star Wars fanboy). Graphics/Visuals: 5/10 The environments in this game are lovely backdrops. Unfortunately, the players, mobs and NPCs populating this world are not. Their movements are very stiff and awkward. The details in their armor look like they were painted on. The hairstyles are all very plastic and helmet-y looking. Eyeballs like to clip through cheeks when characters show emotions with their faces. I agree that comparing the graphics in SWTOR to Skyrim is silly, but I also think comparing it to WoW is silly. Skyrim is pretty high on the realism scale while WoW is on the complete opposite end of the spectrum, and very cartoony. But it was made to look that way. I think, for what it is, WoW is stunning. SWTOR doesn't really seem to know what style of art it wants and whatever it's trying to be, isn't cutting it for me. Music/SFX: 9/10 I agree that the music in this game is wonderful. It can occasionally be a bit over the top though. The lightsaber hums and clashes are great. The explosions are nice. The bullets are a little loud but not annoyingly so. Also, the sound droids make when they die. . . easily my favorite noise in the game. Missions/Leveling: 6/10 Nothing particularly new or innovating here. Sure, it was nice to go through it the first time and listen to the voice actors, but on my subsequent alts I was irritated by the slow pace and spacebar-ed my way through the conversations. Companion affection isn't really something I'd put in this category as you can easily up your affection (canceling out any losses caused by conversation choices) with a few well chosen gifts. The main things that detracted from the leveling experience, for me, were the 'sharded zones' (made the world feel empty), the lack of quest rewards on the quest summary, and the heroic missions that required me to group up to complete (I'm not much of a people person). Flashpoints: 7.5/10 Again, nothing particularly new here outside of the voiced conversations. I found the vast majority of the flashpoints to be unchallenging and boring. Many of the boss fights were tank-n-spanks and none of them took place in particularly interesting areas. The best part of the flashpoints, for me, is how short they are. Colicoid Wargames was the most fun and engaging of the flashpoints but if you have. . . for lack of a better term, stupid people in your group, it can be down right agonizing - far more so than most instances. PvP: 3/10 Easily the weakest part of this entire game. The PvP in SWTOR is EXTREMELY disappointing. World PvP barely exists. Unless you're in the PvP specific zone or go out of your way and travel to the opposing factions towns, you're highly unlikely to find any. In my 150+ hours of gameplay I think I've ran into 2 people from the opposite faction. Rewards for world PvP are nothing special and lots of people are just exploiting their way through the PvP ranks. The Warzones are also disappointing, unoriginal, and there are only 3. For those who played WoW, you'll recognize Arathi Basin, Strand of the Ancients, and Warsong Gulch. For those who played Rift: Codex, Black Garden . . . I think you get my point. Now, lets add the fact that you can't choose which Warzone you queue up for. There's also the mysterious and highly debated 'ability lag'. The lack level brackets means players of all levels (including max level characters with all their abilities and PvP gear/stats and brand new players with only a few abilities) are playing against each other. As icing on this awful cake, let's just throw in the fact that there is no real ranking/ladder or progression system outside of grinding Valor. Crew Skills: 6/10 Yeah, it's great to send your companions out to gather stuff. But when it comes to actual crafting professions, this system irritates me. If I have some time to kill, I can't head over to the crafting area and put stuff together. I just stand there in the fleet while my companion runs off and makes 4 of whatever I need. What if I want a dozen of a certain item? I have to send that companion out 3 times to make the same bloody thing, or send 3 companions out to do the same thing.That number irritates me. Then there's the cost. My main character (assassin) worked on crafting professions (archaeology, underworld trading, synthweaving) while leveling. I was barely sc****** by. Between crafting missions, durability repairs (I honestly didn't die much at all - maybe once every 10-20 hours), ability training and speeder training, I was pretty broke almost all the time. I was doing flight missions over and over to supplement my finances. PVE Combat/Rotations: 7/10 As stated in my review of the flashpoints, the boss fights in this game are extremely unchallenging and bring absolutely nothing new to the table. As far as rotations are concerned, I honestly believe that this game has far too many abilities. Between that and the lack of a combat log, it can be a bit daunting for the average gamer to sit down and figure out their best rotation. Yes, the tool-tips are wonderfully accurate (a surprisingly rare thing in MMOs), but using them is considerably less fun than plugging away at a combat dummy for a few minutes and, for people less mathematically inclined, more time consuming. Alderaan Warzon/The Voidstar/Huttball: 5/10 I already wrote my schpeil about them in the PvP section. Unoriginal and unfun due to the many PvP imbalances. Space Combat: 9/10 A lot of people complain that it's on rails and not what they wanted/expected. I cannot change that it wasn't implemented the way they wanted but I can say that if you followed the developement of this game at all, it is EXACTLY what they said it would be. And I happen to love the space missions. They're fairly quick, they're tons of fun, they're VERY rewarding (in terms of both experience and credits), they're very Star Wars-y, and they're a fun little change of pace. I would love to see a little more done with them though. Some ship customization would be nice. Or at least make the upgrades that already exist change the aesthetic of your ship once equipped. Co-op space missions and perhaps even large scale PvP space combat! Companions: 6/10 This is another area I felt BioWare dropped the ball a bit. It's a bit of an immersion killer to see tons of people with the exact same companions following them around - sure they may be a different color or have a new helm, but they're still exactly the same. Companions in Dragon Age were fun and interesting. Their banter was the source of much amusement as I played and I often found myself anxiously waiting to see how they would interact with one another. In SWTOR, I'm DYING for an option to turn off companion commentary. They all have about 5 things they say regularly and they get old REALLY fast. They really don't serve much of a necessary role. Yes, they allow you to most everything solo but, it's my opinion that if you want to play a game by yourself, MMOs are not for you. More often then not they're just a hassle. They disappear until re-summoned if you mount or change zones. They like to sit at the top of elevators and not come down. If you command them to switch targets they spend a second or three just standing there doing nothing. They like to walk in your way every time you have to click on an object. Their AI is terrible. Healers using damage abilities when they should heal and if I turn off their damage abilities so they heal when I need them to, they spend too much time just standing around. Tank pets can't hold agro past level 20. They stand in AoEs until they die. And their winning their favor is just another grind (albeit an extremely easy one). Also, I was extremely let down by 'love scenes' in TOR. OVERALL SCORE: 6.5/10

I have NEVER used ability queues in ANY MMO and I am still experiencing ability delays. ...just sayin... They do appear to be caused by the animations being longer than the GCD but I'm not a developer or super savvy computer guy so what do I know? Also, if this problem is completely caused by the ability queue and not animation length, why is it that I'm dismounted if I try to move as soon as the cast for my speeder finishes?

*I know similar threads already exist but the search bar was disabled again and I feel like being lazy. If you don't want to read about this game's current issues (perceived and real), I advise you to open another thread.* I'm having a lot of fun with my time in this game. I think BioWare did a great job with the storytelling in SW:TOR but it just doesn't feel like an MMO. Here is my list of annoyances and bugs that I feel are bringing this game down: UI - No scaling - No repositioning - No opacity options - No target-of-target frame - No companion operation frames - No import UI option - No 'Restore All Defaults' button - Can't have more than two windows open at a time - Can't move windows that are open - Can't move pet abilities on their bar - Can't move the (poorly placed) scrolling combat text - Can't keybind raid marks - Can't enlarge the buff/debuffs on operation frames - No shift+click on player name in chat to see player class and level (possibly guild as well) PvP - Can't choose which WarZone you queue for - No PvP brackets (newbs shouldn't face people with top tree abilities and they certainly shouldn't face 50s with PvP gear/stats) - Can't report AFKers Companions - Bad AI (eg. standing in AE until they die) - Don't seem to scale very well as your level increases (even when constantly keeping their gear up to date) - Disappear until summoned when you mount - Disappear until summoned when you zone - Occasionally decide to stand at the top of elevators and not come down unless dismissed/re-summoned - They move at the speed of slow while in combat - If you command them to change targets they stand still for a couple seconds doing absolutely nothing - Healer companions occasionally use DPS abilities when they should be healing Camera - Can't turn off "Smart Camera" - Zooms in due to environment and terrain (constantly requiring you to zoom back out) Galactic Trade Network - Have to navigate through too many drop-down menus before you can search - The 'equip-able by <me/various companions>' drop-down menu doesn't work - No useful drop-down menus (eg. armor slots) Bugs - Follow command is broken - Some gathering nodes are still not harvest-able - Spike causing mobs say they're of LOS though they're clearly not - Randomly can't cast Guard on people - Randomly can't cast Static Barrier on people - Scrolling combat text randomly disappears sometimes - People not showing up in operation frames - Revan occasionally goes immune to damage at 4% but doesn't despawn - Alt's crafting skills in your crew skill window - Alt's gathering skill node icons clutter minimap - Codex not properly updating (I know I've found 3 datacrons on this planet, why does the codex say I've only found 1?!) - Randomly gaining Legacy levels/XP (friend of mine only has 1 character at level 24 and has been earning legacy XP this whole time and another friend just gained a Legacy level while AFK standing in the Imperial Fleet) - The radial dial for conversation choices always shows up during conversations but sometimes the synopsis of the response does not. Annoyances - No auto-stacking when putting things in your cargo hold - Crew Skill Mission Reward/Failure screen closing everything else - Can't add offline people to friends list - No way to turn off companion commentary (for the love of all that is holy, let me shut 2V-R8 the F up!) - Abilities not firing due to previous ability's animation length - 'Sharding' of the various zones makes the world feel incredibly empty - No combat log - No macros - Can't respec at my class trainer (have to hunt for certain NPC that I've only seen in 2 places - capitol city and faction fleet) - No dual spec leads to spending STUPID amounts of credits on respecs to help facilitate grouping - Tiny, closed-in, linear planets - The world/zones are basically just a bunch of corridors or large open warehouses or jungles or wastelands, where are all the towns/villages, where are all the homes, where are all the normal people, where are the children?! - WAY TOO MUCH TRAVELING - Too many loading screens - Can't abandon some quests - Too many abilities - Flight paths not connecting for no apparent reason other than to irritate me - Separating item stacks links items in chat - I cannot do any crafting if I want - No combat dummies - Every time I load into a new zone my chat is spammed with all my friends who are online - Because of gear that requires light/dark side levels, I feel like I HAVE to stick to all of one type of decision rather than going with my gut and playing my character the way I want - Companions saying the wrong line upon crew mission completion (eg. 'Please don't deactivate me, Master.' upon success...?) - Ugly, super pixelated shadows - Low rez textures - No AA - No chat bubbles (or options to turn them on/off for various channels) - If I finish a conversation before the rest of my party (yes, I spacebar through ones I've already done) I have to stare at an NPC's head awkwardly until everyone finishes - Minimal company interaction with the community - Computer generated responses to tickets/bug reports and just generally lacking customer service Suggestions - Make flashpoint/operation item drops trade-able to other eligible players for a short period - Make it impossible to roll Need on gear you can't equip (Greed/communication/the above suggestion/crafting should be how you gear companions) - A way to look at the gear companions have equipped without having to summon/dismiss each one would be nice (even if they're on a crafting mission) - Way to tell if we have something (eg. Crafting Mission) so you don't accidentally buy multiples - A buy-back for full refund option on gear purchased with commendations - Right clicking on items in your inventory with GTN open automatically searches the GTN for that item - When mousing over the gathering node icons in the minimap, it would be nice if the tooltip told you via color if you can gather the node but wont gain a skill point (grey), can gain a skill point (green), or don't have the sufficient skill to gather (red). TL;DR Pretty good single player RPG. Not so great massively multiplayer online RPG. Unless a lot of these things are fixed/implemented in a timely fashion, I doubt I'll be here for the long haul (not that any of you care). I might (hopefully) be able to enjoy myself at least until Diablo 3 or Guild Wars 2 come out.

@OP: Very few people actually like reading through pages and pages of responses. If you went through and reposted them as a list in your original post you might have a chance of getting less features repeated. - FIX MY CHARACTER'S LACK OF RESPONSIVENESS!!!!!! (If an ability animation is longer than your GCD, your next ability will not go off until the animation finishes. SOOOOOO gamebreaking!) - More UI customization (scaling, repositioning, fade options for bars, etc) - TARGET OF TARGET FRAME - Get rid of instancing - Better companion AI (tired of my tank pet just standing in an AE as his health drops and toggling passive/attack is obnoxious) - Less running and loading screens to leave a planet - A 'Restore All Defaults' button (jumping through half a dozen hoops to restore defaults is obnoxious) - An import UI option - A time restricted buyback for full refund option for gear purchased with commendations. - Fix the codex (I KNOW I've found 3 datacrons on <planet>, why does my codex say I've only found 1?!) - Fix the /follow command - Make more flightpaths connect I know I have more, if I think of them, I'll add them.

I agree with this entire post.

^ Made me smile. Hope more people actually read it!

Obviously you've never done anything other than mindlessly DPS... I don't think ToT effects healers much at all. And while a good tank will be a good tank even without this feature, it definitely effects them more. What happens when there's a group of mobs beating on the tank? What if there's a member of your group who is melee and they're somewhere in the cluster of mobs the tank is fighting? What if the mobs casters who don't necessarily have to move to target someone else? What if you're fighting in a tight corridor or near a wall and the camera angles make it impossible to find a better view of the situation? Now go ahead and consider the fact that the nameplate health bar of the mob you're targeting can obstruct the view you have of other mobs. And also mull over the fact that Bioware made scrolling combat text pop out of your target's face and scroll down their body instead of floating above and moving up. Quit being an ignorant fanboi and open your eyes. This game is pretty good but it's got some flaws. It's not going to get any better if you and everyone like you keep insisting that it's perfect.

There are roughly 4 instances (or phases) of every zone on every server in this game. I have no idea what purpose this serves aside from making gathering nodes and quest mobs more accessible (making the world seem empty and irritating me every time I have to change instances for a group, too). Do away with the stupid instancing, Bioware!!!

The Bloody UI. I know it's petty, but it bothers me to the point of (almost) not wanting to play. Everything is HUGE and tons of space is taken up by superfluous graphics. I feel completely boxed in - there's big, bright blue crap all along the top, bottom, left and right sides of my screen. I can't open more than two menus at once. Can't move any of these menus once they're open. Cant resize anything. Can't reposition anything. Can't make anything invisible. Can't even restore default settings without jumping through half a dozen hoops. Honorable Mentions: Lack of character responsiveness Drives me up a wall. Let's use an example from my Inquisitor (Assassin). Let's say I use Thrash, my GCD ends and I hit the button for Force Lightning. Even though my GCD is over and I've hit the next button, the ability refuses to go off because the animation for Thrash hasn't finished. Another great example that might be experienced by a broader audience: mounting your speeder. Hit the button, watch the bar fill up, as soon as it's full and the cast timer says it's done casting try to move forward. You'll be dismounted because, even though the cast is done, the animation hasn't completed. Khem Val Most useless, buggy companion I've had (and I've got several alts).