If this was a forum to debate our entire lives, the poor, the needy, the perils of modern society I would agree. Seeing as this is a forum to discuss our current favourite game, I don't. If the current downtime debacle is trivial for you then good luck to you, just don't assume we all agree.

/signed This would have the potential to be truly life changing. I know I look back with rose tinted glasses, but the earliest years in SWG were the greatest time I had in an MMO. Most of that wasn't from scripted quests or the game-on-rails we have here, it was from player made content, player made events and the community the players made themselves. Combine that freedom with the production values of SWTOR and you have a convert here.

Personally I would like a little of both. Theme parks are great for scripted content and for a challenge. Sandboxes allow an active community to not only enjoy the fun the game provides, but to organise their own. While people will knock SWG for being bad, which it was in many ways, what it did well was encourage players to make their own game and their own events. One of the problems with SWTOR is detachment. I have no real investment in my character or the world. I know when I log off, the world will still be there, doing what it does. The phasing takes the massive out of the game for me, and while people go on about community, I don't actually think there is much of one. Sure guilds get together and play, but not much else. At least with sandbox elements, I know if I log off, my player-run city or base might not be there when I come back and I may have a task ahead of me helping the rebuild. While some players don't like this approach, I do. It adds unpredictability and investment in your game. Something I just don't get with SWTOR.

This. Plus I applied to a few guilds on Frostclaw and The Progenitor who accepted older gamers, but never even got a reply. Maybe I should change my aftershave...

Nearly.

The game is whatever I make it. Casual, serious, MMO or solo, it's part of the attraction of an MMO. Nobody except you has mentioned an instant gratification system, merely a technical solution to a problem experienced by some players. What's the problem? You don't have to use it if they put one it. Anyone who doesn't like the system can keep standing on Fleet for an hour waiting for a group. The rest of us can spend our time experiencing everything the game has to offer. If you want to carry on acting like a child, with your "boohoo" bull*** go ahead, some of us are trying to have a discussion here.

This is a reasonably sensible discussion about a sensible suggestion. If you have nothing useful or constructive to add, go back to the CBBC channel.

I have a limited play window of 5 hours a week. I don't want to spend 1 or 2 of those trying to get a grp together. A server LFG channel or tool will help people like me explore more of the group content. Spamming chat just pees people off and is ignored half the time anyway.

Class! It's funny that football was invented before their entire country, yet they can't even use the proper word.

Then that American company should not sell it as a full product to a non-American audience. Or at least come out and say "we have a huge American bias and we don't care about the rest of you." Non NA gamers are paying full price but not getting a full service.

I agree, which prompts the question why was the game not designed in such a way so it could be dynamically updated? We're in 2012 now and MMOs have been in existence for years. Lessons should have been learned long ago...

There may be 1.7 million subscribers, but even at peak time it certainly doesn't feel like that many.

Your opinion. Not mine. I want an LFG system. I get to play maybe 6-7 hours a week if I'm lucky. Do I want to spend 1 or 2 of them spamming LFG or hanging round fleet? No, I want to spend my timer productively levelling or in a group with other people. It isn't about insta-everything, its about being able to play in the available time rather than standing around being bored while waiting to group. The "massive" aspect of SWTOR is largely absent as it is, without grouping it may as well be a single-player game.

I think what the OP is trying to get at is adding all those gradual fixes, "tweeks," additions and changes in the same way many other commercial, server-based services are improved, by fast, rolling restarts that don't take the entire service down for hours at a time.

This. Eve has most of those things. This is not the game you are looking for. 1. The current travel system is laborious and could do with tightening up a bit. Having to travel from planet to orbiting station to orbiting station to planet is a pain, fortunately its only on a couple of lower ones. 2. There is an element of this in the BH line, I have visited Nar Shaddah and Taris several times during my levelling and seen different parts of the planet each time. More character customisation is a no brainer. 3. Slow down levelling? Yes, and give players more to do.This game is too easy, the quests aren't really a challenge and it's too quick to level. Unfortunately that's what having to pander to a US audience does for a game. The poster who asked if you had all the bestiary's and all that is one of a few. Not many people are going to keep playing just to find an entry in a codex that doesn't make the slightest bit of difference to the character. Holocrons might pull a few of those detail oriented people in, but the rest? Only if you have OCD.