While what you say is true, his point as I will tell Rob below targeted BioWare directly concerning their failure to live up to their status as a renown stories for their games. This is or was the strong selling point for all BioWare games. Not anymore. He called BioWare to the carpet (navy slang for reporting for an Captain's Mast (Article 15). And lambast them for the total failure of 7.0's "epic" story for it, including the previous 2. This is not about the writer per se, it's the fact that he nailed BW on how bad their stories are from the last 3 updates. How BW was renown for their stories for their games. And now, they fail hard in even trying to do that. Lastly, IGN is not some small MMO/RPG/eSport online gaming magazine. It's a premier one. They have a rather strong reputation in the gaming industry. The fact that one of their writers penned this OpEd, is telling. That's the point. Bad press for BioWare and EA of course which is a strike against their "stellar" reputations.

Well, Chris, Keith, and company it appears that MassivelyOP's Tyler F.M. Edwards penned an article in The SoapBox: "SWTOR’s Legacy of the Sith is bad, but not for the reasons you’ve heard." Looks like your damage control failed and now the gaming press is starting to let the world know how bad this is. However, I guess y'all will ignore them as you ignored all your play testers. I wonder how this is going to be received by EA...bad press, nightmarish public relations...I wonder how much worse this can get for you folks.

Yeah I just did and it said that my EA account was having issues...couldn't find anything on it though. Nothing showed up.

What about the green gear that looks like it was bought from the Salvation Army Surplus store? What about the weapons that look like they were pulled from a salvage pile, repurposed, looking like recycled scratch and dent weapons from some swap meet kiosk? Are any of these going to receive the same treatment? At least make them look new and not something passed down from someone's great x 10 grand parent long before Revan was born!

No, YoshiP was brought in after 1.0 launched crashing and burning. He remolded the game into its current form and relaunched 2.0 A Realm Reborn. He was recently asked about 1.0. He said, no, not going to touch it, its dead and gone.

Yes, YoshiP is was given complete control over the FFXIV franchise. ARR 2.0 and beyond is all his. And here's what he did from the start. He played WoW and liked some of what he saw. He then told his people, we are going to take some of what they did and we are going to do it far better. Updates 2.0 to 6.0 are the results of doing it better. Now, 6.1 is releasing mid-April, aptly name, "Newfound Adventure!" Talk about a poke in the face for all the other MMORPGs including this one!

You are quite right. However, FFXIV is releasing a brand new full featured update, 6.1, mid-April that blows away what BW delivered us on 2/15. For us here, this update would qualify as an expansion! It reasons like this that FFXIV and ESO are loved so much by the players. New content every 3 to 4 months even after a major expansion! New content keeps people playing a game, not endless grind for new gear doing old worn out content from 10 years ago or even sooner. However, BW believes that following the outdated dinosaur meta WoW uses is what works. WoW has less than 2.5 million subscribers now; how's that meta working for them and for SWTOR? It's not.

While I've not experienced that myself, I can sympathize with you about your Merc. I had to switch my own after seeing what they did to it. However, what these grossly incompetent individuals did to this game regarding a tank's ability for crowd control is pure ever loving horse excrement. Without the only 2 crowd control abilities, a tank is incapable of controlling the flow of battle. What it shows me is these people do not know, do not understand, and have never mained a tank in this game or any other game to be sure. They just deleted or made core abilities choices thus removing 2 defensive abilities along with deleted one completely, a crowd control. Tanks without specific crowd control ability is nothing more than a poor excuse for DPS with defensive cool downs. In doing this to tanks, they literally nerfed a party or raid team's survivability. Anyone that says otherwise is clueless to how intrinsic crowd control abilities are for protecting a party. These people violated the most fundamental tenet of development; you never alter core mechanics or abilities without replacing them with something similar or remove them in a manner that they have with ALL ATs in this game. They nerfed every class in this game for one reason: "To slow the progress of all characters in this game from advancing at a pace that they feel is counter to their new nightmare vision they have for the future of this game." And reducing survivability in a party setting for heroics, flash points, and operations of all modes, is just another facet to their design. They believe it improves play. It does not. More proof they don't even play this game. They believe it enriches playing experience. It does not; however they believe it like they believe 'only a few are having trouble with this game's changes with 7.0.' This delusional thought processes are driving this nightmare they've shoved down our throats. And we're paying them for this travesty of a new vision for the future of this game with this abhorrent update they call an expansion. I hope that the players continue to follow their hearts and not compromise themselves and vote with their wallets whom choose to do so. The only way this company will ever listen is when they lost 50% to 60% of their long-term monetary income that finances this game's operation through this year and into the future. Only then, and only then, will they have to face the truth after allowing cognizant dissonance blind them from the truth of their own mistakes. If they do not, more than likely they'll find themselves in the same situation the original crew did after update 1.2. Read this carefully. If you wonder why I've not act in the same manner, I am not ready to do so which if I did would lead to my account being nuked and everything I have deleted by EA. Thus, I keep stating the case as I am until one day they completely fix what they broke by removing 7.0 and keeping on those things the players want and not what they want. I will not compromise my principles and game development ideals and beliefs as they have without a thought just because someone is trying to take the game into a direction as the former senior producer for Disney's Star Wars franchise which led to her unceremoniously removal from what she was doing. What people forge is this: This is our game. Not BioWare's. Yes they develop it; however, we play it with our passions, investment of time, money, love, and all those things that help make us love this game. And when a group of individuals refuse to listen to the will of the people, they are no longer working for the benefit for those who play this game. We have ownership in this game for our own personal investment. Coca-Cola realized this in 1985 after it cost them a few billion dollars. They returned back to the original Coke never to change it again. If BioWare does not realize the truth of this, they will find themselves in a situation that costs everyone, including the players. Star Wars Galaxies NGE should remind everyone here of what happens when changes made are so egregious that it makes the game fundamentally different it isn't fun to play now. We are seeing this now. Everything the developers are posting now is nothing more than damage control. They know what's happening and they are frantically trying to avert a disaster comparable to what happened in March - April 2013. Panic probably best describes they way they are feeling and their actions as of late are an indication of this.

I replied to you to tell you that the numbers are showing a downward trend. Right now, Steam numbers show it dipping lower than what it was before the update. It was a massive 44% drop in 20 days after 7.0 released. It fluctuates up a bit but trends down in response, more than it went up. Trend analysis is skill I had to learn obtaining my MBA in Operations Management, among other things. I see this downward trend without having to crunch numbers (IE using an XL spreadsheet inputting the numbers to see how the look on a flow chart). Steam's metric chart has that available. From this chart tool, you can literally project what the future will look like based on the last 30 days based on the current trend showing. Even more so when you do a 3 month trend analysis. You can bet, BW has already done a trend analysis and what they see is not good at all. So yes, the numbers are dropping and BW is very concerned as is EA. This means lost revenue, short-term, more importantly, long-term revenue, the primary source of their financial stability, is not showing a good outlook going forward.

I main a tank. You're understanding of aggro is rudimentary. Yes, a tank's responsibility is to aggro a group of enemies and with their abilities to keep and maintain it, no issues. However, in this game, BW has reduced the tanks effectiveness of holding aggro once it engages. I know this for a fact. I'd been away for a year playing FFXIV, playing all 4 tanking jobs. Where we had a number of tools to maintain aggro or when an enemy breaks off because of a number of factors, reengage them with enmity (taunt). My first H2 back in this game, I found NPCs attack my healing companion AFTER I taunted them or attacking them with an AOE attack. When directly taunting them they refused to engage me. I then had to intercede to my companion. I found this happening a lot. This was 6.0, not what it is now. I had more crowd control tools to use. Even in FPs I had to do the same for a DPS or Heals. It got to the point I'd jump in and use my AoE taunt to get every NPC in my range to engage me. And still, one or two would attack the healer after they cast their first big heal. Tank taunt is less effective even more after 7.0 because they took away Threatening Scream (an AoE mezz / taunt making it a choice between Mad Dash and Reflection). Sadly, instead of a 20 second cooldown on my AoE taunt, they increased it to 45 seconds. Same thing for using my second type of AoE threat ability, Enure. The aggro only last as long until someone in the party hits with a huge alpha strike that will overcome my threat and these will break away for the new threat. At which points, requires me to intercede to said player. Tanking is less effective now than when I left and it is even more so with the massive changes they made to tanking in 7.0. A tank not longer has the ability to control the flow of battle after losing 3 important skills as choices, Mad Dash, Threatening and Chilling Scream is just gone as it was a real crowd control ability. Without the important crowd control ability...tanks are relegated to being a poor excuse for DPS with taunts. So, its easy to blame the tank when you don't understand the mechanic used for threat generation and keeping the aggro. When in fact BW reduced the effectiveness from what it was when I stopped playing over a year ago, where I had no trouble getting and maintaining aggro, to what it is now. In FFXIV, my enmity generation last even through the largest alpha strike or large healing ability because they are using "Punchvoke" for generating more threat along with every strike I hit with infused with enmity (taunt). Punchvoke either doesn't exist or it is weak and only the few attacks I have infused with aggro generation make up for it. At least until a huge alpha strike hits when my threat generation is waning due to my waiting on cool downs for my abilities to increase my aggro again. For anyone wanting to know what I mean by Punchvoke, it is a term meaning every time I attack, I generate a certain amount of threat, even more so when I use an ability that is specifically infused with threat generation. Punchvoke is a term originally coined in City of Heroes. You might ask how I know threat generation and aggro effectiveness was nerfed? I had the exact same threat generation and effectiveness in SWTOR as I do in FFXIV. Returning I noticed the difference immediately. I've been tanking MMO games since CoH starting in 2005 and in every game I played. Tanking is my passion and love, next is healing. DPS is boring to me; however, I do play it for a change of pace. Lastly, two important facts that tank players must have, situational and map awareness. Lacking either one of these, a tank will not be effective. This is why a tank must turn the NPCs (boss included) away from the team to face the tank. This allows the tank player to see what's going on and when a DPS attack peals away some of the NPCs. You can't very well see behind you if you don't turn to face the team forcing the NPCs to put their back on your team. A tank has 2 taunts, direct and AoE with threat generation from a limited number of attacks and certain few abilities that greatly increase threat like Reflection and Enure. Therefore, I have to be ready to use what I have to reapply threat generation when enemies are pulled from me. This is why it was so important to have Chilling Scream and Threatening Scream which helped stop the enemies from attacking someone else other than the tank.

I completely agree. Funny though, posted something similar in General and they deleted it and did not notify me. Wow, these people operate like Reddit and FB!

I knew this was going to happen. Taking away the healer's ability to drop aggro and making it a "choice." Lunacy

If this was the first update, I'd tend to agree. However, it is not. BW/EA are looking at these numbers (from Steam and their own). You can bet they are comparing them to the past updates for analysis. They are concerned, very much so. Today we have posts from Keith and Chris. And changes been made to the FPs/Queuing system as a results. Changes aimed at correcting issues that a large portion of the players have raised issues over, rather heatedly so. Remember, we do not have access to BW's own metrics that we have with Steam. One cannot simply rule out there isn't a problem. There is and they are working to stop the hemorrhaging. And they've inferred at others too. If they were not concerned, we would not be seeing these posts nor the frequency of them. They did the same thing with 6.0 in back tracking changes they tried. They are doing the same thing again because of their lost revenue from subscribers and their numbers have shown them they have a problem that must be fixed and quickly.

I read this in your updated change log; however, nothing is mentioned about those of us who are locked out of our primary after choosing a secondary style which is now our primary. Can you provide any information when this will be fixed?

According to Keith's latest post; here, it appears to be a bug caused by (my words and interpretation) unintended consequences. He's not sure when it will be addressed and fix, but they will do so.

They went that route for a few more months. However, the massive hit on their net profits was staggering. The CEO told his board enough was enough. Someone at the meeting, CFO?, suggested they take ownership for the mistake and apologize. The rest of the board was aghast hearing that. However, the CEO said, "you are exactly right." The rest is history. This disastrous episode cost Coca-Cola multiple billions of dollars. A very important lesson was learned not only by Coca-Cola, but the entire corporate world sat up and took notice, operating in a manner that they didn't make that mistake. Well, until recently that is as of February 15, 2022.

Sigh. You know nothing about me and you assume I'm a kid? I have 7 grand children bub from 3 daughters. A kid I am not. At 60 years old, I've come to the point in my life not to brook fools anymore. You really and I mean really need to go study that metric chart provided by Steam. It contradicts everything you said in that opening paragraph. That's all I have to say or will say to you. You've insulted me for the last time. I will leave you the last word as I know you'll have to have it, people like you always have to get the last word in.

I read it exactly as it is written. You did not clarify it as you are trying now. Admit you're wrong, edit the post and be done with it. All you are doing now is defending the indefensible. And enough with your insulting posts regarding my reading comprehension and abilities. This is the second post. I believe you're only doing that because I showed you how wrong you were. Move along, we're done here, youngin. BTW this is what you wrote originally, not what you tried to pass of as the original: It's unambiguous, clear, and concise. That sentence is contrary and contradicts what you think you said.

I just found out that with my Immortal Jugg (currently blocked from playing my main style) with Darkness Assassin Tank second, will have to have 2 sets of Legendary Implants. That will cost me twenty-six thousand that's 26,000 tech fragments for the first level. First, the tanks use the exact same gear, the only difference is what they call it. This is BioWare developers first mistake with tank gear. 4 separate sets of gear that do the exact same thing. This doesn't count the weapons as they are all different. Second, the tanks Legendary should have the exact same abilities/bonuses instead of having 4 different sets for each tanking AT is...ridiculous. There should be one set that each tank can use and have the same bonuses regarding tanking. There's no excuse or reason for Keith and his crew for doing this. The tanking implants should be identical for each tank class regardless if the Juggs, Guardians, PTs, Vanguards, Darkness Assassin or it's mirror. But noooo they decided to give each their own set bonus that (in the case of the Darkness Assassin) are less than the other. This is true for Darkness compared to Jugg. Consequently, I have officially retired my main, my oldest character that I started a week after I started playing a month after launch. I know y'all won't give a flying pig over this and damn sure those who run this game don't care one iota. I do, I have thousands of hours playing him and now I cannot advance him as a DA or ever play him as a Jugg again or at least for this year, if ever, if and when they decide to fix their broken *** Combat Style bug. Thanks BioWare, you really no how to screw your customers with your new improved Future Vision for this game!

From your post I replied to: Any other questions?

First, it actually tracks hourly number of players. You only need to select 24h to see this. Second, your insight is spot on. The sharp decline is alarming. Furthermore, I dare say, no, I will say BW is seeing the same thing with their own internal metrics. Yeah, Coca-Cola thought by changing the original formula (became too sweet and tasted flat) it would push their sales higher and people would love it. It has the exact opposite effect. I and four or five friends (shipmates on the sub I was serving aboard) sold off our Coca-Cola stocks (I only had 100 shares) before they tanked. I'm thankful I did, the next day it lost 10 points and indicating it was getting worse. This failure by Coca-Cola is case study for what not to do to your product. Especially when you have millions of loyal customers who loved the product as it is. I switched over to Pepsi and that's my mainstay still today, though, I do drink sugar free Diet Coke on occasion, I stick with Pepsi. I especially love it from the soda machine in a store or restaurant. Anyway, here's the point of what happened to Coca-Cola, they spent a few billion dollars in stocking all the shelves in the world with the 'New Coke' and removing all the original Coke from the shelves. When they brought back the original Coke as 'Classic,' the spent an additional billion or so restocking it again. This doesn't take into account the research and developing the 'New Coke' either. Add in the 10% drop in sales world wide...it was a true financial disaster in the making. The important thing is that the CEO came out in a press conference apologized for their mistake and took ownership of it. He even trolled himself with letters received from stockholders and Coke drinkers. I don't see BW doing any of that, BTW.

That's what they should do to resolve this unbelievable fiasco they have on their hands. However, according to Keith's post and "insight," this is their future vision for the game. They are staying the course. However, they will either learn the folly of doing so, like Coca-Cola did with their "new Coke," or they will be out of a job, like the original developers because of update 1.2. However, I agree with you completely for reverting back and what to keep, including load-outs. What they have now is compete and utter disaster as bad as what happened to SWG with NGE.

You have no idea what you're talking about. It is obvious that you have not looked that interactive chart steam provides for players and MMO developers. Look for yourself: Star Wars: The Old Republic Player Count - Steam Chart. It is important to pay attention to exactly what I am saying here so there is no mistake on your part. Under the SWTOR logo is the title "Player Count History" directly under that is the following: Click on 24h which means 24 Hours. Then tell me again they do not track hourly. You are dead wrong. The Steam Chart is a official chart used by steam. Conversely, it is used by all MMO/Game(s) developers who have available games in Steam. How else do you think they can track their games if they don't have their own launcher? Osmosis? Divining Rods? No, they use this tool provided by Steam. This tool is so detailed it can show all the above and to the right of that from month & year to another month & year which can show a longer term history, not just a month to month history. I guess you'll laugh at that and say, "it does do enough and doesn't mean a thing." Quit allowing Cognizant Dissonance blind you to the truth. This game is suffering because the devs have given us a toilet bowl full of scat that is bugged beyond measure. Bugs in every aspect of this game. People are leaving this game as if a damn has burst and flowing down hill like a land locked tidal wave. Those numbers do not lie. And you can bet your bottom dollar with this happening on Steam it is happening with the game for which we do not have any access to their own metric numbers. You can also bet that they (BioWare/EA) are seeing similar numbers, large enough (including the lost long-term revenue subscribers provide) that is has them concerned. If they weren't, Keith's post would not have appeared at the time it did. There is no denying this. Read carefully; I am not saying the game is dead. I am saying that it is in serious trouble. I've seen this before when Update 1.2 hit. Where 1.5 million subscribers quit the game when the original developers all but destroyed the two DPS specs for the Sage & Sorcerer putting this game into the state we see today. History is repeating itself right now, right here with the same game. The developers ignored what happened with the events from March 2013. And now, their missteps, fundamental core mechanic changes, calculated errors, and nearly uncountable bugs are costing them. These things players warned them of and they freaking ignore everything. Now deny that and laugh at them all.

You're absolutely correct. Steam numbers is a metric available not just for players to see but MMO developers who release their games for play via Steam. To say this information is meaningless, less than accurate, or not reliable is patently false. If you look at that now you can see that the amount of players not playing anymore has dropped dramatically, even with a occasional spike. The majority of the information is red, meaning a drop while green indicates people played increasing the login amount. Just based on the original numbers, I obtained a 44% drop of players playing from week ending 2/20 to week ending 3/6. After viewing yesterday that downward trend is pretty much maintained. This does not bode well for this game. It's a snapshot that can be used to extrapolated the game's health overall. Why do y'all think Keith posted a week ago last Friday? BW and EA have the full picture with all the numbers. Steam makes it available for everyone, this cannot be hidden unlike BW's own metrics they will not share. Keith's post was an attempt for damage control; however, it had the opposite effect. One thing this change they've thrust on us is reminiscent to what Coca-Cola did to the world in 1985 by rebranded with the infamous 'New Coke.' The world turned on them because the people didn't want the brand to change. Coca-Cola corporation changed this without testing it out with coke lovers. They just did it. With in months, the relaunched 'Coca-Cola Classic' eventually removing all the 'New Coke' from the shelves and apologizing for changing the original formula for the new one. Likewise, BW allowed us to "test" and yet with all the feed back they dismissed what was suggested and the issues found, we were given an update that completely changed the game at its foundation. Like Coke, they are banking this hubris will die down and everyone will be happy. As with Coke, they found out that was not happening and found themselves losing millions, especially when boycotts hammering from local restaurants, stores, and other outlets Coca-Cola relied on. Steam's information represents the players reacting in the exact same manner. As players here on the forums where we are seeing original players from the beginning leaving after 10 years of uninterrupted subscriptions. That's akin to share holders dumping stocks because they no longer want to be part of a company, like what Coca-Cola experienced. Here, BW is losing subs, reliable long-term income. This has a cascading affect in that the Cartel Market suffers to. This doesn't take into account with all the changes BW made and in doing so, have sabotaged the CM because CM weapons can longer be used and we are forced to use trashy reskin weapons. Keith and company are fast coming to a time they will have to make a decision to either remove the entirety of 7.0 and release the few things that players enjoy. What they have now is in fact driving players away much like Coca-Cola did with the 'New Coke.' People are not going to stand for a change that ruins the experience for themselves and what they love about the product they've used for year and years. Either they back away from this new vision of the future of this game or they'll end up forcing EA to do what they did in March - May 2013 removing the old developing crew. History repeats itself when people ignore the failures of the past. And this is exactly what Keith and his crew have one. It does show us just how disconnected they are with this game's player base. Not only that, BW has to deal with games like Elder Ring, New World, FFXIV, and the others offer far more things for they player bass. As with Coca-Cola, Pepsi took advantage of Coca-Cola's massive screw up and closed the gap with them. Moreover, this may well end up as BW's Swan Song or they'll revert back, apologize, and never attempt to make such a massive change as they have ever again.

Really? Can you PM me when you get the chance? Thanks.