Bump /10char

First of all, may I start off congratulating Bioware on the first MMORPG to ever actually make me feel connected to my character. I loved the voice acting, the choice-laden quests, the quality animations and the interesting storyline of my character. An extremely good job was done here and I commend you on that- you've set the bar of the MMO genre questing and leveling experience very high indeed. That being said: Unless a number of things change, I won't be resubscribing. Please, Bioware, learn from this for any future MMOs you release- and any other gaming companies learn as well. Any time the quality of a game is sacrificed for a release date, that extremely important first impression that gaming companies spend months and millions hyping up is torn to pieces. As my wife and I were leveling through the game, it was fraught with bugs that were not game breaking but detracted from the overall experience. We were plagued with having to deal with features being removed from beta for no apparent reason- such as, on my Sith, I spent 20 levels with a hood on even though I hated it, because they removed the toggle to show or hide hoods during beta. Things like the high quality textures and Anti-Aliasing apparently just not being in the game, forcing our $2400 each custom built gaming rigs to run a game that made World of Warcraft's 2004 era graphics look good at 170 FPS, or the fact that you're so heavily penalized for experimenting with talent builds in the post-dual spec and post-Rift MMO genre, or the excruciating time it takes to switch from one planet to another. Taking 10 minutes to planet hop is fine for KOTOR or KOTOR2, but not for an MMO. When it would take longer for me to swap planets than it would take for me to help my lowbie guildie do some heroic quests, we've got a problem here. I keep hearing people throw around statements like "But WoW wasn't polished at release! Vanilla WoW had way worse bugs!" Vanilla WoW was released in 2004. SW:TOR was released in 2011. Are my fellow gamers trying to tell me that over seven years of gaming, companies that make MMO's should be allowed to repeat the same mistakes over and over again, and just because the first wildly popular MMO did it, that it's OK to do on every other launch? Today, Bioware has a very polished WoW to contend with as the big boy on the block, and also quite polished Rift as a close second. They've got GW2 and TERA looming on the horizon as very pivotal genre changers. All Bioware had was a first impression. Great, they sold over a million copies on the Star Wars and Bioware names- but what's left? And that brings me to my next point. Bioware, why did you decide to go with the same old tired Holy Trinity of Tank, Healer, Damage? Why did you go with the percent based combat? We have MMO's coming out with advanced collision detection allowing for extremely skilled players with good enough gear to solo instances because of how fluid and vibrant and real the combat is, but in TOR we're stuck with our force wielding supermen taking hits because they failed a dice roll. Why? Then there's the classes. Bioware took two resource mechanics: Energy and Rage. They then built all classes in the game around this. Inquisitor? Straight up classic energy, with the option of a larger pool. Bounty Hunter? Energy in reverse. Warrior? Rage. Imp Agent? Reversed energy again. Why are they so boring? One of the coolest things to work towards as a healer in MMOs is getting a larger mana pool as a tangible expression of your gear becoming higher quality. However, in TOR, there is no such differentiation. Lastly, there's the gear. Bioware... I loved the item modifications. My favorite part of KOTOR was building my lightsaber. The quests where I went and found the parts, the ritual I underwent to put together the device, the feeling I got the first time I saw it glow, and the modifications it underwent later. These were all amazing and helped me feel a part of the game- I didn't just get a new weapon, I got to put together my own weapon! SW:TOR took it even farther and gave me that same ability with my armor. Awesome! But then, at end game... You don't have that option anymore. Instead of getting to keep your favorite set of armor, you are forced into a Klu Klux Klan outfit as an Inquisitor. Why can't I break this armor into the individual modifications and socket into my own gear? Why can't I craft modifications that are relevant at 50? I end it all by saying, if Bioware can adjust these issues, I could see this game lasting and going somewhere. But ultimately, I don't think I speak for myself when I say that the leveling experience can be amazing, but if the game isn't good once you reach the level cap, why is it an MMO? It's just a single player game that I can chat with my friends on at that point.

I love the game. The only thing I can think of wrong is... Playing a Sith Assassin, I could sure use a little better proc notifications. Something like Powerauras for WoW would be amazing; something simple like Rift's "Show the icon of the ability onscreen" would be fine also. Or even just floating combat text that you gained the buff. Other than that, I absolutely love the game!