Goodbye old friend, an honest sign off

[Nightlore]

Hi

Thanks in advance for reading. This is my “arbituary” but I want to bring some realism to the current state of play.

This post is about honesty. You have no interest in me, or me you, however you will be interested in what I have to say because we both have common ground, we care about this game.

 

Briefly I am a forty something business professional and family man, and have played this game since launch. As we all have, I have spent countless hours in game, because I “belonged”, I enjoyed it and it was a great mmorpg. I have spent £8 a month, every month for over 5 years.

 

I’m unsubscribing and uninstalling and I won’t be back, here’s why.

 

I raid, yes the dirty word raid, and I pvp. I have since day one. This game started as an mmorpg and raiding was not a dirty word. I killed everything but HM Revan.

 

There has been no “raiding” content for 3 years – unacceptable to me. The new expansion offers 5 Uprisings . Each one designed to give 15 to 20 minutes of new content for 4 people. One hour and fifteen minutes of new content is all I get for half of the number of people that I am used to gaming with. This is an insult to the money I pay every month. However we get to repeat story chapters, to see what other outcomes might bring, although they will have no relevance to me at all, it’s a sightseeing tour. However bring some sturdy footwear as you will be wading knee deep in skytroopers for most of the chapters. Unacceptable.

 

RNG – unacceptable to me – I understand craftable gear will “fill” at almost the same level. For those lucky enough to get a full set, congratulations in advance. For those who miss 2 or 3 pieces and repeatedly farm content to get more boxes for nothing. (13 pieces max, less than 25% chance every time you open a box to get one of the last 3 pieces that you need.) I feel for you. There is no level playing field. Some people won’t have the gear to be able to access NiM content. Why? Because the box gods were unkind to them. Fact.

 

Class guides and min maxing are now redundant, because only the select few who spend more hours in game on a daily basis than in real life will get 1 character geared in 3 months (based on various opinions and calculations). A complete turnaround on the current style, which allows flexibility and for each player to enjoy multiple classes. Oh and when you loose a member of your “raid group” who have been handed the same regurgitated content for the last god knows how long, good luck finding a replacement and then gearing them for “progression” again. The 1 step forward 3 steps back methodology.

 

I might have swallowed this all and continued, however the following are the 2 deal breakers for me.

 

Bioware know they have made a mistake. They are at the moment making announcements, about announcements for new “raid” content sometime in the next year, because they are hemorrhaging subscription cancellations, because there is nothing to work for, and there still won’t be. I won’t continue to pay to be treated as either a second class citizen because I like HM raid content, or be told I need to gear up to run through the same stuff I have done for years, with a carrot being dangled in the horizon, which in my opinion will be rotten before I get to chew on it.

 

Secondly, partnerships with Podcasters. I have listened to all of the major podcasters for the last 3 years. And they have now been bribed to be nice. For the last 3 months one podcaster in particular has been full of negativity of how the game is being ruined, this view has been shared by most of the others, (including another, whose main narrator hasn’t been in game for over 4 months)

 

All of a sudden these people are “preferred partners” or some other such title, and all of a sudden their attitudes are incredibly enthusiastic. The difference in one particular set of gentlemen this week, after they heard this news and then got to stream new content with Eric Musco is unbelievable. One of them announced “we will still be the same…..nothing will change” Gentlemen it already has, and you have already sold out. Sorry I have enjoyed your commentary for all this time, but this is the end for us as a partnership while I walk my dogs. And in turn Bioware, this method to get people onside and not to display real opinion leaves a really unpleasant aftertaste. I have a Bad Feeling about this.

 

For all those that will think of replying to this and talk about the positives and how this current roll out of content is what people have been asking for. Look at the server populations, there is no argument to this. The majority of those with the same opinion as me have already gone, steadily over the last 3 years. And we made up most of the numbers. Sorry its true.

 

Bioware if you had stuck to your guns, of what an mmo should be, or least given us something to hang onto, this could have been avoided. Now is too little too late.

 

I have decided not to play any other mmo’s, I looked but have nowhere near the love I have for the Star Wars name, however I read the Warcraft forums this week. They have a separate problem: They are moaning because raid content is being rushed on them too quickly and they are spoiled for choice. Case closed.

 

Having said all this, I offer genuine thanks for my time in game to this point. I have loved it since day one. However I am moving on to 100% real life, which is refreshing, exciting and full of genuine promise.

 

And one last thing. Would the last person off of each server please turn the lights off on your way out. It will be the last action to save the SWTOR budget team some money.

 

Rest in Peace SWTOR my old misguided friend, I have loved you and you will always hold fond memories for me.

Edited November 20, 2016 by Nightlore

[AndasKastor]

snip ...

 

All of a sudden these people are “preferred partners” or some other such title, and all of a sudden their attitudes are incredibly enthusiastic. The difference in “The Bad Feeling” gentlemen this week, after they heard this news and then got to stream new content with Eric Musco is unbelievable. Chuck announced “we will still be the same…..nothing will change” Gentlemen it already has, and you have already sold out. Sorry I have enjoyed your commentary for all this time, but this is the end for us as a partnership while I walk my dogs. And in turn Bioware, this method to get people onside and not to display real opinion leaves a really unpleasant aftertaste.

 

snip...

 

I don't really have an opinion on this one way or another (I only sub periodically now in order to play new content), but perhaps they like what they see? I can be totally wrong (and frequently am), but I'm sure they had to sign some sort of NDA in order to get the 'partner' status or whatever.

 

Anyway - best of luck to you - I mean it, I am not being snarky.

Edited November 20, 2016 by AndasKastor

[Aowin]

...

 

SWTOR was never solely about raiding. In fact, we had one broken operation and one broken boss at launch as our "raid content" for months. I know it may be upsetting that a new operation has not been included into the game, but the reason behind this should be obvious by now: Operations are not nearly as popular as many of you raiders claim.

 

To say that there is no 8-man content is also erroneous and not true. There are no operations, but BioWare is adding new world bosses in the new permanent DvL system. Of course, having eight players will likely be the minimum as you will possibly need more.

 

With regard to story, that was actually always the focus of SWTOR. Look at the class stories at launch. The class story was the main entree and what BioWare was selling this MMO on. The fact that BioWare is finally making KOTFE and KOTET repeatable is good news as many who play this game love BioWare story.

 

If you were actually here at launch, then you would know Galactic Command will never be anywhere as horrible as Battlemaster Bags were at launch. We will always be guaranteed a piece of gear, whether it's something we need or not. With Battlemaster Bags, we had a 75% chance of not getting a Battlemaster commendation, of which we needed more than one to buy a piece of Battlemaster gear. This system is objective better by a landslide.

 

Most of the raiders I know just enjoy the experience of raiding with friends. Sure, they'd like to have new raids. That being said, there are a lot of raids already in this game and all of them are being re-leveled to provide a new challenge.

 

I really don't think operations are coming. I think the appeal for them is a smaller portion of the community than you think and I don't believe the cost of development is being justified by those who actually consume that content. BioWare is going towards smaller group encounters and really emphasizing that. Again, the only new 8-man content would be the DvL world bosses, who apparently drop a lot of CXP.

 

Influencers are just that, they influence public opinion about the game. Of course it's in BioWare's best interest to have their community fan sites praising their work rather than bashing it. I don't watch any influencers as their opinion on a game means little to me, but I see no harm in BioWare trying to include their community fan sites more, even if that may seem like a conflict of interest to you.

 

I really don't understand why raiders continue to assume they are the majority of the player base. Operations were always optional, just as warzones, dailies, and flashpoints were optional. The main focus of this game was always the BioWare storytelling. BioWare has seen through their metrics that just making new operations, new flashpoints, and new warzones all of the time is not a great strategy to maximize retention in the game.

 

As a result, BioWare is looking at creating new forms of group content to try and reel new players in as well as enticing old players. I don't blame BioWare for not wanting to make new operations if they really aren't appealing to anyone except a minority. BioWare's only interest is in growing the game and trying to maintain player retention. Whether that goal is achieved or not remains to be seen.

 

Good luck in your future endeavors. As is the case with many others, I believe you focused too intensely on an aspect of the game that was always optional. It became your sole experience and now you are at an impasse because BioWare has changed direction.

[Liquor]

You want the real state of the game and how the community feels? Don't watch podcasts. Watch Streamers that stream their all gameplay. Not a scripted poocast.

 

I agree with everything you posted. I can see how BW paid for good reviews via poocasts.

 

But if you want to see what's going on and how fed up the community is, check out the increasingly few Streamers that stream from logon to log off. Much of it is standing around waiting for a queue pop or waiting for groups to form up while they comment on the state of the game.

Edited November 20, 2016 by Liquor

[Airehn]

If they have no interest in creating more Operations I would respect them more if they were honest and simply said so, but they keep making announcements that there is going to be an announcement.

 

They didn't even give us a Flashpoint last time, and I don't think we will see one this time either. We got Star Fortress, that isn't an FP, if it was then it would be on your queue, and they gave us the Eternal Championship arena. Just more solo / story mode play.

 

I have 60 days left, and I don't plan on renewing my sub. I MIGHT continue to play Preferred, but I doubt it. I'll either get Legion, or just quit playing games altogether for awhile. Stuff like this puts such a sour taste in your mouth that it can make it difficult to enjoy and trust any MMO for quite some time, if ever.

 

Maybe I'll check Steams winter sale and pick up a few titles I missed while I was raiding.

Edited November 20, 2016 by Airehn

[gabigool]

SWTOR was never solely about raiding.

 

Did he say that? Nope.

 

Are you missing the point? Yup.

[Tessie]

You want the real state of the game and how the community feels? Don't watch podcasts. Watch Streamers that stream their all gameplay. Not a scripted poocast.

 

I agree with everything you posted. I can see how BW paid for good reviews via poocasts.

 

But if you want to see what's going on and how fed up the community is, check out the increasingly few Streamers that stream from logon to log off. Much of it is standing around waiting for a queue pop or waiting for groups to form up while they comment on the state of the game.

 

This is in no way represents the "real state of the game". This might be the state of certain types of group content that streamers are choosing to stream, but that's it.

 

Few people will stream, and few would want to watch, a player going through solo leveling or chapters. Just because it isn't being streamed, it doesn't mean it isn't be played.

 

To the OP, I wish you well as you re-integrate into a real life.

[stu_ungar]

I really don't understand why raiders continue to assume they are the majority of the player base. Operations were always optional, just as warzones, dailies, and flashpoints were optional. The main focus of this game was always the BioWare storytelling.

 

Well, that's like, just your opinion, man. I have never ever heard any gamer that considered storytelling as the main focus of MMO RPG . It's kinda opposite to purpose of online multiplaying.

 

While I enjoyed my first story, I spaced through all the rest, as I (and pretty much all my friends) consider endgame to be the gravy and everything preceding it just a training and introduction to the class (which was fun at the time when some sort of balance existed between planets and levels)

[t-darko]

Well, that's like, just your opinion, man. I have never ever heard any gamer that considered storytelling as the main focus of MMO RPG . It's kinda opposite to purpose of online multiplaying.

 

Why not hear it from the

then!?

 

While I enjoyed my first story, I spaced through all the rest, as I (and pretty much all my friends) consider endgame to be the gravy and everything preceding it just a training and introduction to the class (which was fun at the time when some sort of balance existed between planets and levels)

 

Mate, this was never the game you and your mates were looking for . . .

[Aowin]

...

 

Uh, well, that's like, an actual fact, man. Don't take my word for it. Look at all of the pre-launch promotional marketing for SWTOR. It was predominantly about your own personal Star Wars story. BioWare only stated that there would be group content, such as raids, and PvP, as one would expect in a normal MMO. However, the focus was always on story. BioWare spent an extensive amount of time explaining why story was going to revolutionize the MMO formula. Just because you didn't happen to know what the primary focus of SWTOR was is not BioWare's fault. It is your fault for assuming SWTOR was just another MMO.

[Aowin]

Why not hear it from the

then!?

 

 

 

Mate, this was never the game you and your mates were looking for . . .

 

I'm glad someone actually realizes this game was always focused on Story first and staple MMO aspects second. It's beyond me how so many people still don't realize what the point of this game actually is. I guess they just never played a BioWare game before. SWTOR was never a traditional MMO.

[gabigool]

Well, that's like, just your opinion, man. I have never ever heard any gamer that considered storytelling as the main focus of MMO RPG . It's kinda opposite to purpose of online multiplaying.

 

It's a delusional point of view.

 

This game was most certainly not designed to be a single-player story-focused game. The leveling stories were special. But, as you say, they were leveling stories.

 

I think people confuse "feature" with "focus". Story here was unique. A draw. A differentiating aspect.

 

But it's difficult for me to see the product released at release at intended to be more than that.

 

If the original intent was to emphasize story, the first ~4 years of this game post-launch would have looked quite different.

 

The leveling stories have been neutered. Arguably the best content the game has created - not my opinion but it's certainly a valid one I can appreciate - and it's erased clean by KotFE. We can buy tokens to skip it. New players will not see most of the planetary content or bonus series. Once you get to level cap, from a story perspective you're not even a Sith Warrior anymore. Or a Bounty Hunter. Or a Smuggler.

 

It's funny if you think about it. The entire "focus" of the game is permanently replaced with a bland, homogenized abscess. If you were to ask 100 people to craft a "Star Wars" themed story, and then aggregated the traits they had in common, I'm certain "Dark vs. Light" would rank high on that list. We've had that deleted too, simply because it's cheaper.

 

I understand the volume of the voice, here on these forums, crying about how important story is. Because the voice on these forums no longer includes over a million people who've left this game behind. At some point, as you look around and see entire servers that have become barren wastelands it may be useful to wonder why.

[Galahard]

I feel for you raiders, I really do, because you have been lead on the false premise that this is a real MMO, aka Wow.

Here is the truth, SWtoR was never meant to be a real MMO from a gameplay perspective.

It was:

1. A selling point for Bioware as the "Wow killer" to sell the company to EA.

2. A lure to get some of the 10+M folks from Wow to chime in and maybe fall in love with the storytelling

 

What the online (or MMO if you will) feature in this game: it really is a badly disguised DRM.

Yes, there are online or group features like pvp, ops, flashpoints, but those were never the focus of the game.

It was always meant to be a Single player experience first, with added multiplayer features.

Now there are less and less of those multiplayer features and the month sub becomes less and less of a defendable pricing scheme.

[gabigool]

I'm glad someone actually realizes this game was always focused on Story first and staple MMO aspects second. It's beyond me how so many people still don't realize what the point of this game actually is. I guess they just never played a BioWare game before. SWTOR was never a traditional MMO.

 

It's funny because when I watch that video, it states story is " a key feature" and refers to it as the "4th pillar".

 

I wonder what the other three are.

 

Lol it even states that Light vs. Dark is a classic SW theme.

 

#failed

Edited November 20, 2016 by gabigool

[Tsillah]

I'm glad someone actually realizes this game was always focused on Story first and staple MMO aspects second. It's beyond me how so many people still don't realize what the point of this game actually is. I guess they just never played a BioWare game before. SWTOR was never a traditional MMO.

 

But hang on there... We did get operations and flash points with regular intervals. There were some new things added over time like GSF and Strongholds. All of this was over 2 years ago.

 

Now you could argue that the focus of SWTOR was never on operations and such and that's ok, but you cannot argue that we got a lot less new content with KotFE and as well with KotET as we see now.

 

If the main focus is on story, then why are they doing so piss poor at it? Sure we can argue for a long time whether we like the story or not, but you can't tell me that a single story line for all characters is focusing on story. Other MMOs also have single story lines so when it comes to story they are offering no more than other MMOs. With the core story, yes, there were 8 of them and then it was clear that story was the focus, but there were operations and flash points and more came with each expansion.

 

I am ok with not getting new operations IF we get something of equal play value back for it. We didn't in KotFE and KotET is shaping up the same way, except with less story than KotFE and Uprisings. Uprisings are Flash Points WITHOUT story in them.

 

If you want to maintain that story is the main focus, I no longer believe it. They only way you could argue that still is because it's pretty much the only thing they haven't stopped doing entirely but that just means we're getting less and less for the same money added to the game.

[Kheld]

Im a casual player, who loves story, who raids with his guild.

 

It was mistake not to include at least one new Op & a WZ map with Kotfe, even though the people who do these make up 10% or less of a games playerbase.

 

I know the stated reason, group content is MUCH more expensive to make than solo, so they dont get the player hours return on the money invested, but thats not the point (talking to YOU, dumb EA corporate suits.)

 

If a game doesnt have new content in all areas, it will shed players. End of story.

 

EA'a managers dont give a ***** ofc, which is why we have what we have.

 

Its a shame really.

[Galahard]

It's funny because when I watch that video, it states story is " a key feature" and refers to it as the "4th pillar".

 

I wonder what the other three are.

 

Lol it even states that Light vs. Dark is a classic SW theme.

 

#failed

 

Well, because how do you sell something? You try to tie to something that people already know.

You can't say, well, it's a game with a story, it's online, but it's not an MMO really.

Wait what, not an MMO, no raids, no group content?

Yes there is, but it's not the focus main point, look, here is some wonderful story.

You need to at least pretend that it's somewhat similar and try to sell the selling point.

It's like saying, well, we are selling a vehicle with a great navigation system.

OK, but is it a car a motorbike or a boat?

Oh, we won't let you know, just find out yourself

[t-darko]

It's funny because when I watch that video, it states story is " a key feature" and refers to it as the "4th pillar".

 

I wonder what the other three are.

 

Lol it even states that Light vs. Dark is a classic SW theme.

 

#failed

 

;)Cheers mate, I can keep pouring

over you all night, but thats not realy my point. My point is that for anyone who have followed this game from the start, idea and production, and have KoTOR 1 & 2 in their mind, it is quite obvious that the KoTOR fans stood for the developing feedback and that the average and hardcore WoW/mmo player, who thought they were getting just that, stood for the online judgement, and to day still is . . .

 

And yes my standpoint is that EA/Bioware wet their pant in this fact and have ever since RoTHC delivered a product that is a shadow of their first ambitions with the game, the sad thing now is that in the name of compromise were getting, not what we all, in our point of view want or like, but a poor combination of both!!

 

... If the main focus is on story, then why are they doing so piss poor at it? ...

 

That my friend is very valid point . . .

[Galahard]

But hang on there... We did get operations and flash points with regular intervals. There were some new things added over time like GSF and Strongholds. All of this was over 2 years ago.

 

Now you could argue that the focus of SWTOR was never on operations and such and that's ok, but you cannot argue that we got a lot less new content with KotFE and as well with KotET as we see now.

 

If the main focus is on story, then why are they doing so piss poor at it? Sure we can argue for a long time whether we like the story or not, but you can't tell me that a single story line for all characters is focusing on story. Other MMOs also have single story lines so when it comes to story they are offering no more than other MMOs. With the core story, yes, there were 8 of them and then it was clear that story was the focus, but there were operations and flash points and more came with each expansion.

 

I am ok with not getting new operations IF we get something of equal play value back for it. We didn't in KotFE and KotET is shaping up the same way, except with less story than KotFE and Uprisings. Uprisings are Flash Points WITHOUT story in them.

 

If you want to maintain that story is the main focus, I no longer believe it. They only way you could argue that still is because it's pretty much the only thing they haven't stopped doing entirely but that just means we're getting less and less for the same money added to the game.

 

Being the focus and giving less for the same money can be true at the same time.

Not that it's not sad, but I didn't hear anybody complaining about the sub prices remained the same over the past 10 years, while costs skyrocketing.

From a business point of view, not that I agree with it, but who would, it's the only thing they can do, until all people are fed up and leave, when they can shut down.

The alternative would be to invest more money into the game, but it's clear that it's not happening, which is pretty sad.

But hey it's a game, it's not like we will lose the ability to cure illnesses.

There will be other enjoyable games that will replace it.

Or as in the case of the OP, real life *shudders* lol

Edited November 20, 2016 by Galahard

[Galahard]

You want the real state of the game and how the community feels? Don't watch podcasts. Watch Streamers that stream their all gameplay. Not a scripted poocast.

 

I agree with everything you posted. I can see how BW paid for good reviews via poocasts.

 

But if you want to see what's going on and how fed up the community is, check out the increasingly few Streamers that stream from logon to log off. Much of it is standing around waiting for a queue pop or waiting for groups to form up while they comment on the state of the game.

Another biased representation of the state of the game.

Are there streamers that stream single player story content?

If I was a streamer, I wouldn't stand around and do nothing but do story content and enjoy it.

As I write this, there are 42 people on my instance in Nar Shaddaa, and there are 4 instances open. It's not even a starter or capital planet, where I usually see 100+ players on an instance. Yeah, I am not on a dead server, stupid me!

Is that a fair representation of the state of the game?

I don't know.

Is that enough to keep SWtoR live for the long run?

I don't believe so, but someone at EA or Bioware probably does.

Edited November 20, 2016 by Galahard

[MollyDresden]

As another point of view, if they stopped making story content to focus on creating operations, I'd probably get bored and leave. The story is what this game has going for it that separates it from certain other MMOs which have little to no story and focus entirely on endgame material. Like someone else said, if endgame raiding is what you were looking for and you spacebarred through story content, this was never the game you were looking for.

[Eshvara]

If the main focus is on story, then why are they doing so piss poor at it? Sure we can argue for a long time whether we like the story or not, but you can't tell me that a single story line for all characters is focusing on story.

 

If nobody wants to provide them with enough money, this is what you'll get. It isn't hard to understand. If EA decided to give them another budget of 300m the story would have been far more interesting, like vanilla swtor level. I like kotfe more than I like most of the vanilla stories, but I do agree that the quality isn't as great, like you said, single story line.

[Rolodome]

I think the game was designed to be story as first priority, but what some people are missing is that you could do much of the story as a group in vanilla. I don't remember what the standard was for the class quests, but I'm pretty sure there was some kind of grouping option for it as far back as beta.

 

Then they do KOTFE, where you can't group and it's forced solo (at least, I don't know of any way to do it with more than one person... maybe there's some trick to it).

 

The problem in that regard was not with the story focus of the expansion, it was with designing it in such a way that you could not do it as a group. That's why there are people who say that KOTFE didn't give us much content... if you were someone who primarily played to group, KOTFE was largely meaningless to you. And it seems they are making no effort to change this with KOTET, which I really don't understand... like I genuinely do not get why it isn't one of the top items on the list. It's such a basic concept to allow groups of people to go through KOTFE/KOTET together. At its most basic, you could make it like the class stories, where the instance owner is the one whose story is actually progressing and everybody else is a participant. Especially with the repeatable structure being put in place, and difficulty levels, I'm baffled that this is not part of it.

 

It's just wasteful, to have all that content that people can't play with each other, even if they want to. And it actively hurts the multiplayer element because of how much time is going into it without that option.

 

And mind you, I say this as a solo player, not a NiM raider. I'm just pointing out how handily it's leaving people out and forcing them into isolated gameplay. It doesn't address the problem of the lack of new raids and such, but it certainly wouldn't hurt.

[Eshvara]

I think the game was designed to be story as first priority, but what some people are missing is that you could do much of the story as a group in vanilla. I don't remember what the standard was for the class quests, but I'm pretty sure there was some kind of grouping option for it as far back as beta.

 

Then they do KOTFE, where you can't group and it's forced solo (at least, I don't know of any way to do it with more than one person... maybe there's some trick to it).

 

The problem in that regard was not with the story focus of the expansion, it was with designing it in such a way that you could not do it as a group. That's why there are people who say that KOTFE didn't give us much content... if you were someone who primarily played to group, KOTFE was largely meaningless to you. And it seems they are making no effort to change this with KOTET, which I really don't understand... like I genuinely do not get why it isn't one of the top items on the list. It's such a basic concept to allow groups of people to go through KOTFE/KOTET together. At its most basic, you could make it like the class stories, where the instance owner is the one whose story is actually progressing and everybody else is a participant. Especially with the repeatable structure being put in place, and difficulty levels, I'm baffled that this is not part of it.

 

It's just wasteful, to have all that content that people can't play with each other, even if they want to. And it actively hurts the multiplayer element because of how much time is going into it without that option.

 

And mind you, I say this as a solo player, not a NiM raider. I'm just pointing out how handily it's leaving people out and forcing them into isolated gameplay. It doesn't address the problem of the lack of new raids and such, but it certainly wouldn't hurt.

 

So in vanilla, if two people start a bounty hunter, they can join their class stories and make decisions that would affect both their stories, like you would in the black talon?

My only experience was that they could join your phase and stand there watching you do your story, and fight the mobs that would have to be killed. Or is that seen as doing class stories together?

[Krazhez]

...

 

I really don't understand why raiders continue to assume they are the majority of the player base. Operations were always optional, just as warzones, dailies, and flashpoints were optional. The main focus of this game was always the BioWare storytelling. BioWare has seen through their metrics that just making new operations, new flashpoints, and new warzones all of the time is not a great strategy to maximize retention in the game.

 

As a result, BioWare is looking at creating new forms of group content to try and reel new players in as well as enticing old players. I don't blame BioWare for not wanting to make new operations if they really aren't appealing to anyone except a minority. BioWare's only interest is in growing the game and trying to maintain player retention. Whether that goal is achieved or not remains to be seen.

 

Good luck in your future endeavors. As is the case with many others, I believe you focused too intensely on an aspect of the game that was always optional. It became your sole experience and now you are at an impasse because BioWare has changed direction.

 

I believe raiders used to be a pretty big population, including just sm raiders. Between 2.0 and half of 3.0, I was in 2 different guilds with a fairly big population and people were always asking to be in raid groups. I feel like the when Zorz left was a good mark of the turning point of the game. Raiders steadily started leaving or doing something different. Then, no new raid content. I do believe now that the raid population is the minority. So in Bioware's perspective less expense to make more money, means no more raids. I will be surprised if we ever see another one.

Edited November 20, 2016 by Krazhez