I miss being able to sell my char for a few grand when I got tired of playing. You put in the pain, you got the gain. Ah well, it was fun while it lasted.

snip A very good idea and comment!! So good in fact that I am jealous! The idea of setting difficulty by server selection never occurred to me. Would it be better to buff the mobs or nerf the player's characters? Either way works and I can see advantages to either.

Fair enough, solo content.

There have been a lot of threads about game difficulty. Problem is a game's difficulty is very subjective. Some found the game at launch pretty hard, others too easy. Currently some find it just right, others trivial. The arguments just run in circles because there isn't really a standard or base to approach the discussion from. This is where metrics are handy. Lets pull some numbers from our butts. This is handy because even if we don't have the real numbers it is at least a common platform for the purposes of discussion. 1) Very easy. 90% of the player base can do the content without a problem. 10% have some difficulty due to non gaming issues like poor connection/computer/physical challenges ect.. 2) Easy, 75% of the player base can do the content without problems. 25% have some difficulty like above with the addition of lack of skill and comprehension of the game mechanics. 3) Normal, 50% of the player base can do the content without problems, 25% have some difficulty as above but now 25% actually need some help from another player if they want to get the content done without out leveling the content. 4) Hard, 25% of the player base can do the content without problems, 50% have some difficulty as above, 25% need another player (a second player is a huge boost obviously) 5) Very Hard, 10% of the player base can do the content without difficulty, 25% have a lot of trouble, 65% either give up or take 1 or more friends. So, how hard should this game be? How hard is it currently? Context; ie, I am assuming a couple of things. First, that the game adequately answers the question, How do I ...? Secondly, that the game adequately answers the question, What does this do? Obviously if the mechanics are so opaque only a few can figure out what their doing, encounter difficulty is at best moot. So first off, thanks for reading. Second if you could reply to 4 questions. Given the above scale; 1) How hard do you think the game currently is? 2) How hard should the game be? 3) How hard do you find it? 4) How experienced are you at MMOs? Thanks for answering

You have, sadly, hit on the weakness of their current model, which is the sad consequence of not having much of a budget to work with. Swtor is analogous not to a TV/book series but rather a network or cable service. If NBC has one great show, I will watch it, but the rest of the time, I'll either be tuned elsewhere or doing something else. This isn't going to put any more money in their pockets. I cannot see myself staying a sub once I've finished the 8 class stories. The sub rewards don't appeal to me personally and if I want to get my multiplayer/raid/pvp jones on there are better games for it. Once the whole story arc is out, I will resub and finish it. (and probably enjoy it immensely) I have done KOTFE on 3 toons and while the story is good, the narrative isn't helped by the length of time between updates. Pretty obvious that all 16 chapters are in the can, they should have started the monthly release in Dec. Don't get me wrong, I love the stories and the whole Star Wars IP. I don't understand why it is so hard to make a decent Star Wars MMO with legs. The IP and lore are incredibly dense with material and concepts. /shrug, it is what it is.

I would settle for my companions speaking with their own voice all the time. Hearing Kaliyo all the time is getting old.

LOL, says it best, You folks can go in circles for days.

I've been pondering this quite a bit. How do you make players in an MMO that emphasizes story do the grind? By design the story missions are easy, so gearing up isn't the answer. Gaining influence with companions that have no story of their own OR whose story is part of the main story (so you get it regardless) isn't called for. Ditto the alliance. Not a criticism per se, I'm just curious. I imagine the devs are wondering about this as well. It seems like currently there is a reason to stay subscribed (subscriber rewards YMMV) just not a reason to actually play. Again this is NOT a criticism. This is an interesting direction they have taken and I would love to see it succeed. Different kinds of MMO structures and varying ways of design is good. Any thoughts?

Just as an addition to this, I recently created a new BH. I am on Alderon at lvl 29. Mako is at influence lvl 25, this is with very few gifts. The amount of influence you gain through conversation now is huge compared to pre 4.0. Usually 800+ if you pick options they like. This however only helps with the original companion, ones that come later would gain much less.

This is correct, that is what I meant by each event is independent. We are not disagreeing here. That said your remark is misleading to the OP as that is not what he is talking about. While each event is independent from the others, you can also calculate the odds of a any given series of results within a larger series. IE if I flip a coin 10 times what are the odds of 3 heads and 7 tails, 10 heads no tails ect.. Of course coin flip #6 is still 50/50. Get what I am saying now?

Odds don't work that way mate. A 60% chance of success is a 40% chance of failure. You're correct that each event is independent but the chance of failure of ALL of them is multiplicative. So to fail twice is .4 X .4 = .16 or 16% (1 in 6 approx) Three times is .4 x .4 x .4 or .064 or ~6% or about 1 in 16 Continue to 5 and the OP is correct about a 1% chance of all of them failing To the OP. Computer RNG is pretty poor no matter what method is used. While over a large sample size the distribution is similar to random, it tends to be very streaky. Like how flipping a coin 100 times and starting with 50 heads and then 50 tails is the expected distribution it hardly is expected if it was truly a random distribution

Dunno about poignant but certainly pungent. I am sympathetic to your rather wandering point but frankly (and this makes me sad) you're flogging a dead horse. If the summum bonnum of my play in this game was OPs and PvP I would have quit long ago. To anyone who is a student of the genre this is painfully obvious. Just how long are you people going to do the same thing over and over again? For better or worse, EA and BW have decided that solo story play is where they are going to deploy their somewhat meager resources. They clearly feel that this is the best way to make money for the longest period of time. You can disagree but I doubt they (the devs) are either moved or inclined to change their minds. I find the devs silence on this point to be rather shabby. Rather then coming out and saying so and risking some people dropping their subs, they obfuscate and stonewall. I would read Dumas's excellent "The Count of Monte Cristo" for a fine description of the torture of hope. An apt description for the current situation

Now that is interesting! I have never heard it used in that context. CAREBEARS UNITE!! Lacks a certain something as a battlecry though. Also I don't see Putin adopting a picture of one as a symbol for Russia any time soon.

I give you props for a link to a damn fine series of articles, there being 3 in total. Very well written and thought out. I have some minor quibbles but cannot find much to disagree with there.

Hijack! What is this carebear you speak of? Now that is a term I haven't heard in a while. Like weaksauce, lamer, nugget, man there are a lot of terms for those not PvP inclined. Open world PvP will never work until they go all the way, every man for himself and friendly fire. Now that is a server I would jump on.