Hehe, yep. At first I was thinking to myself, who would fall for that? Then I read all these posts saying YEAH, thanks Bioware, I'll be your tool. No problem! They could have just offered a 7 day free trial. But no, they want YOU to be their tool because friends are more trustworthy and more reputable than faceless marketing. Yep, you keep paying Bioware out of your pocket the exact same amount each month AND recruit them more subscribers who in turn will pay them too. Hilarious. Only in the gaming industry could something like this work. I bet the execs are falling off their chairs laughing at the short-term revenue blast this will make.

I see a lot of people seem to like the legacy stuff, so I'm probably a minority when I say: Nope. To me, it is just a disguised mechanic to get you to play more by levelling up an alt. Using carrots on a stick to lure you. As opposed to fun experiences. The MMO genre is becoming more and more about the carrot. They even had to put in datacrons (carrots) to lure you to explore. Don't think it is to 'reward' you. Rewards for these sorts of things are intrinsic. They are lures to the point where people log on the internet and research locations and then, like a sub-routine, initiate completion by travelling from planet to planet getting the datacrons. People clamor to do a flashpoint, rush through it not talking with others, like some robotized experience. It's all about the grind now. I get that there needs to be incentives, but adding more layers of it just makes the total experience less fun and more work feeling for me. I see the legacy system as another layer of this. Veiled under some hood of coolness, when it's really just giving you perks for completing grinding elements that keeps you playing.. and paying.

Yeah the OP kinda walked into that one, but there is a truth underneath too. I never explored WoW Arenas much, but wasn't that for organized PvP? Guildies and friends who maximize synergy compete in an apples to apples environment with a group of enemies of similar ilk? And BGs were meant more for PUG play. SWTOR may stand to benefit from something like this. Like it or not, the casual audience is the financial engine of MMOs so they need to have mechanics designed for them too. Smart devs can do this without hurting the veteran crowd in the process. Having Arenas and BGs is a way of doing this, perhaps not perfect, but better than just having WZs. Right now SWTOR pits organized groups against PUGs as the only option. In time, this will alienate the masses.

No. I don't normally post good-bye threads, but perhaps there is a point to indicating why I have unsubbed. My comments are not new, but it reinforces things others have said which Bioware may care to read about: The questing experience, though well done from a single player perspective, does not feel open world enough to warrant a monthly subscription fee. The PvP is not immersive. I never made it to Illum, but I've yet to encounter an enemy in the open world and I've seen Hutball pop way too often. I found I never needed to buy anything off the auction house; and my own personal crafting felt disconnected from the economy - just stuff I made for myself. I found the opportunities for social interaction among others to be poorly fleshed out. Maybe it's the community, but I remember enjoying the gathering spots in WoW's cities - where people would talk to one another. Just strangers shooting the breeze. But that doesn't happen here. It's deathly quiet in fleet. I think the issue is not having chat bubbles. People need to keep an eye on their chat window, unable to localize where conversation is coming from. I find it reduced conversation as a result. Whatever the reason, I find the world very quiet. Travel system is painful and tedious. Loading screens and empty hallways between ship and hangars and planets. Rolling an alt is painful, having to spacebar side quests because having to hear a dramatic cinematic about killing 10 rats is ok the first time, but definitely not the second. Being forced to have a companion, and thus having to be a pet class, was a bit of an adjustment. In and of itself not a game breaker, but something that adds to the downside. Furthermore, companions having names with an implication that they are unique personalities, yet I see "my" companion saddled up alongside so many others running about as well. Just seeing every player with an npc-pull-toy kinda looks weird, and artificially inflates the population. Low server populations made grouping for flashpoints something I didn't get to play that often. The zones are also too vast compared to the instance caps and server pops, so their is an empty feeling everywhere. Bioware is a great company and I'm sure they'll pull this together. I do think they need to steer away from the single-player focus that does haunt this game. Almost all the points I made above connects to this. Bioware are one of the top developers of the single player experience but they need to let go a bit and embrace the 'massive' in MMO design, lest the instanced realms of GW2 with no sub fees will rear competitive advantage.

PvP as an MMO concept has been growing steadily over the years. I think the demand is there, what still needs to be refined is how it is delivered. There are people who are pure PvP die-hards, and there are PvE-die hards. But there is a larger majority in the middle who are open to it if the experience is accessible, fun and something that you don't need to be a pro-player to succeed in. If we look at MMO releases, it is pretty clear that developers are on to this notion, and that's why you see it emerging in ways like how games have delivered the instanced BG/WZ experience, dueling, and open world battles. Developers are also very interested in satisfying the PvP elements of the game from a design model as well. PvP is more about mechanics. PvP players are more ok with playing the same WZ over and over again versus the PvE crowd playing the same raid over and over again, because in PvP there is the changing variable of random human interaction. It brings a sandbox experience to the MMO. PvE dynamics requires content development that is played through in scripted precision. This is 'eaten' more quickly than it is 'created', and is more costly in video game design. The challenge is bringing both to market, simultaneously so you grab all demographics, but to not interfere with experience of those who are on the extremes. Like others have said, modifying skills because they need to work in PvP should not hamper the PvE experience.

The wide audience is the casual audience. Their design is deliberate.

It's like you guys spanked your monkey through the whole video. Or at least the first half, because that's when I turned it off. I can understand you don't want to point out concerns or criticisms in your own game, but a little less trumpet blasting of your own egos would garner more integrity; at least in my books. It's annoying and transparent. It's like going to a party and being 'that guy' who tells everyone how amazing he is. I enjoy your game. I think your commercial is really lame and manipulative. Simply showing in-game action sequences to music would have been more respectful.

They asked you for feedback? I don't get it. There's feedback everywhere. Plus, they know what's wrong with their game. It's a matter of resource allocation and timing at this point.

They say repeating the same thing several times and expecting a different result is called insanity.

I'm not a huge fan of the no-bracket system for WZ's either. Mythic's influence there I believe. With this said, once you get to around lvl 30, things are ok with respect to skill availability. You've got enough of an arsenal to do your thing. Ultimately, teamwork and skill trump the equation overall. So it's not a game breaker for me that I'm mixed in with levels of all kinds. Maybe if they had three tiers (10-25), (26-49), and (50) it may provide some of the skill availability balance you mentioned. You mentioned PvP gear as a way to remove twinking. As long as you get a stream of XP per WZ, twinking would cease to exist by virtue of that alone. People would outlevel their WZ bracket, so they wouldn't bother twinking. Who wants to spend oodles of coin on epics if it's only for a limited time? Something to be aware of with this. Killing twinking comes other consequences as it provides a demand for crafting, which nourishes the grander economy. Something SWTOR is not doing well in. And the open level-bracket system may be in part a reason why. Kill twinking and you eliminate a huge need for low level epics to be crafted as people won't bother buying them off galactic trade, unless they're looking to temporarily twink which is much rarer.

Everytime I try to hit the unsubscribe button, Khem Val runs up and stands on my hand.

Altruist or Saboteur? Hmmm.. I wonder which..

Well, that's one way to ensure you don't pick your apple tree dry. Use some common sense man. If you play your MMO a lot, don't jump on so close to release - you're not using your noggen if you do. You are going to chew through the content and hit a dead end. If you're ok with that, and move on and return with the understanding that content will develop in time, than fine. You get it. But if you complain about it, less than 3 months after the game has been released, you're an idiot.

I think the key is, to type /played and see what comes up. If it is equal to or greater than 100 hours, then it is only fair to have some perspective that the issue is more you than the game. SWTOR is under 3 months old. I have two characters. Both are level 21. Granted, I'm casual to the point where I might not represent the majority. But who knows, maybe I am. But one thing I do know, I have the playstyle that allows me to pick up a MMO on day one. I can start playing and know that the game will probably stay ahead of me. I'll never catch up to the content. If you're into end-game dynamics, and you put in 20+ hours a week into the same MMO, it is poor judgement to play a newly released MMO. You're better off getting into one that has been fleshed out. MMOs need time to mature to cater to end-game crowds. This is a sapling apple tree. Don't pick all the apples off it and then wonder why the branches are empty. Either pick slower, or turn away and come back when the tree can handle your appetite.

This topic is like religion vs agnosticism, nature vs nurture, pro-life vs abortion, etc.. People who are on one side of the fence are not going to change the way people on the other side think about this topic. Period. Now it is just a thread of people loving to argue with one another.