^^ THIS
Thanks for the positivity. I tend to agree.
A few other points that I would like to bring up (I played WoW from Vanilla...)
1) Yes game development should learn from other companies mistakes. To make the assumption, however, that programmers improve over time is assanine. That would be similar to saying that programmers intelligence is collective, that an improvement at one company means a knowledge improvement at all companies. Just because Blizzard has significant experience at bug fixes, etc, now, after what, 6 years? I guarnatee too, that the TOR teams will be significantly more fluid with fixes in 12 months, not to mention 6 years.
2) Point about about paying player base is right on. IMHO, now that BW has a significant player base (I dont know their corporate targets for subs, however) it would make sense to turn their focus on end game. Eventually more casual people will hit 50 and then that will be the paying player base. What is the ratio, do you think, of subs clearing ops versus subs grinding to 50? Think about it... while you might think so, you dont want BW to focus solely on end game. That would equal diminishing the significant majority of player base under 50, which would ultimately hurt the entire game/community. Less $$ = Less development.
3) March sounds like a lot of improvement are coming. Let them get there before you QQ more.
4) A huge point that many in the community lack to understand is player progression. How many toons have you levelled to max in WoW and various other games? Have you honestly not noticed that you improve at the efficiency of getting to max level (time wise)? To say that WoW had a steeper learning curve was correct but in an incorrect sense. We all went through that learning curve with the first toon in WoW, but since this game has a similar framework, that learning curve applies here. BW couldnt have assumed it would take 6 months to get people into ops...why would they have new flashpoints (Kaon) if they did? They know full well how quickly people will level. If SWTOR was released pre-WoW, I predict that the time it took people to level to 50 would have been nearly double, as we wouldnt have been educated to the extent that we are now. This wont be solved until developers go to different options of levelling. Ie. no levels, skill based, etc. SWG!
Anyways /rantover