Sheer laziness. Lack of love for their own product. Greed. All of the above. Devs that truly love their product try hard to make it special. BW didn't even try to make it average. Everything about this game just screams money grab, and when all that matters is the accountant's projected earnings, well... you end up with a game like TOR.

I totally agree and that's a spot on example. The people who resort to this lame defense of Bioware's failed design are brain dead.

This game's graphics make me want to strangle Yoda with a bungee cord.

Very well written post, and I have to say that I - unfortunately - agree with everything stated. It's been said many times that if this game did not have Star Wars and/or Bioware associated with it, it would already be old news and forgotten. I think that is true.

Was anyone talking about WoW? No.

OP is completely and I think intentionally misinforming with his "picture proof". LOTRO: http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/8699/lotroevendim.jpg TOR may have some nice texturing at times, but its downright insane to suggest lotro isn't right up there with it.

The crowd braying that LFD will destroy server community are forgetting, or perhaps ignoring, one simple fact: TOR server's don't have community, and probably never will. BW has pretty much ignored anything that is contributory towards cohesive, dynamic server communities. Especially server based forums. How can you damage something that doesn't exist? There's no difference at all from one server to the next beyond server type and population. The "character" is identical: culturally sterile.

lol what? Yeah, the last thing people should care about when they go to see a film is... the acting? ooookaaay...

Sorry but skipping planets/quests should never be a planned "alternative". Think about what you just wrote. The alternative to the linear questing experience is to simply avoid some of it? Those that are saying the diversity of leveling options available in WoW and other games is inherently superior to a straight linear experience are 100% right. Those of you refuting this are doing so out of blind loyalty to an inferior product.

Well that's part of it, isn't it? The fact that other games have succeeded in hiding the corridors through various means well enough that people forget they are there? And SWTOR has generally failed in this regard in comparison.

TOR burned its potential over the past few years. It will never be the game it could have been. Wish lists for TOR are simply wishful thinking. That said, a game that combined solid pve/pvp mechanics with the atmospheric things OP listed would be amazing.

To be fair to EA, it may have only been responsible for forcing BW to pull the trigger so to speak and finally release this game after a year of delays. BW itself has said all along that they were given carte blanche to design and implement their game any way they saw fit, and the money to do it. If this is the case, and BW's star power during their negotiations may have made that reasonable possible, the state of this game is entirely 100% Bioware's fault and in fact EA - although a despicable cesspool of a company - may in fact be taking heat for something that is entirely Bioware's fault to begin with. Wouldn't that be something? rofl

There may be outside influences in this travesty but BW has been in the driver's seat from day one. When this game implodes, and implode it will, the only entity to blame at the end of the day will be Bioware. Also a few people have pointed out that BW of days past and BW of today are not the same thing. Totally true and more people need to wake up to that fact. The Bioware that gave us Baldur's Gate, etc is long gone. Loooong gone.

Basically, OP, no there is not a place for you to post things like this. Furthermore, if you do post "suggestions" your thread will be locked or deleted for not toeing the BW line that they have produced the greatest game to ever grace a computer screen. It's even more innovative than an FPS, didn't you hear?

By patch 1.2 I'm expecting TOR to start a literal fire in my house.