This is a great point. All that money spent on making the in-game movies and tools required to create them might be quite wasteful. Imagine what other innovative features they could have implemented with that cash! Ah, well, at least they let us skip the movies if we want to.

I'd be surprised if there are any haters that fear the game. What an odd theory.

Some people dig story. If Bioware can keep a steady stream of high-quality story coming then those people will remain happy. If not, the transition from story play to non-story play will likely be difficult for them to accept. Me personally? I'm not into story in my games. In general, stories are pretty poorly delivered in games. I've rarely seen games where the in-game movies were good enough to enjoy watching. I skip them like crazy. If the movie has some nice looking ladies in it then I might watch it once. But, polygon ladies don't count. Other than that, most development effort should be spent on making replayable systems. The more you can get the players to generate the content, the better! In my opinion, of course.

With such a large team, Bioware has a lot of various specializations. Be sure of that. So, the programmers that can fix some of the game breaking problems you see may not be available (due to vacation or otherwise). Or they might be busy with issues that you're not aware of. I'm sure they'll get to them all in due time. Although, I do agree that releasing a patch that fixes irrelevant issues is almost a slap in the face. But, it's not on purpose.

Don't you just love cute posts like this? He stopped right where the guy says he didn't rush. Snob much?

Precisely the kind of attitude that makes this community less than it could be.

I can't speak for that guy, but I know I don't listen to any storyline cutscene in any game. Skyrim? Turn on subtitles and blaze through it. I use that example because it's the latest game where I've been inundated with poor quality cutscenes that I couldn't care less about. In general, game movies are just poor movies. I watch real movies for video entertainment. Games are just bad at it. It's a snooze fest.

I smack the spacebar like a rat trying to get a pellet. I find the acting to be pretty poor and don't really get attached to any video game character. Maybe one day movies in games will be good enough to captivate me, but that's a long way off!

And? How does that apply to this thread?

Okay, interesting. I am a native English speaker. Allow me to tell you that cutscenes in games are perfectly okay to be called movies. If it makes you more comfortable, call it a cutscene or video. Call it a canned animation. It really doesn't matter. Movie doesn't mean film. If you go to the "movies" these days, many of the "films" are delivered digitally. I don't ask my friends, hey do you want to go see a projection of a digital video. I say, let's go see a movie! No film need be involved. The first line of the link you provided says: See how they are sometimes called in-game movies? It still doesn't change the fact that when folks are watching the cutscenes that they cannot be socialized with. It feels very strange to me to see folks standing around with a chat bubble next to their heads and being unable to talk with them whatsoever. That's just my opinion, of course. Your mileage may vary. As for your comment that I don't have much experience with computer games... nothing could be further from the truth. I've been professionally developing computer games for 20 years. I've been playing them longer still. Lots of experience.

They are movies, though. Ever see a DVD where you can choose different outcomes at predetermined times? Sure! It's still a movie. The impact that UI design has on a game can be very subtle. This is why companies spend so much money to focus test and design their UIs carefully. To a casual observer this small point may seem trivial and unimportant. Yet, it may well make a tremendous difference in how folks approach the game. Tiny things can actually make a big difference in my experience.

So many assumptions. I didn't say that no one can see it. I said that it's a bad location because you're not generally looking in the upper-left of the screen. This is precisely why many games put the chat window in the lower left of the screen. Why not put the action buttons in the upper right? Because that's a terrible placement. You wouldn't want to be looking up there to see cooldowns / etc. They rightly put the action buttons in the bottom middle because that's where you're looking most of the time... the middle of the screen. The user need only glance down a small amount to see the action buttons. Nothing is missed. Again, this is why many games put their chat in the lower left corner of the screen. I want the DEFAULT configuration of the UI to be well thought out and as functional as possible. An upper-left chat window is not that in my opinion. Putting the chat in the middle of the screen is demonstrably NOT the best position. Why? You know why. Folks don't want to cover the main gameplay area with chat. Nice try though.

That's my observation. People don't pay attention to it as much as they do in other games that I've played. Some of that is because people ignore it, some of it is because they're busy watching movies and some of it is because they simply don't notice it. Look at this post from someone else on this thread: I'm not the only one seeing this problem. Does it mean that everyone sees it? No. My theory is that this problem (and it is a problem) could be improved by making the default chat window location near where the action is. There's a reason that many games put the chat window in the lower left. Because it's near the action. Your eyes are already focused in that general area of the screen... looking at the action buttons, etc. This is precisely why the DEFAULT location is in the lower left in many games. I'm not insisting that this is a problem for everyone. I'm insisting that it is a problem though, and is poor design. A simple change to the DEFAULT placement would very likely improve things.

Can you point out where I'm insisting that everyone doesn't like this? Thought so.

Sorry you're annoyed. You clearly fall into the "try harder" camp. This is the first MMO where I literally tried to get a group going for an hour with no luck. Spamming general, setting my LFG comment, yelling near the area and asking players in-person in a nearby social hub. There was no response. I have been in cases where I've had to wait to complete a larger group. That's perfectly acceptable. But I've literally never seen this situation where I couldn't find a single group mate in an hour of searching. I'm glad you've found a social group in the game and have no problems getting groups going. I know I'm having the problem. I see from posts that others are too. Why is that happening? How many hours should I spend to meet your requirement of "trying harder?"

Good points! Customization would be nice, we all agree. I think there's an extreme example that would illustrate the point (and you touched on it with the space-bunnies on acid comment). Imagine that the designers decided to put the action icons around the perimeter of the screen. I know, it's absurd, but imagine that they did it. And also imagine that they allowed you to move them wherever you want. The ability to move them wherever you want is a saving grace, no doubt. But, the fact that they were placed in rather unusable positions by default is a poor choice. Customization is great! But the default ought to be as usable as possible. It's a matter of opinion, of course. But I think it is a factual statement that many games tend to congregate their core UI elements around the bottom of the screen. Chat near the action icons. Action icons in the bottom middle. Etc. The current design overemphasizes the health of your current target (which is replicated on the HUD) and the minimap. It's my opinion that the minimap and current target are less important than chat. But, again that's just my opinion. There is a reason that so many people are feeling lonesome in this MMO. Some folks say it's the instancing, others say that we're not trying hard enough. I think it's the subtle interactions of default UI design and engrossing movies. And it makes me sad.

Thanks for adding nothing to the conversation. Is it just that you can't tolerate opinions that you don't understand that you feel you should post negatively here? Or is it because you don't like contrary opinions? Or is it because you're a jerk and are projecting that character flaw onto me? UI design makes a difference here. But, I'll bite: Why is it that no one groups with me? Is it because I'm a jerk? If so, take a look at the context, I only respond rudely to those folks (like yourself) that decide to butt into a perfectly valid thread and dump on it. When someone takes the time to post a response that adds exactly ZERO to the conversation; indeed a response that only exists to evoke a negative response or insult me. That person deserves rude treatment. If you have evidence of my chat in-game that you'd like to point out to the rest of us, please do. Otherwise be quiet.

It actually would make a difference, as already stated. When the screen resolution increases, the UI should scale to fit. That way it looks the same regardless of resolution. SWTOR does this nicely in many cases. The problem for the screenshot provider is that his resolution is overly wide. The game doesn't enforce aspect ratios. So you can choose a really wide and squished resolution. Another game (that will remain nameless) limits aspect ratio choices so that the UI scales to a similar size relative to the resolution chosen. Thus allowing the UI to look good at most resolutions. Just a thought.

Let me try a different tact: How is it that moving my chat window will solve this problem? See, when I'm trying to talk to someone else, it's where they have THEIR chat window that's important. Having the DEFAULT chat window in the upper-left makes is harder to notice because you're focused on the action. I'm all for folks moving the chat window. Move it wherever you want! I'm just saying that the DEFAULT placement is poor.

You might be right, but I don't feel that bias. I'm just sharing my theory on why I'm experiencing a stark lack of socialization in this game. The fact that I'm experiencing a stark lack of socialization isn't really at issue. Many people are claiming this and many are not. It's clearly a perception thing. I'm not one just to point out a symptom. I'm all for pointing out my thinking on the reason and looking for a solution. I agree that managing chat isn't really a problem. If you're actively chatting, you just look at the chat window. The DEFAULT placement is poor, though. It's very likely that folks spend most of their attention on other things. Not because they don't want to chat, but because it's not easy to notice the chat.

You, sir, are exactly right. That chat window placement (among other elements) is just poor. Your eye has to move all kinds of crazy to see what's happening. I understand the desire for UI customization because of this. But, better still, the default UI should handle these scaling issues correctly. Any UI that can turn into that mess is pretty unusable.

Let me explain that to you. You see, I was responding to the earlier comment that tried to dismiss the problem by saying I can move my chat window. This problem has nothing to do with where I place my chat window. It has everything to do with the DEFAULT placement of the window. The DEFAULT position is the problem. It makes no difference that I can move mine all around. The DEFAULT position is poorly chosen for using the window. That's all. Does that make sense?

Yeah, that must be it. Messages like: "LFG factory recall" "Does anyone want to group up to do factory recall?" "I'm looking for a factory recall group" They are condescending. You're right! I'm certainly happy to be condescending to incompetent readers that put words in my mouth. No problem there. But that's not what we're talking about, now is it?

Really? It's not clear? Let me break it down: I'm not suggesting that folks be forced to chat. I'm suggesting that the DEFAULT placement of the chat window makes it harder to notice when someone is chatting with you. As an aside, this is precisely why folks are asking for chat bubbles. This is a bad DEFAULT placement because your attention is usually not on the upper-left of the screen. When it is, you're probably sitting still and chatting. Good UI design dictates that the important things are placed where your eyes are looking at most of the time. Having chat in the upper left as the DEFAULT makes it much less likely to be seen when you're playing the game. Simply because your attention is on the action. By the time you glance up to the chat window, all manner of important or interesting messages could be missed.

This is the best part about the Internet... it's underscores the poor reading comprehension that many folks have. I never said that everyone should put their window where mine is. I said that the DEFAULT position is a poor design choice. That DEFAULT position has negative consequences in the game. It's just bad UI design. Plain and simple. Making that one change would, in my opinion, radically improve the socialization in the game.