I'm pretty sure that AO is still consistently voted as the worst launch of a mmo whenever the subject is polled.

To answer the question posted in the title. Yes. You can bet that there are hundreds, if not thousands, of people already working feverishly to get around the basic security Bioware and EA have in place for SWTOR accounts. The security key stops 'em cold in their tracks.

I think it does... in isolated pockets... typically there is probably a sort of purple haze in the vicinity of those isolated pockets.. but they're there nonetheless.

Just a thought. MMOs are not easy things to get rolling. Those of us that have been through the launches (noting the game doesn't actually "launch" till the 20th) of many a game over the last 10 to 12 years have pretty much seen it all I'd wager. "Just be patient" is my mantra for SWTOR. I, like a lot of you, have been looking forward to this game for a long time. Why would I want to shell out my hard earned money to start my experience with negativity already eating at me? I'm just chill till I'm able to play. Lots of other things to do till then anyway.

This has been a trend in faction based mmos for awhile now. It was brought about by the perception created by WoW. That being that the so called "bad guys" are always underpopulated, but generally populated by better players. Now too many nubs want to look like they're "leet PvPers" that "play the underdog", and the balance has shifted. The key thing is for BW to stay the course and not make any knee jerk changes to the game to balance the factions. Like in DAoC, things will work themselves out. Either enough people will re-roll the underpopulated faction, or the players of the underpopulated faction will step up their game to the point where the imbalance doesn't matter, or a mixture of both.