1. Gear ALWAYS mattered in lower brackets - hence the lowbie twinks. 2. Playing ANY bracket better naked than geared indicates a serious problem. Sense, you made none.

You are playing the wrong game. This is an MMO and MMOs are about progression. That includes PVP, especially in a game with dedicated PVP servers. If you want pure PVP without progression, I can recommend about a dozen other games. All of them do PVP much better than SWTOR. So why are you here?

I think it is more likely that they are pushing it to casual PVP only, because their developers are overwhelmed. They can't handle bug fixes, they can't handle class balance, they can't even play their own game. In the future, pvp will be a sideshow attraction for the weary PVEer who needs a little break.

No, not really. But it brings out a lot of angry people and that's a good thing! Perhaps we have a PVP community after all? Usually, I'm pretty much the only one being skeptical of Bioware's PVP efforts (yes, there are a few others too). Whenever Bioware gold-text yokels grace us with their presence once a month (and never say anything meaningful), half the people on here have a moist discharge and can't stop licking virtual boots. These guys collect our money, so they should work for us! Bioware, listen to and interact with the community! Stop relying solely on metrics and start playing your own game! Fix all the bugs that have been reported since launch! And for heaven's sake get rid of this "naked pvp" before SWTOR becomes the laughing stock of the internet!

Ok, sorry about that. If you think "naked pvp" is the way to go, allow me to call you a moron instead.

The more I think about it, the more I believe that is actually intended. From not being able to implement cross-server warzones and the failure of large-scale faction battles, both due to engine limitations, to unfixed bugs since launch, such as spawning in combat, spawning with half health or stunned, or disappearing ops chat, the Bioware developers are in way over their heads. A few days ago, one Gold-text guy came on here and said the developers never heard about the force-choke bug that ignores resolve. I reported it myself in January 2012 and it was mentioned multiple times on this forum since. Complete disconnect between them and the community! Unless there is a 180 degree change of heart by management, SWTOR pvp is condemned to remain casual, just a sideshow attraction for those who need a little break from PVE. I really wonder why Bioware bothered with dedicated PVP servers in this game....

So about 17h after pre-order launch, you expect that there are enough people around to queue for 55 warzones? What's wrong with you?

After you knew about this bolster problem for many weeks, you still went live with it? Do you have any idea what "naked PVP" does to SWTOR's credibility? I'm sure gamers having a hoot all over the internet right now....

So, you folks still think I was wrong about glorious "Biobolster 2.0"? Or the fact that the Bioware developers never actually play their game? Or listen to the community feedback from the PTS? I offered a 100 cartel coin bet, and I think I won that bet, if anybody would have accepted it.

Heh, look at the OP's name...biggest fanboy on here. The "World's best PVP developer team" (actual Bioware quote) is getting their inspiration from people like him.

Discussing with fan boys is tedious at best. Read Forbes from last week with regards to Disney's closure of Lucas Art. Read what Motley Fool has to say about the same. A lot more was published when Disney bought the Star Wars franchise a while ago. Read what the analysts had to say when EA shutdown parts of Bioware. Read what they had to say when Bioware's top management resigned. There is still the same consensus that SWTOR has sorely disappointed, given the huge investment and the tremendous marketing potential of the Star Wars franchise. With regards to SWTOR (not necessarily other games), what you claim is a new, successful marketing model is almost across the board viewed by independent financial analysts of reputed news organizations as a last-gasp effort to save a failed investment. Sure, it might work out after all - as I said a few posts ago, only time will tell. But really, this discussion has moved too far from the SWG thread topic, so let's end this here.

Any press release of any publicly traded company will spin the numbers until bad news looks like good news. Why? Because their stock value depends on it and shareholders, like myself, would like to see it go up. What really matters is how the market interprets a quarterly report. Did EA's stock jump up? No. It has steadily declined since December 2011 (~$23 to about ~$17 today). That's why I rely on independent financial analysis and not EA's press releases. I know you like the game and want it to succeed, and so do I, but wishful thinking is not going to help here. In February 2012, EA said it would need 500K subscribers to break even and they said they had about 500K subscribers left (down from 1.7M). What they conveniently omitted is for how long they would need to keep 500K subscribers - 6 months, 1 year, for the duration of the Star Wars license? To my knowledge, EA never released the exact production cost for SWTOR either. It is estimated to be upwards of $200M, but outside of EA, nobody knows for certain. Btw, breaking even is not a desirable financial model. Generating revenue in excess of operational cost is!

Read before you comment. The only assumption I made was that we will never see SWG revived - that's a pretty safe bet, imo. The financial world is in agreement - SWTOR was and remains a failure. Even EA has admitted as much. I suggest you study Forbes, Motley Fool, Wallstreet Journal, International Business Times, etc - lots of good articles out there.

Lucas Arts and all its intellectual properties, including Star Wars, was sold to Disney. Disney now owns the rights and collects the royalties from the licenses, including the one for SWTOR. Bioware obtained a license for Star Wars from Lucas Arts. EA owns Bioware and thereby owns SWTOR. Now EA pays royalties for the Star Wars trademark to Disney. Because of its huge popularity and marketing value, Star Wars is the most lucrative license to hold. Hence, it's royalties are the most exorbitant. The cost of the license for SWG was approximately 35% of their total revenue. While I do not know the numbers, I'm certain that EA's license for SWTOR is in the same ballpark. To be successful with that kind of license price tag, a game needs to attract a huge number of paying customers. And this is exactly the reason why the financial world considers SWTOR a failure - the game was unable to attract and keep the large numbers of subscribers needed to return a profit. Even with the F2P Cartel Market, SWTOR is barely profitable now and only a very small part of EA's portfolio. Most licenses have non-competition clauses in them. In other words, Disney is excluded from issuing the same license to another MMO (or making one themselves) while the license with EA is still active. SWG is similar enough to SWTOR to be covered by such a clause. Most licenses have expiration dates. While I have no way to confirm this, EA's license is said to run for 3 years. After that time, EA has to decide if it makes economic sense to renew it or if it is better to close SWTOR down. Time will tell. Overall, the gaming industry is trying to move away from licensing agreements in general because they are simply too expensive to maintain. So, to answer the OP's question - no, not any time soon and probably not ever will we see a revival of SWG.

Ah, I remember it well. I fully expect 30-54 to be flashback to those days. I also bet a 100 cartel coins that the "World best PVP developers" have never played a single 30-54 warzone. Metrics baby, metrics!

Don't be afraid, just say how it's done. I explained hacks and cheats many times and in great detail on these forums. An educated community is much more likely to report the exploiters than an ignorant one. And it takes many, many reports to get someone banned here.

Where were you when this bug was first reported in January 2012? It's rare, so it's doubtful a video of it exists. But essentially it is as the OP describes it, Force Choke ignores resolve under certain conditions. And this is where it gets tricky: Back then, I tried to duplicate the bug by dueling a Mara friend. We couldn't. It seems that Force Choke by itself is not the problem, but the interaction with other attacks, stuns or running affects might be the cause. Just my 2 cents, hopefully the OP has some more detailed info for you.

It is a pretty rare bug that has been around since launch. Reported many times, never fixed. And don't expect it to get fixed, because this is just PVP, not some mis-colored Cartel junk that would require an emergency patch to correct immediately.

General question for all these posters who say that "real PVPers don't need rewards!". If you want to PVP for PVP's sake, why in the heck are you playing an MMO? SWTOR PVP is mediocre at best, anyone who has played real PVP games knows that. There are tons of pure PVP games (and even some MMOs) that do it much, much better. MMOs are about progression, PVE and PVP - especially in an MMO with DEDICATED PVP servers! Aside from the Star Wars theme, I pvp in this game because I want meaningful progression for my toons. Otherwise, I could go back to LoL and enjoy much better PVP without the progression. At least in LoL, the champions are closely balanced and the developers actively play their own game, unlike SWTOR where the ACs are out of whack and the developers solely rely on metrics. If Bioware wants SWTOR pvp to be ONLY casual and without progression, why do I want to continue to sub for it? Either because they are too lazy, too incompetent, or because the MBAs at EA tell them to, that is exactly the direction Bioware is taking with SWTOR. 95% of all warzones played everyday are NORMAL warzones, not ranked. 2.0 won't change anything about that. For every RWZ team there are probably 100 HM OPS teams. 2.0 won't change anything about that either. Thanks to the bolster, a dedicated PVEer can enjoy 95% of game, and be successful, by doing PVE content only. A dedicated PVPer cannot do the same.

Well, you know that is simply not true and also perfect example of yet another inequality Bioware has created: You queue in bad gear for OPS, you get kicked and cannot ruin the ops. You queue in bad gear for WZ, you can't get kicked and are free to ruin a warzone. Groupfinder allows PVEers to kick people for any reason, good or bad. Warzone queues do not give you that choice at all. Unlike groupfinder, even people on your ignore list can be matched into your warzone team.

I'm not saying it is impossible to pvp across regions, but if you are 3000 miles away from the server, you will be somewhat handicapped. On west-coast servers, I have 15-20ms ping. East-coast it goes up to 50-70ms and EU it is always 100+, sometimes 200ms. I do notice the difference just comparing West and East coast. So for that reason, my personal preference would be regional PVP servers that we can copy to.

In principle, not a bad idea, but where would that server be? Latency is a killer for competitive PVP. I live West-coast, but I also have toons on East coast and EU. Unless you are scrub (which I don't think you are) you will notice the difference! But regional PVP servers I could see happening that way. Yeah, good luck with that...

You are comparing apples and oranges: For every RWZ team there are probably 100 HM OPS teams. 2.0 is not going to change that and cross-server Ranked is not going to happen in 2013, if ever. Can you follow that? Is that just what Bioware claims it will do or do you know that for sure? Because every bit of info on the 2.0 bolster, including what people have tested on the PTS, suggests VERY differently.

I can envision 3 balanced models for the entire community: 1. Both PVPers and PVEers have to work for PVP and PVE gear to enjoy the entire game, PVP and PVE. 2. Both PVPers and PVEers get bolstered so they can enjoy the entire game, regardless of their gear. 3. Only one type of tiered gear for everybody, which can be obtained from either PVP or PVE. None of these approaches might be completely ideal, but they are inherently fair to everyone. But if only one part of the community has to work for gear and the other gets bolstered, that isn't! Is that really so hard to understand?

Yes, yes one of those gear-gap whiners who neither have gear nor skill. But this is not about warzone challenges, it is about how Bioware screws the PVPers yet again. With the bolster, a dedicated PVEer only has to do PVE content to enjoy the entire game, PVE AND PVP. A dedicated PVPer is excluded from PVE content, unless he puts in the extra time to grind all that gear. (And yes, that is exactly how that bolster is going to work) That's fair? In a game with dedicated PVP servers? On which planet? On a different note: This PVP community is truly pathetic -taking it up the tail-pipe since launch, yet very few dare to speak up. When was the last time you even saw one of those gold-text yokels show up to comment i.e. "we are lurking", "looking into it", "soon"?