I would want action-oriented combat revamp. Come on...hotkeys are old. Bring on the action combat.

Generally speaking you are farming for better gear so that it will be easier to get better gear later. Then, after you get that great gear, a new item set appears, which is better than the old one, so the cycle starts all over again... Gear grinding is an outdated mmo mechanic which will hopefully disappear in the future (see GW2 for a slight step in the right direction). Bioware did an interesting thing with the orange gear. I wish that every item in the game is orange. In TOR the gear grinding is only slightly different from the classic one, but not developed enough to be an innovation. But the orange gear thingy can be improved in the future and I hope that Bioware does just that.

If you read my post (2 posts above yours) you will see that there is a very small difference between the age of the character and the age of the actor. The character of Obi-Wan in ANH was supposed to be 57 years old while the actor, Alec Guinness, was 63. So that is a 6 years difference between the character and the actor. Not a big deal at all. Same goes for Ewan McGregor who was 34 in ROTS, while Obi-Wan was 38 at the time. Just a 4 years difference. Moving on to Own Lars, he was 5 years older than Obi-Wan. Meaning that in AOTC he was supposed to be 43. I agree that Joel Edgerton, the actor in AOTC, was too young for the character (28 years old). Phil Brown was 61 years old when ANH was filmed and the character was supposed to be 62 years old. So in the original trilogy, the actor had almost the same age as the character. However, in case of Obi-Wan Lucas actually found actors who were very close to the real ages of the characters. Mind you that when ANH was filmed, there was no BBY, no ABY year numbering. Those are just EU elements which were added a long time after the movie was filmed. Same goes to the actual age of the characters in the original trilogy. Their age was never specified on-screen, just introduced by the EU literature.

Don't use the LFG tool if you want people who actually go through the dialogues and not just farm bosses like crazy. Remember that a lot of players are stuck with the mentality of MUST FARM...MUST...FARM...NOW! And there is little hope to change their attitude.

Empire at War and the expansion are still installed on my pc and the shortcuts are still on my desktop. Along with Dark Forces, Jedi Knight 2 and Jedi Academy. And Battlefront 2 I believe that EaW is one of the best strategy games I have ever played since it has 2 of my favorite things in Star Wars: ground and space combat. If only the space features were a bit more complex or if the ground maps bigger with more varied terrain...but even so, it is a game worthy of cyberfreaq's SW collection

According to wookiepedia, Obi was 57 years old in A New Hope. When ANH was filmed, Alec Guinness was 63 years old (1977 the movie and he was born in 1914). So it really is not that much of a difference between the 63 years old actor and the 57 years old character. So it is true that some people may look older than their age. ROTS took place in 19 BBY, meaning that Obi was 38 years old. When ROTS was filmed, Ewan McGregor was 34 years old at the time (2005 the movie and he was born in 1971). Again, there is not much of a difference between the age of the actor and the age of the character.

Making drastic changes does not mean problem solved. Well, think of it this way: one one hand you have an angry mob of people who payed 40-60$ on a game. On the other hand you have developers (who are on the receiving end of the payment) hiding their heads in the ground, because the said angry customer mob is too vocal. So at the end of the day the response of the devs to the playerbase/customer's complains is ignoring them completely. That is fine, really. And we wonder why there is so little proggress... I apologize for not shedding a tear for the way multi-million dollar companies are being treated by people on the forums. The customers are truly evil.

Of course. But you are missing the fact that you don't need to be a game subscriber to follow on Twitter or Facebook. You are also omitting the fact that in the same way the total numbers of posts on the forums can be from people who left ages ago, the same can be applied to those following on TW and FB. And I would very much like to think that the forums have more users (since this includes all accounts on the servers - 1.5 mil or whatever), while FB and TW numbers are lower (for one thing they can't have more than 1.5 mil people using them - I mean there can't be more TW and FB followers than active game accounts !). So from the very start, FB and TW have fewer players using them than the main website. That is why I said "on average" ! Of course not everyone has the same number of posts. Doooh... Anyway, from what you say, some counting rules can be applied to the forums, but not to the beloved TW and FB, for reasons you don't specify.

Alright. Let's say TOR has 1.5 mil subscribers right now. 5% of 1.5 mil is 75,000. By looking on the main forum webpage, I have added all the threads and posts made in each section of the forums. The total number was (1 hour ago, when I made that post): 291,109 Total Threads and 3,604,007 Total Posts That means that on average: Each user has created 3.8 threads and Each user has posted 48 times on these forums. And that is with only 5% of the players using the forums (meaning posting and not just reading). Also taking into account that I have no idea from where you got the 5% from. Anyway, please show (or prove) that those using Twitter or Facebook have the same -or greater level of activity as the forums.

True, but more silence from Bioware and more rigorous forum moderation will not make the problem go away. It will make it worse if anything. On any gaming website, this problem cannot and will not (ever) be solved. What Bioware can do however, is to make themselves more likable, to give a sense of "hey we're here too, gamers, just like you". The community will warm up to them and you will see a drastic change in the attitude here. In time. The alternative is more silence, more "vicious" threads which will lead to more thread closing and reply deleting, which will lead to more "vicious" threads which will lead to more thread closing and reply deleting, which will lead to more "vicious" threads...and what is the end solution? Directly ban someone for being negative or close the forums?

Again, what is many? It has already been stated that you don't have to be a subscriber to follow them on Twitter. It seems like today is a good day for self-quoting How many people on FB or TW are subscribers? How many are there from day 1 of the beta, but left at any point during the game's development and did not care to press the un-follow button? You have to ask yourself all these questions. One thing is for sure though, 100% of the subscribers are on these forums. And the people who aren't subscribers can still visit the forums and website (but can't post). Also, people couldn't find out about TOR's FB or TW pages without seeing the link on the official http://www.swtor.com website. and this little self-quote: [...]So that is a total of: 291,109 Total Threads and 3,604,007 Total Posts And that is just the English section of the forums. I don't see this kind of activity from the people following on TW or FB. So bottom line is: there are 180k followers on Twitter, some of them aren't subscribers, some of them simply did not un-follow and left. If 180k followers is accepted to be 20% of the playerbase is using Twitter, then can we agree that 100% of the playerbase is "following" the game on the main website (which is this one)? So where is the better place for the devs to talk to the community? What does TW and FB offer that the official website/forums do not? There is a dev tracker for a reason. The thing is that there are so few Bioware posts on these forums, that the dev tracker simply has no purpose!

There are many decent questions and subjects to talk about on the forums. Also we don't know if they receive "venom messages" on TW or FB. They just reply to what questions they want in the end. That can also be applied here. I will quote myself now: Well, how about they just talk about things. You know, like the rest of the players are. I would like to see some more relaxed dev posts here and there and less copy-paste responses. Perhaps they would like to talk about their last completed flashpoint, perhaps they would like to talk about SW lore, perhaps they want to talk about off-topic stuff in the off-topic section of the forums. Perhaps they want to give short 2-3 sentences replies to various questions on the forums, not necessarily related to the game. Perhaps they can give their opinion on how they think the better skill tree specs are for a certain role, perhaps they can share the item/mod builds they use, perhaps they can share screenshots of their characters in-game doing stuff. ------------------------------------------- And add another one of my quotes from earlierr: I would add Riot to that list. If you look at the dev tracker on their forums, there are at least 10 dev posts a day and most of them aren't even announcements. The talk to the community about everything from general game discussions to suggestions or even off-topic nonsense. And it's not just the community coordinators or CS staff. It's the game designers themselves, art designers, programmers, editors. Most of their staff (which is huge) is known by name (or nickname) by anyone who visits the forums on a regular basis. I sure hope that Bioware will do that in the near future. Direct communication with the playerbase it important for a whole lot of different reasons. It's not just the consumer-provider communication, it should be a communication between 2 sides who are directly involved in the game (some play, some are developing it) I honestly wouldn't mind seeing more Bioware posts which are more than just thread closing or post deleting. By doing that the community will warm up a lot to them and the game and will make the atmosphere here a pleasant one. It may be an internal policy at Bio/EA, but if that's the case, then it must change. This forum is just a sterile and heavily controller environment. We're all human being for god's sake. Communication has never hurt or killed anyone.

Bottom line you don't have to be a subscriber to the game to follow on FB or TW. How many people on FB or TW are subscribers? How many are there from day 1 of the beta, but left at any point during the game's development and did not care to press the un-follow button? You have to ask yourself all these questions. One thing is for sure though, 100% of the subscribers are on these forums. And the people who aren't subscribers can still visit the forums and website (but can't post). Also, people couldn't find out about TOR's FB or TW pages without seeing the link on the official http://www.swtor.com website. Now after all that, you tell me which is the more popular: the http://www.swtor.com website or the FB and TW pages? Which one should be a priority: the http://www.swtor.com website or the FB and TW pages?

True, but I bet the http://www.swtor.com website has 100% of the playerbase "following" right? You know, since it is the place where all the accounts are... I don't know about 1-5% of the players using the forums. What I see is: New Player Help 11,327 Total Threads, 77,046 Total Posts PvP 35,463 Total Threads, 622,051 Total Posts Crew Skills 10,551 Total Threads, 100,588 Total Posts Story and Lore 3,434 Total Threads, 58,272 Total Posts Star Wars Discussion 2,239 Total Threads, 53,698 Total Posts Server Group Forums 14,725 Total Threads, 135,444 Total Posts Customer Service 57,937 Total Threads, 405,713 Total Posts Classes 49,884 Total Threads, 568,626 Total Posts Flashpoints, Operations and Heroic Missions 5,721 Total Threads, 60,748 Total Posts Community 5,561 Total Threads, 75,736 Total Posts General Discussion 94,307 Total Threads, 1,446,085 Total Posts So that is a total of: 291,109 Total Threads and 3,604,007 Total Posts And that is just the English section of the forums. I don't see this kind of activity from the people following on TW or FB.

Well, how about they just talk about things. You know, like the rest of the players are. I would like to see some more relaxed dev posts here and there and less copy-paste responses. Perhaps they would like to talk about their last completed flashpoint, perhaps they would like to talk about SW lore, perhaps they want to talk about off-topic stuff in the off-topic section of the forums. Perhaps they want to give short 2-3 sentences replies to various questions on the forums, not necessarily related to the game. Perhaps they can give their opinion on how they think the better skill tree specs are for a certain role, perhaps they can share the item/mod builds they use, perhaps they can share screenshots of their characters in-game doing stuff.

What is many? If you compare the number of posts on these forums and the number of messages on FB and TW, you will realize that the community is far more active on the forums than on FB and TW combined. Last time I checked, the Star Wars: The Old Republic website was http://www.swtor.com. Last time I checked, the "community" address was http://www.swtor.com/community. So one would think that these are the main methods of communication to be used by Bioware. My Star Wars: The Old Republic account is on http://www.swtor.com, not on FB or TW.

There is nothing wrong with using multiple methods of communication. But when you get to use the third party websites more than your official website, then something is wrong. The only times they post on the website is when they have an announcement to make, or when a mod closes a thread. But if you look at the TW and FB pages, they are constantly being updated and there are many replies. Again, no problem in using different methods, but they should consider the main website a priority, not third party instant messaging websites. What the heck is wrong with "calm down it's just a game" nonsense? Yes it is a game, a game I payed 60$ for and 15$ a month afterwards. It is a product and I expect that they would treat it as one, just as they are considering me to be a customer first and gamer second.

As long as the TW and FB pages are not part of the swtor.com domain, then I do not consider them to be official. They require different accounts and are hosted by another company, not Bio/EA. It would be like them communicating via an "official" TS channel or other third party instant messaging software. As long as they have "swtor.com/community", then they should use that as the primary communication method.

I am choosing to talk to them via the official website and forums which are provided by them and I refuse to use third party websites just to do that. If TW and FB are that important then disable the forums. Otherwise the official website must be used as the main method of communication between the players and the devs.

My suggestion is to simply close all the General channels (including Trade). It is nothing but pointless spam for the most part. It's what I did. I find whisper, normal chat and guild/ops chat to be more than enough. In my opinion, General chat channels should be turned off by default and only those who want them or care about them should enable them back.

Because we don't want to use third party stuff to "communicate". The forums exist for a reason. I and many others want to use the forums because they are more organized and more confortable than FB/TW. Furthermore I don't and will never jump on the FB and TW bandwagon because I see no point to it. But that is beside the point. Why not just have the forums removed if they are irrelevant? And the dev tracker are announcements and thread closing replies. That is not communication.

I would add Riot to that list. If you look at the dev tracker on their forums, there are at least 10 dev posts a day and most of them aren't even announcements. The talk to the community about everything from general game discussions to suggestions or even off-topic nonsense. And it's not just the community coordinators or CS staff. It's the game designers themselves, art designers, programmers, editors. Most of their staff (which is huge) is known by name (or nickname) by anyone who visits the forums on a regular basis. I sure hope that Bioware will do that in the near future. Direct communication with the playerbase it important for a whole lot of different reasons. It's not just the consumer-provider communication, it should be a communication between 2 sides who are directly involved in the game (some play, some are developing it) I honestly wouldn't mind seeing more Bioware posts which are more than just thread closing or post deleting. By doing that the community will warm up a lot to them and the game and will make the atmosphere here a pleasant one. It may be an internal policy at Bio/EA, but if that's the case, then it must change. This forum is just a sterile and heavily controller environment. We're all human being for god's sake. Communication has never hurt or killed anyone.

I wouldn't fully blame the developers for the games' (in general) stagnation. I would also blame part of the players who: play a game simply because it is a well-known franchise. Most of the time, quality is not important for them buy games simply because they like the company developing it. Again, quality is not that important fanboism of any kind they have very little past experience with games OR they have limited knowledge of gaming in general (see facebook games) It is the same case as with movies and 3D, who attract an unhealthy amount of viewers for god knows what reason. People are not "educated" enough. Of course, there are those who simply don't care, but they are an exception. Gaming has become a huge thing, financially speaking, in the last 10 years. Studios that were made out of 10 people in the 90's are now industry giants, with budgets enough to support a small country (in other cases, buy one). These companies are now led by people looking on tables, graphs, statistics. I am willing to bet that most of the CEO's and other high raking subordinates don't even play the games their companies are making. They look at the company's stocks and decide what's the next step or if a product is good or bad, based on the number of sales. It is the sad truth of the world we live in nowadays. The audience itself is new. Being born in 1990 I grew up with Thundercats, Eek the cat, Life with Louie, Jack the pirate and so on. I played games like Heretic, Hexen, Dark Forces, Unreal, Lost Vikings or Skynet. I watched movies like Terminator, Blade Runner, Commando, Alien, Dirty Harry and Lethal Weapon. However, audiences like me and the others who were born at the same time or before me are no longer relevant in the grand scheme of things, in a world where everything is based around marketing. Just like in the cartoon or movie industry, I just started to get used to the fact that games are never going to be as they used to. Because there is a new audience who grew up with consoles like PS3 or XB360. Grew up with games like Crysis or COD: MW2, with CGI movies. They will never know how happy we were back in the days of good ol' dial-up modems when we downloaded something with 30kb/s. And I don't blame them. They grew up with WoW as their first "big game" so it is only natural that it is a standard for them. Look at these forums and count the number of people asking for WoW-like features and/or calling us crazy for asking for innovation by responding with "this must be your first mmo". Again, can you really blame them for that? I personally believe that the only reason devs are still using the WoW as their main inspiration source is because they are afraid of innovation and would rather use the things that made the competition flourish. Because it all comes down to profit. And that is also because companies are ran by people who have absolutely no idea what gaming is. It all falls down on the development team, who no matter how dedicated, must do whatever the stockholders say or else... Gaming companies is general have become like robots: there is very little emotional involvement in their products, they are very secretive and very strict, they take things very seriously (too seriously if you ask me), they have a single mindset - make more money, everything else is irrelevant. The marketing department has become heavily involved in the development of a game, by pushing release dates, retail prices, ideal sale numbers but also the theme of the game, gameplay limits, story, graphics, sound. I am saying this because I know from a few close friends that working as a developer at a big budget gaming company is no walk in the park and that you are given very strict orders which you have to obey or you're thrown out. This is why companies shamelessly "import" features from the competition, simply because it worked for them. The "new-age" gamers are getting used to that and start to think that it is actually a good thing as they have no previous knowledge of "old-age" gaming. So companies have no problems in any way to continue to launch bland, overused and repetitive gameplay features, because no matter how low they'll go, there will always be an audience (very young audience mostly) who will gladly pay 60$ for the same game with a different title every year and who will defend their beloved gaming companies from any usurper who dares to think that these games and companies are anything but perfect. I have ever since the launch of SWTOR said that if this game aims only to be a clone with story, it will not be as successful as any Star Wars fan wanted. I have specifically said that it had potential. But what it needs is: action oriented combat, like in Jedi Academy not on-rails space combat larger planets with more replayability value less raid-driven content and more player-driven content minigames Even during the beta I expressed my concerns regarding the "holy trinity" and the "themeparkisation", and I wasn't the only one. Now we're 6 months after launch and after 6 months of continuous feedback, Bioware has announced that we are going to be given more themepark and generally more of the same. While I am not a fortuneteller and can't know for sure what surprises Bioware has in store for us in the future, I continue to feel that posting messages like this one is pointless, because I feel that they will continue to do what they think is right and not what the community asks. Just look at how "many" devs respond to threads in the Suggestion section. Yeah, not that many, except the moderators who occasionally delete a reply or close a thread. And this brings me back to the above statement that these companies feel more like robots than alive people. There is very little communication between devs and the community (a thing which was common back in the day), a lot of secrecy and a lot of control over everything. Just like at the big gaming conventions where only the convenient questions are answered and we are treated with a trailer at best. But there is good news: people seem to have woken up somewhat in the past few years and they seem to be pushing the devs away from the stagnation the OP has been talking about. Slowly, but surely we are moving away from the WoW-era and that is proven by at least one of the more recent mmorpgs, which even though are far, far from being any good, have implemented at least one interesting and innovative feature (like action-oriented combat in the detriment of hotkey combat). And that is a step forward. However, we are still not there yet and as long as gaming companies continue to be ran by the marketing departments, gaming in general will continue to be considered the second Hollywood. I don't know if anyone took the time to read this entire post or if they agree to it. I honestly don't care either. It is how I feel about the current state of gaming and mmos and I felt like expressing this in a thread where maybe 3 people at most will read more than the first 2 paragraphs. It is my opinion and I stand by it, until someone proves me wrong.

Well, since in the standard 60$ price of the game things like: box cost, shipping costs, publisher costs, dvd cost and so on are included, maybe we will see a drop in game's prices? I mean it would make sense since the publishing costs will go down... Naaah, who am I kidding... Going digital also means that once we buy a game we won't technically own it, since it will be hosted on some god forsaken server where we will have to log in to play (Origin, Steam etc). I also see this as the transition to more online, DRM fests. No, it is not good at all imho.

I have seen only 2 full servers since transfers started. 4-5 were heavy. The rest of servers were standard. But that was a few days ago. Don't tell me about 20 full servers today because that is not true. Are we are either exaggerating here or talking based on available data? Last night I've seen only 1 heavy server. Funny how almost everyone and their mother was playing TOR at the same time during the first 3 months, but no one does anymore. Is it because of....aliens?