After a good sum of years invested into this game, I can say with a deserved sense of clarity, that if played entirely for each classes' story and disregard for other players in-game, SWTOR is a great single-player Star Wars experience. Especially during experience events, the drive to communicate and act as an entity of the community just isn't there anymore. Perhaps it may just be the server I play on, but there has been a great shift in the frequency in which I'd be invited to a group or party. Whereas years ago I couldn't walk through a given quest-line without being invited into at least two or three, now its a rarity to even see another player. The friends that I invited into the game and played the game with, have grown bored of its repetitiveness. Keeping up with gear and level-caps is a constant grind, and while I appreciate the fact that there is so much content to explore, it does get old after a while - especially when the community you used to push through it with is practically depleted.
Am I affiliated with any guilds? No.
Should I be? Yes.
Guilds and groups are what made this game great. The fact that you could cooperate through different classes and species made this game fun. Guilds connected players, and gave every class a purpose. It really never felt like anything you chose to uncover was useless, and building bonds with your fellow player meant something. Believe me, the game hasn't lost any of its qualities. Guilds and groups are still tangible parts of the game, but I feel as though everyone's drifted toward being the lone wolf rather than communicating with their community. I just feel like some of the magic that was there is gone.
With the community dissipated, I've actually had the chance to play through the game more-or-less by myself. I picked up an Imperial Agent, named him Sarut'alo'kist, and burned through the storyline. I muddled in some Heroics here and there to pick up better gear, and by the time I was Level 65 and completed the IA story, I'd barely spent two days on it. Normally this character would have dragged me out for weeks, months even. Constantly chatting with the friends I made took up a lot of time. But now, there's none of that. No distraction, no bonding, just game. And a part of me enjoyed that.
No this is not a "I don't like this game anymore so I'm going to cancel my sub and leave read my post" topic, it's an opinion that I've grown through years of investment.
Thank you for reading.