To put it simply, in SWG, the story was YOUR story. Honestly, that's the way the game made you feel. I've said this many times before, but SWG was one of the only MMO's where I've felt like I actually made an impact on the game world. I play from launch to a few weeks into the NGE on the Starsider server. In my time I made an impact on the world in several ways. It started off small when I joined one of the big Imperial PA's, TIO. I gained notoriety with my sarcastic and often blunt attitude. I gained friends and enemies through my skill and tactics in PvP. Me and friends founded the very first Mos Vegas in SWG history right next to the Krayt Dragon Graveyard on Tatooine, and formed a new PA called the Mos Vegas Mafia. the MVM was an Imperial PA, but we were more like a criminal organization. We effectively controlled and exploited the traffic leading to the Krayt Dragon Graveyard. We were known for our underhanded tactics, big mouths, and love for credits. As all things do, the Mos Vegas Mafia came to an end and the city was sold to another PA to settle some debts our leader had. What's a homeless bounty hunter to do? I co-founded another PA with three of my close bounty hunter friends. We were the Vonyat' Hunting Gang, VHG. We prided ourselves on ruthlessly hunting down and slaying Jedi of both factions. As we become more and more effective, we started to gain a reputation with both Imperial and Rebel PA's. During those days, Jedi were still quite rare. They were penalized with harsh XP debt when they were killed. There was a lot of competition between the factions, and even PA's, for title of top Jedi. We took advantage of that. With our reputation and our contacts, we started to sell our services to the highest bidder. If there was a Jedi that was in danger of becoming too powerful, we'd be hired to help even the playing field. Want to send a message? We did that. Want us to spend a week hunting down the Jedi of a certain PA? We did that. Want an enemy Jedi griefed into oblivion through TEF exploits? We did that, but you had to pay extra. We were neutral; removed from the galactic war that we profited so heavily on. Eventually, a good friend of mine fell to the Dark Side: He bought a Jedi account. The VHG fell apart as our priorities shifted. My friend played his Jedi more than his BH. My life outside of the game started changing dramatically as well. I was entering my later years in high school. My social life started dominating my time. I spent less time in the virtual world and more time in the real world. I'd play in what little spare time I had. I had become a lone wolf. I hunted Jedi alone, still with great effect. I fell back into the Imperial ranks, joining old friends for battles against the Rebels. Even though I spent less time in SWG, the bonds that I forged as I traveled resonated through time. Eventually, the NGE hit. My friends list became a literal ghost town. Unhappy with the direction that SOE insisted on going with the game, I canceled my subscription and never returned. For the first time and only time, I felt like I was actually a character in the game. Waylan Sanderin of Starsider was me. We shared the same persona. Everything that Waylan did in game was as a direct extension of real life self. It made me care about the world I inhabited and the friends I forged in it. I still keep in contact with several of my friends from my days in SWG. I was actually at one of my old SWG friend's wedding in November. We sat around during his reception and regaled about the good ol' days: battles we had fought and won, good times we had had... as if it all happened in reality. SWG was something special and I'm honored to have, in one way or another, left my unique fingerprint on the game. Before I quit, I dumped all my remaining credits (which was absolute TON of credits) into my house for maintenance. I'd like to think that "Waylan's Love Shack of Doom" graced the main drag of Mos Vegas until the plug was pulled.

I believe that Qui-Gon's death was completely necessary for The Emperor's plan to work. If Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon's fates were reversed, it's almost a certainty that Anakin wouldn't have fallen to the Dark Side. As some people have pointed out, Obi-Wan was one of the finest examples of Jedi that period had to offer. At the time, though, Obi-Wan was in no way ready to train a padawan. Even though he was a great Jedi, Obi-Wan started off VERY green, meaning that he more or less accepted everything the Jedi Order had to say without much thought or question. It seemed (whether it's bad writing or the way that Lucas wanted it to be) that he had more of a "My Way or the Highway" style of teaching in Ep. 2. It wasn't until Ep. 3, when they are in the middle of full-blown war, that he adopted a somewhat looser style of teaching. Obi-Wan and Anakin were great friends, but Obi-Wan never seemed to gain Anakin's full respect. With Qui-Gon as a mentor, Anakin would have been more accepting of Jinn's "Middle of the Road" views than Obi-Wan's "Good for the Sake of Good" views. Qui-Gon wisdom would have been a great tool to feed Anakin's curiosity. Anakin would have had more overall respect for Qui-Gon than Obi-Wan, seeing him more as a father he never had rather than a brother. He would have been less apprehensive to share his feelings and visions with Qui-Gon than he was with Obi-Wan. For those of you thinking that Qui-Gon would have joined Dooku and the Separatists, I think you're flat wrong. Dooku struck me as someone that always needed direction. Even as a very powerful Jedi Master, he still needed someone to point him in a direction. He strikes me as someone that would follow blindly for the sake of following. Qui-Gon, on the other hand, was an extremely wise Jedi, with a great understanding of the world at large. He was very grey, but ultimately falling more on the light than the dark. I could have seen him joining a counter movement against the Republic, but never anything that would lead to full scale war. He would have gained followers from within to usher in sweeping change rather than recruiting systems to try and force change. Overall, I believe that if Qui-Gon had survived, you wouldn't have seen Anakin fall to the dark side.

It doesn't really count as epic, but my first real story that I like telling involves me, four Sith, and a Datacron on Hoth... While doing a datacron on Hoth, the one involving the insanely slow moving crates, I noticed there were a handful of Sith a ways behind me, lining themselves up to get the datacron as well. I was stealthed the entire time since it's slow effects give me a little more control with my platforming, so they were oblivious to my location. I just sort of sat and watched them for a while before I noticed that they were the same group that had gang-ganked me a few times earlier in the day. It was time for Payback. After spending what felt like an eternity observing them, I lined myself up on the final crate before the datacron. They all lined up to make their jump to the crate that I was on, and they all leaped at the same time. The instant they all landed on the final crate, I came out of stealth with a furious Force Wave, knocking them all off the crate into the sea of NPC's below. The fall itself took a majority of their health, and what little health they had left was quickly diminished by the NPC's they aggroed when they landed. All four Sith perished. It may have been in poor taste, and borderline obsessive, but I had finally gotten my revenge. I didn't bump into a single one of them for the rest of my stay on Hoth.

I campaigned hard for Droids to be a playable race in SWG, and I campaigned hard for Droids to be a playable race in SWTOR as well. I was a bit let down when I saw they added "Cyborgs" but not Droids, since I'd honestly think combat Droids (IG-88, HK-47) are more "Heroic" than any of the Cyborgs we've seen. Aside from recording all the voice acting, I imagine it'd be quite simple to actually implement. The armor system (parts) are all there, they'd just need to have new stuff added in to be for Droid players. I'd honestly be really surprised if they don't add Droids to the list of playable races. The only thing I'm not too sure of is how they'd fit into other classes. Obviously we wouldn't see any Droid Jedi or Sith. After playing all of the Bounty Hunter storyline, I could see a Droid fitting into that class pretty well without having to really change or edit things in the story itself. I haven't played Trooper, so I'm not sure if it'd be as smooth. The only other thing I could see being a problem are the romances. I'm not sure how a Droid would have romances with it's companions without it being completely ridiculous and really friggin' weird... unless you were getting down with your ship's Droid companion. But yeah, Star Wars universe is full of sentient Droids that are just as capable and legendary as their blood-filled counterparts. If they were a playable race, you bet your a** I'd roll one in an instant.

I'm not quite that far along in my PvPing, but from what I understand, a lot of Kinetic Shadows will roll Stalker Gear. I've seen a lot of Shadows use a few pieces from the Survivor set, complimented by Stalker. But don't take my word for it, I'm still working on getting my gear.

As a 31/0/10 Shadow, I don't really have any problems with force management. I make use of the Psychokenisis talent which gives me a lower cost to two of my most frequently used skills, Double Strike and Project. If I'm running low on force for the next ability in my rotation, I'll toss a Saber Slash in, and by the time it's done, I've got enough force for my next two abilities.

I haven't seen the weapon you're talking about, but it could possibly be because it is a better weapon, stat wise, than the items listed for 11k. It could be worse, though. I found that some vendors are completely void of double-bladed lightsabers... but I imagine that other classes experience similar problems with certain vendors as well.

Honestly, the cowboy-stache looks more Theran's speed than the goatee. Definitely wasn't feeling it.

I've been doing EVERY quest I could possibly get my hands on, including bonuses (and PvP), and I ended up hitting 50 about halfway through Corellia. I could honestly care less since I'm playing the game for the main story AND the side stories. I find them all very interesting when you actually pay attention to them and don't spacebar through the conversation. For most of the game, when I'd move on to the next planet, I'd be over-leveled by one or two levels. That didn't really bother me any. It didn't ruin the challenge because, to be honest, there really isn't one. I'm playing this character pure kinetic. The only that's actually challenging out in the game world are Champions. Honestly, sit back and enjoy the story, since the game itself isn't much of a challenge.

I'm just a afraid that the cutscenes are going to be the buggiest part of the game. With all the patching the game is going through, it's quite possible that a simple fix could screw up a cutscene or two. I've already noticed it with the invisible people, giant/tiny people, and naked people during cutscenes. Also, like I stated before, the ridiculous zoom-in bug. I doubt they have a guy that rolls through the thousands of cutscenes every few patches to make sure they're working... that would be a horrible job.

I do really enjoy Tumult as a move; sweet animation, good damage, awesome ability. I do somethings wish I could use it in PvP... but ever since I got Spin Kick, I've been thoroughly satisfied; same animation, crap damage, but it's a knockdown. Spin Kick is such an awesome ability and it really makes a difference.

So I just wrapped up the quest where my crew and I attempt to commandeer the Javalin, and I believe I experienced quite an amusing bug. Every time I received a holocommunication from one of my companions, they were in their underwear... literally, no armor or anything on. I'm assuming that this is a bug and I reported it, but I also was curious if anyone else has experienced this as well. I've been noticing some really odd things during cutscenes that seem to be happening more frequently since they started patching the game... The biggest being the "Super-zoomed in" bug, where my character delivers a line of dialog, but the camera is zoomed RIGHT up to his face. It's amusing because the bug makes it seem like they're trying to add dramatic tension to something that has none.

I've got a Kinetic Shadow, lvl 48 now, and I couldn't be happier. The level grind is a pleasure; tank specced Shadows are PvE gods. I can mow through most quests with little or no downtime when I'm using Theran (and I'm using him religiously). Most 2+ missions can be soloed with a little help from stealth. I'm a beast in 4+ and Flashpoints as long as I have a halfway decent healer. As far as warzones go, I find myself pretty dang effective, especially in Huttball. When I'm handling the ball, I can take quite a bit of abuse, as long as the ENTIRE team isn't on me at once. I can run the ball pretty effectively, and with the expert use of Force Speed, I can usually break loose of the ensuing mob and score. In the Civil War WZ's, I can rack up some pretty respectable numbers from defending objectives or running escort for someone who's going to capture an objective. I spend a lot of time directing traffic via /Ops while I snoop around in cloak as well. All round, I'd say that Shadow, especially Kinetic Shadows, are a blast to play. We've got our weaknesses as well, once you learn them, you become a more effective player overall.

I've played both Theme Park and Sandbox MMO's, and I have to say, Sandbox MMO's keep me coming back for more. The two games I've played that are theme park MMO's are SWTOR and WoW. Regardless of what anyone says, WoW is a theme park MMO, it just does a decent job of hiding it. With WoW, I got to 50, and become profoundly bored, and quit a few months later. I hate saying it, but with SWTOR, the same thing might happen. The real problem is the lack of things to do once you finish with your level grind. I feel like the grind to level 50 should be a quarter or half the journey. Once you hit 50, a whole world should open up for you full of seemingly limitless possibilities. With WoW, it was either PvP or Raid. With SWTOR, it's looking like the same thing; once you hit 50, it's either PvP or Raid. Games that I've played that are sandbox MMO's would be SWG and EVE Online. These are two games that I always find myself telling grand stories of my exploits. I believe that the best thing about SWG and EVE Online is that you could REALLY make your mark on those worlds. During my run in SWG on the Starsider server, I co-started a city (The first Mos Vegas in SWG), assisted in crafting some of the best armor the server had to offer, helped co-start two pretty successful player associations, and became a true bounty hunter (hired by other PA's to assassinate (possibly greif) opposing Jedi). I have very similar exploits in EVE Online, where a lot of my friends who aren't even into MMO's will listen and think "Wow, that sounds ridiculous and awesome". With Sandbox MMO's, especially EVE Online, there really aren't levels. The whole skill grind is not a major part of the actual gameplay, just a means to do your job more effectively. The game doesn't hold your hand and lead you along your journey as the difficulty slowly ramps up. You go out and you make your own fun, whether it's crafting armor, checking hoppers, hunting down Imps/Rebs, Killing Jedi, whatever, the world is 100% open to you. That's why I, as much as I am loving the game, I have my doubts about SWTOR. Getting from 1-50 is a blast and I've enjoyed it quite a bit, but there doesn't seem to really be a journey past 50 (barring expansions, of course). This is why I'll take a Sandbox MMO over a Theme Park MMO any day of the week.

I cannot agree more. The companions really have no meat to them. They could effectively get rid of Healer/Tank/DPS companions by simply buffing us to mitigate their loss. They just seem like they're more or less there for show, not actually affecting anything. I'm tank specced and I use Theran exclusively to keep my downtime minimal and keep me healed up during the hairier encounters (2+ strongs, Elites, etc). He occasionally pops off a few rounds to add to DPS, but that's minimal at best. Beyond that, I never know he's there. What I agree with Kitru on, and what I don't unterstand is why they didn't do anything more interesting with the "Stances". I would have liked to see the Stances act more like how Specs work with our characters. Like I said before, I like Theran, but after 20+ levels of being with him, he gets really stale really fast. I was looking forward to using Nadia and working on the relationship side of the game, but as a tank, I literally have absolutely no need for her. If she had a stance that turned her from "tank" to a force healer, she would give me what I need and I'd love to use her as a companion. The only other healer companion I can have is my ship droid and... well, I have a hard enough time not grinding my teeth when he talks about sowing more padding into the cushions of my ship's seats. Same with other specs too. I can't imagine a healer Sage has any real use for Theran... he more or less sits on the ship twiddling his thumbs. The companion system, as it is now, is showhorning us into using one or two specific companions, while the others never see the light of day.

I really like Theran, and I use him exclusively, but GOOD GOD, I couldn't get ANY points out of him during conversation on Voss... just kept coming up "-1". "-1"... As much as I like him, I think I would have preferred a force using healer like Gaiden-Ko.

I've been thinking of the same thing for the past few weeks, and it makes a lot more sense than tossing out nerfs that affect both PvE and PvP, regardless of what portion of the game they're trying to balance. It makes a heck of a lot more sense to give abilities two different effects, both for PvP and PvE, that way both sides of the game can be finely tuned without really causing any disruptions between each other. If they try to balance the PvP game because of the way players are taking advantage of certain abilities, it's only going to upset the balance of PvE, and vice versa.

The real key to ANY Star Wars movie is keeping the writing and directorial reigns away from George Lucas. He has proven himself completely inept in both categories. As far as redoing any of the current movies, no, they should not be done. We should keep the dream of Ep. 3-5 alive in our generation and our next, and continue to pretend that Ep. 1-3 do not exist. I believe we're fine, though, considering that as long as George Lucas is alive, he will not allow anyone to "reboot" Star Wars. Of course, the only thing we have to worry about is George Lucas himself ruining them... you know, with time traveling Mandalorians and whatnot. It's my dream, though, that George Lucas would allow a competent writer and director to take advantage of the rich expanded universe that Star Wars has. Hell, if they were to make a movie using the Legacy era using much of the original cast without their ages seeming out of place.

If I could play the SWG I knew and love, Pre-NGE SWG, I'd return in a heartbeat and never look back. SWG is the only game that I feel like I had actual history in. I was a Bounty Hunter on the Starsider server. I was a founding member of the first Mos Vegas in SWG history. I was so proficient and hunting Jedi that I started a PA that could be hired by different PA's to take out bounties on opposing Jedi, and made quite a reputation for myself. As much as I enjoy TOR, I feel like I have absolutely no mark on the game's landscape. In SWG I made a name for myself. In TOR, I'm just another name in the crowd.

DROID! Why? Because being a Droid Bounty Hunter would be pretty awesome.

I'm surprised that I'm the first one to post with a Razer Nostromo keypad. 16 buttons, 3 separate toggle-able profiles, directional pad, click-able scroller, everything fully programmable. 14 of the game's buttons are arranged in 3 rows, with the 16th button on the thumb rest. On my main, a 31/0/10 Jedi Shadow, I have it set up: First row, 1-5 contain my primary attacks: Saber slash, double strike, project, interrupt, taunt. Second row, 6-10 contain my secondary attacks: secondary taunt, throw, knockback, stun, etc. My last row 10-14 contain my misc stuff: Force Speed, Stealth, Speeder, and medpack. I keep my 16 (thumb key) as jump. My direction pad is setup to cycle through targets, and the small 15th button located above the directional pad I have set for target closest enemy. The other toggle-able profiles I've got are PVP variants for warzones and huttball. I also use it in the other MMO I play, EVE Online... it's versatility is quite nice. Overall, the thing is awesome. After getting used to the way it feels I've become quit efficient at PvP and tanking.

I do worry about this when my characters start reaching higher levels. I've got my Jedi Consular looking pretty much how I want him to look, and after taking a gander at some of the PvP and higher end gear, I'm not really digging how some of the items look. It'd be nice if they gave Armorsmiths and Synthweavers some sort of high-end ability to remove stats from one item and "plug them in" to an item that you find visually appealing. That way I get the stats that I'm looking for, but I'm also getting the look and feel I'm wanting as well.

Will I continue to subscribe? Yes. As long as there are classes that I haven't played through, and as long as Bioware releases added content, not just for end game players, but for all aspects of the game.

So what pretty much sums up your post is that you didn't care for the voice acting, therefore the game is automatically fail. As someone who is a huge fan of games like KoTOR, Mass Effect, Skyrim, and pretty much any other Triple A RPG, I'd have to say that the voice acting is the biggest reason I like the game. The only gripe I'm going to have is that it's going to take more time to release added content because of they have to record voice overs for all the missions. I don't play games to just senselessly mow down waves of NPC's... I play games for the story. For the most part, I've found the class stories, as well as the side mission stories, to be quite entertaining and I spend a lot of my time actually listening to the dialog.

I think this a great idea, to an extent. I still believe that the servers absolutely need to be merged, though, but this would definitely help with the faction imbalance. If I can propose a change to your idea, I'd say that instead of assigning a server to someone, the game should "HIGHLY RECOMMEND" that the player go to this server, but still give them the ability to select a server if they don't want to go to the one they were recommended. As far as new players go, if they don't have any friends on any specific server, they will more than likely follow the game's recommendation. Again, this plan would be great to help balance faction populations across the servers, but I don't think it'll work to populate lower population servers... nobody really wants to be assigned to a server that is a ghost town.