It's not problematic. This is a tragically simple, commonplace and straightforward issue for any modern PROFESSIONAL interface designer, like any of the eight I employ, for instance. Regional specific sorting is a solved problem. If you don't like sorting stuff on the server, there are any number of client-side solutions that simply alias slot identifiers and can reorder them visually. There are a lot of different and equally good ways to accomplish this. Most importantly, If you were one of my programmers and came back to me with that pathetic excuse I would have already called HR to get you moving on your way.

The behavior of your guild in no way affects a tool which is completely separate from your guild. Why do I have to explain this type of thing to adults? You're actually helping to argue my point. You have a social group which uses the time-honored mechanism of peer pressure to keep jerks in line. A LFG tool bypasses that.

Insta-LFG tools reward antisocial a-holes for being antisocial a-holes. There is no up-side to being polite and getting to know your team in a social manner as is the expectation in a multi-player game. Likewise there is no punishment for being a ********. I recognize that the server population thing is a real issue (I had to leave 3 50's on a ghost-town server), but this is a lousy solution to that problem.

I would love to see an experimental server which required the player to answer a simple SAT question every time they wanted to log on. Failed attempts would result in a 10 minute lockout or something. Just spitballing on ways to improve general chat. I think pretty-much all these games need the equivalent of the 'kids table'. Give elitism a try! It's easier than ever before, especially in today's America.

Sweet Jebus. An MMO player that can write English sentences, and knows the difference between "their, they're, there" and "your, you're". I may swoon. Also, thanks for the great analysis.

I'm not sure whether you realize it, but the price of respeccing actually resets to 0 after 7 days. The interface is a little wonky, and when you TRY to respec, a box comes up with a big number (if you have respecced recently), but when you actually DO respec, if you check the system messages in the chat window, you will see a message that says: your price was reset to 0. That being said, I'd love a dual spec system. It would only highlight even more how utterly pointless DPS-only classes like gunslingers and sentinels are. Currently I have to pay a moderate fee or simply gear-out a companion to take the place of a derpderp dpstard, but this would just allow us to flip a switch and ignore their existence altogether. Any game-based tool which lets me ignore idiots in bulk is a tool I can get behind.

I think you may be missing the point. I am not claiming that the class itself is flawed. I am a raid healer and I can count on one hand how many times I have been healed back using the Zen power sentinels have. Is this the awesome utility you refer to? The class itself is not flawed, but the choice of class lends itself to tragically poor players. You can cry all you like, but the hard statistics do not support your emotional engagement here. DPSers are terrible, and you're better off replacing them with robots.

I assure you I am not close-minded on this subject. I eagerly await being proven wrong. This is the conclusion I have come to after extensive play-time. DPS players are categorically dumb. The advantages that a dps-specialist class brings to the table do not outweigh the stupidity of the human that chooses the dps-only class.

I suppose the main point is that there is absolutely no point in playing a useless toon that can ONLY dps, even if you suffer a mild amount of dps penalty. I've yet to see a sentinel or gunslinger that wasn't better replaced by a well-geared companion. Companions do not attack mezzed opponents. They do not attack early before the target is sapped. In short, the 300 line script that runs companion behavior is smarter than a dpstard. Humans are needed to heal and tank. They are not needed to dps at least until late end game, and at that point, a guardian, or a commando, or a scoundrel with dps spec is just fine. The existence of the sentinel and gunslinger class options is an IQ test.

Yeah I find the whole trooper story line to be pretty militard-oriented.

I play a scoundrel and a sage, but I believe the targeting problems of all healers are similar. Here's the solution I came up with, via the quick key binds: target closest enemy: mouse wheel up target closest buddy: mouse wheel down cycle enemy: shift-mouse wheel up cycle friend: shift-mouse wheel down P.S. This is what I use on my scoundrel since he's usually close to the action. For a ranged healer I might switch the shift/non-shift versions

I got to agree, man. I enjoy the game, but my server is a ghost-town, and I don't think I want to start over from scratch. I got 2 50's, a 45 and some lower toons which I could live without. I just can't face having to do the Balmorra quests again. GAK! If they can't come up with a server transfer (i.e. a glorified stored procedure to transfer data from one database to another) or a server merge, or something I'm going to have to quit as well. It's particularly aggravating for me because I'm a database programmer, and I know that a server transfer and the accompanying error handling / web interface is probably only a few days of total work by a competent programmer.

My assumption that you are a lackwit is a statistical calculation based on MMO player demographics and recent reports regarding US scholastic standing worldwide. In short, if you're reading this, you're probably not so bright. There is no other correlation. I do suck at Huttball, mainly because I refuse to play it because I have no desire to get good at it... because it sucks. And now back to the point....

My sister made an original dish the other day. It was original all right. She found a way to hose-up cinnamon. It was new, interesting, and utterly terrible. I appreciate your attempts to put a nice face on this, and am glad that this game amuses you. But this problem is like broccoli. Some people like broccoli, some people don't. From conversations I've had about this subject in-game, I'd wager 80% of SWTOR players absolutely hate this particular broccoli and we're forced to eat it when we queue. Admittedly removing it is not a good solution if there's lackwits who do enjoy the thing. All I want is a button that lets me unselect it before queuing.

Whatever. I'm glad you guys enjoy it. Here's a juice box and some crayons. Get nuts. If they could just make a field selection option, we could all be happy. Until then, I refuse to take flak for quitting that crappy play field.