Ok, did the quest...that was interesting. At least now there's some explanation for her personality. Shouldn't underestimate Bioware.

Just about to do the mining colony quest, so maybe the option for "romance" will be there, but have to say I find Kira incredibly annoying. I've quested with T7 the whole time and only used her when I had no choice. The voice actress makes every line she says sound extremely bratty and sarcastic. She doesn't look that great either. I like the idea of having a romance option for my Jedi, but the designers dropped the ball on this one IMO. I would be tempted to break the code, but not for her. Now Miranda from Mass Effect...is a different story...

That statement was posted before launch, defending their decision. Now that there are a million actual people playing the game, they're going to hear from the players, and it will happen. Trust me.

All I have to say is this. Rift listened to their beta testers at launch. The "hardcore", my life is on the internet, I live for RPGs crowd. "I want a social life in a video game, LFG ruined WoW, waaaaah!!!!!!" Within a few months of actual release with normal people playing, they launched cross-server dungeon queuing. Players on low population servers cannot see content without one.

See, that's the problem. Most people don't play these kinds of games to meet people and make friends with strangers. It's creepy, and it never works out. The game needs to focus on joining up for a mission, completing it, and going your separate ways. That's what most players want out of an MMO.

I agree, they do look pretty strange. And your versions are an improvement. The barrel chest on my Type III Jedi Knight is way too exaggerated as well. The head customizations are great. The body models are lacking.

What matters most is that people are able to take part in the content and complete it. Yesterday I joined a group for Hammer Station. It took a while to find the people, but not too bad. The problem came when we got the second boss, wiped, and the healer immediately left without a word. End of run. I still haven't completed it, and I basically gave up on Flashpoints in favor of questing. I played WoW before and after the introduction of the queue, and the idea that it "harmed community" is a total myth. On the internet, there will always be a certain number of players who abuse the freedom of anonymity. Proper game design will make it so that those players' ability to harm others is minimized. Quaint notions about "community" with total faceless strangers on the internet is a pipe dream. It never existed in WoW.

I agree with every point in the OP. These are all must-have features. Rift started out listening to this misguided group, but soon after implemented a dungeon queue when they realized how many people could not find groups to do them at all. I also think one of the main things WoW did that made it what it was, was to allow users to make add-ons. I know that's risky and tricky, but it has huge benefits to the strength and longevity of the game. WoW is an old, worn-out, terrible game in many ways, that many people want to leave. SWTOR is excellent so far, and has the potential to take WoW's place as the pre-eminent MMORPG. But some of these features have to be implemented for it to get there.