An honest conversation: Future Operation development is not feasible.

[TUXs]

Anyway, at least now you're acknowledging that it's 12% of characters created, not players as originally stated.

Where did I state this?

[TUXs]

The statistic of "characters CREATED" says nothing at all. A more meaningful number would have been "characters with at least level 2" or even "existing characters". But I guess that number would have been much lower, so of course as Developers you state the better looking value, even though that value has no meaning at all on closer look.

You're clearly trolling.

[Cruxa]

Where did I state this?

 

Um, here in this thread?

 

I'm quoting it for you though...

 

This infograph from Bioware themselves clearly shows that only about 12% of the players even got past the starting planets.

 

Later on, after being corrected, you changed your wording to "charac ters", without referring to your mistake though.

 

You're clearly trolling.

 

Considering the above, I could tell you the same.

Edited October 18, 2017 by Cruxa

[TUXs]

Um, here in this thread?

 

I'm quoting it for you though...

 

Later on, after being corrected, you changed your wording to "charac ters", without referring to your mistake though.

I hadn't realized I had done that. You are correct. I didn't say players to mislead, I simply misspoke.

[athenaprime]

Story hasn't done any damage. It has done exactly what it was intended to do, bring new players into the game and immerse them in the game world. I think a lot of people came back to the game wanting the new story to be Star Wars (4.0 and beyond). While it contained Star Wars characters it did not feel like the heroic story of the movies like the original class stories did (saving the galaxy and all). That was why people left without even trying the group content. Story needs to be engaging to succeed.

 

Yup. KOTFE and KOTET were not terribad stories--they were pretty engaging, in fact. It was like watching Jerry Springer - the galaxy's most effed-up family feud. But it had nothing to do with *me* as a player character. I was just the landscaper peeking in windows while I trimmed the hedges and dug up gophers from the lawn while this very rich family imploded, and sometimes did it on my begonias.

 

Player retention requires one thing, something for players to do over and over that they enjoy. For some people that is doing story on multiple characters (it is really the shift away from multiple storylines that has made story a less effective retention device). ../snip/.. Story is the core of this game. Story is what Star Wars is and always will be. The group content all needs to be story related or it won't work in the game. The best OPs in the game were those on Oricon and they were tied intimately to the storyline.

 

Yup again. The shift away from individual class-based storylines really reduced the replayability. I *could* spend the hours to run my Jugg through KOTET and KOTFE, but I'd be doing it to see if his reaction to Vette even hinted at the fact that he married her at the end of the vanilla content, and for that, I could spend about five minutes on YouTube to find it, rather than hours running through chapter content I already did with my Imperial Agent. And I couldn't stealth through the mobs, either. The game's replayability came from having individual class stories--and even gender change-ups, to a lesser extent. I can't bring myself to play 15 more iterations of KOTFE/KOTET to see maybe five extra minutes of unique content or make one or two differing choices (honestly, I probably wouldn't make many DS choices anyway)

 

As for all the comparison to launch as to why people left it is silly to do so. The game is a completely different game now than it was at launch and it is not currently plagued with nearly as many technical problems as this game suffered out of the gate. The whole idea that since only 10% of the population got their ships means that the story was the problem is ridiculous to anyone who was around at launch and saw the problems the game had.

 

Word. When this game launched, the entire MMO landscape was different. Free to play wasn't even a thing then. Suddenly, the terrain changed and a game set up for a world where FtP was for phone games had to maneuver its bulk through a door not designed for it into a room where all the furniture's at weird angles.

[Quraswren]

Story hasn't done any damage.

 

That is incorrect. To much reliance on story did quite a bit of damage. Thinking story coudl carry the game for as long as they hoped it was damaging. Especially so in the beginning days. Story is the hook to get people into the game sure but what it cannot do is keep gamers over any worthwhile length of time. The damage story brought is bioware over reliance on it as if it could ever keep gamers busy or stop the drive to play end game content and gearing up a main.

 

It has done exactly what it was intended to do, bring new players into the game and immerse them in the game world.

 

It did do that but the over-reliance on story is and was the damage story brought. They thought it enough. Thought more would play it. Hell, just from this thread is seems so many did things other than play story. Some skipped it alltogther just to do PVP. New players might be brought in buy it but apparently not hooked on it as they skip it.

 

50.4 million toons created for whatever reason and only 6.8 million ships. That number is to wildly different to think gamers were there for story. No matter what reason they made all those other toons. It wasn't for story in any large portion.

 

 

 

I think a lot of people came back to the game wanting the new story to be Star Wars (4.0 and beyond). While it contained Star Wars characters it did not feel like the heroic story of the movies like the original class stories did (saving the galaxy and all). That was why people left without even trying the group content. Story needs to be engaging to succeed.

 

Story does need to be engaging to be successful but what it does have and will be hard for it to ever have is player retention. It's mainly a once and done bit of content and given choices do not matter as all hallways lead to the same place. No mattter how you play the one story for all. You end up at the same exit. No matter how engaging story is, it will never be a great success because it has no repeat-ability for doing over and over. You know out it ends after doing it once.

 

Sure, it might be a graet story and considered a success but without keeping gamers in game and paying. I can't say it was a financial success in the long run and thats what companies are looking for.

 

The whole idea that since only 10% of the population got their ships means that the story was the problem is ridiculous to anyone who was around at launch and saw the problems the game had.

 

Yes, were not going to agree there. 10% of all "created characters" up to that point were the only ones that completed the story. Many of those probably on the same account and the numbers just get worse. This game did have problems at launch but not to the point you seem to remember. It was clearly nothing as devastating as some OPS bugs SoR had.

 

Over reliance on story is and will always be a problem if that is how bioware continues things. Story simply cannot retain many gamers do to it's very nature and how bioware designs their story into the game. Millions of toons created and only a fraction ever to even see the story long enough to get a ship. As I said, they made those toons for any number of reason but it wasn't for story and the compaired numbers are just too far off to think story was some big catch.

 

Story failed at launch to hold gamers when we had tons more class stories and better stories with little end game.

 

Story has now shown the same problem with kotfe/kotet/iokath but this time the story wasn't even all that well received which is a huge problem if you're hanging so much on story to deliever but we also have a problem with end game content. It's old and rehashed and stale. Nothing gamers like to pay for or continue seeing a reliance on either.

 

So while story is a piece of the puzzle that is needed. It's not one you can bet the farm on as we have seen.

 

And really, end game content is the same but we have went to long without little to no end game content worth repeating and plenty of story which hasn't done this game one bit of good.

 

Until the can get more end game content worth repeating. This game will never recover and story for all it's good parts isn't the player retention content bioware dreamed it would be. Truthfully it never will be.

[DWho]

That is incorrect. To much reliance on story did quite a bit of damage. Thinking story coudl carry the game for as long as they hoped it was damaging. Especially so in the beginning days. Story is the hook to get people into the game sure but what it cannot do is keep gamers over any worthwhile length of time. The damage story brought is bioware over reliance on it as if it could ever keep gamers busy or stop the drive to play end game content and gearing up a main.

 

It did do that but the over-reliance on story is and was the damage story brought. They thought it enough. Thought more would play it. Hell, just from this thread is seems so many did things other than play story. Some skipped it alltogther just to do PVP. New players might be brought in buy it but apparently not hooked on it as they skip it.

 

50.4 million toons created for whatever reason and only 6.8 million ships. That number is to wildly different to think gamers were there for story. No matter what reason they made all those other toons. It wasn't for story in any large portion.

 

Story does need to be engaging to be successful but what it does have and will be hard for it to ever have is player retention. It's mainly a once and done bit of content and given choices do not matter as all hallways lead to the same place. No mattter how you play the one story for all. You end up at the same exit. No matter how engaging story is, it will never be a great success because it has no repeat-ability for doing over and over. You know out it ends after doing it once.

 

Sure, it might be a graet story and considered a success but without keeping gamers in game and paying. I can't say it was a financial success in the long run and thats what companies are looking for.

 

 

 

Yes, were not going to agree there. 10% of all "created characters" up to that point were the only ones that completed the story. Many of those probably on the same account and the numbers just get worse. This game did have problems at launch but not to the point you seem to remember. It was clearly nothing as devastating as some OPS bugs SoR had.

 

Over reliance on story is and will always be a problem if that is how bioware continues things. Story simply cannot retain many gamers do to it's very nature and how bioware designs their story into the game. Millions of toons created and only a fraction ever to even see the story long enough to get a ship. As I said, they made those toons for any number of reason but it wasn't for story and the compaired numbers are just too far off to think story was some big catch.

 

Story failed at launch to hold gamers when we had tons more class stories and better stories with little end game.

 

Story has now shown the same problem with kotfe/kotet/iokath but this time the story wasn't even all that well received which is a huge problem if you're hanging so much on story to deliever but we also have a problem with end game content. It's old and rehashed and stale. Nothing gamers like to pay for or continue seeing a reliance on either.

 

So while story is a piece of the puzzle that is needed. It's not one you can bet the farm on as we have seen.

 

And really, end game content is the same but we have went to long without little to no end game content worth repeating and plenty of story which hasn't done this game one bit of good.

 

Until the can get more end game content worth repeating. This game will never recover and story for all it's good parts isn't the player retention content bioware dreamed it would be. Truthfully it never will be.

 

There is a big difference between "reliance on story is damaging" and "story is damaging". The former is true of any content the later is just flatly false. Any repeatable content can keep players in the game it does not have to be end game content or even group content.

 

You also quote a statistic that even the original poster agrees doesn't tell you anything about why people left the game.

 

Compensating for past mistakes is not a way to correct them. Creating more of one type of content because "it was neglected" in the past does not move the game forward. You have to learn from the mistake of focusing on one type of content. Story has never been the problem in this game and the focus on it is logical because it is what separated this game from other MMOs (and still does). The mistake that was made was to focus on story alone just as focusing on group content or end-game content alone is a mistake.

[DWho]

This thread has wandered so far away from the original post that it is almost unrecognizable. What started out as a potential discussion of how to best use limited resources at Bioware (not that that is our decision anyway), it has devolved into a "your type of content killed the game" rant. The best use of resources is to do yearly Expansions that contain all types of content to the extent possible and for them all to be integrated content. Releasing things drip - drop (like the current Operation or snipits of story or one WZ) is creating nothing but division in the community. A Shadow of Revan type Expansion should be the goal. Its clear mistakes were made in the past but "making up for them" is not the answer. Yes, OPS people waited 2 years for a new OPS but stopping every other bit of content to "focus" on that (or any other content for that matter) is what is killing this game. There is too much of a I want it now mentality perhaps created by too many updates.

[YlliyaXor]

There is a big difference between "reliance on story is damaging" and "story is damaging". The former is true of any content the later is just flatly false. Any repeatable content can keep players in the game it does not have to be end game content or even group content.

 

You also quote a statistic that even the original poster agrees doesn't tell you anything about why people left the game.

 

Compensating for past mistakes is not a way to correct them. Creating more of one type of content because "it was neglected" in the past does not move the game forward. You have to learn from the mistake of focusing on one type of content. Story has never been the problem in this game and the focus on it is logical because it is what separated this game from other MMOs (and still does). The mistake that was made was to focus on story alone just as focusing on group content or end-game content alone is a mistake.

 

Endgame isn't the problem, raiding is, if a lot of people start queuing tomorrow pvp is instantly popular and something worth investing in, literally all it needs is people genuinely interested in doing it (why those people don't seem to exist is a different issue)

 

Raids aren't like that, 8 players willing to do an Ops don't guarantee you will actually be able to do that OP, you may have 4 that like SM Ops, 2 that are into HM, and 2 that are NiM raiders, these 8 raiders are not going to play with each other even though they all like raiding, and this excludes the fact that there's no NiM mode for the latest bosses, constant nerfs, and the fact that someone that was already doing NiM raiding has to go back to a lower level to get the gear they need, or even do other content to get the gear they need.

 

IF this game looked like it was investing in raids properly it might not help the game in general, but it wouldn't hurt it either, as it it raiding hurts every other aspect of the game.

 

This idea that raids are super popular in another game so as long as we force people to do them they'll grow to like them is absurd, nothing is stopping non raiders from playing those other games, that have more and better raids.

 

And it doesn't look like our raids are attracting raiders from other games, and generating either more population or more profit.

[Quraswren]

There is a big difference between "reliance on story is damaging" and "story is damaging". The former is true of any content the later is just flatly false. Any repeatable content can keep players in the game it does not have to be end game content or even group content.

 

Not really when the end result is the same and story is the culprit. Be it because over relied on it or because it simply wasn't good enough to play through multiple times. Story carries with it it's own set of inherant problem and we have seen it time and time again with bioware thinking story is the way to go to help the game and it simply is not in the long run.

 

And no, any repeatable content will not keep gamers in game. It has to be worth repeating. Story is repeatable but not worth it as it loses it's most enticing factor the very first time through. Never again to have the same affect and bioware will never put in a big enough reward to make it the go to mechanic. Now will solo content get that repeatable worth repeating mechanic/treatment. We have seen that with individual stories that gave to good a reward. bioware removes that reward and gamers move on.

 

You also quote a statistic that even the original poster agrees doesn't tell you anything about why people left the game.

 

It tells me for all the reason anyone in game might created toons. It wasn't really for story or those two numbers would be a bit closer. They create toons for all kids of reason but in all those toons a small percent were used to actually see the story.

 

Compensating for past mistakes is not a way to correct them. Creating more of one type of content because "it was neglected" in the past does not move the game forward.

 

Not entirely true. Given the pletheora of solo, story content, some past mistakes can be made up for by focusing on other areas now. We have tons of story and multiple difficulties at that. It's a very positive sign that they plan to focus now on group content and end game group content as well. Thats a major positive. While they cannot forget story in all that, we have plenty of story should gamers really like that content. It's group content and end game group content that needs a boost now.

 

You have to learn from the mistake of focusing on one type of content.

Wish bioware had learned that lesson from launch before they relied so much on story for the past number of years.

That was a mistake they shouldn't have made twice and yet they did.

 

Story has never been the problem in this game and the focus on it is logical because it is what separated this game from other MMOs (and still does). The mistake that was made was to focus on story alone just as focusing on group content or end-game content alone is a mistake.

 

Their over confidence in story is a problem and there is no doubt about that. Story is indeed a problem because it cannot and will not retain gamers to any decent length of time. That is a story problem not easily fixable. Story just gets stale to soon. Once you know the story it just doesn't matter much anymore in an MMO.

 

bioware mistake was relying on story and not focusing on end game but they did it anyway. Now we have tons of story and little to no end game. It's time for a catch up to happen. We need a ton more end game content brought to the table with a scattering of story for cohesion but what we don't need is another story focus.

 

Agreed, especially that last part which you would have thought history would have taught BioWare. Clearly someone missed the launch when coming up with that idea.

 

 

SNIP...

 

Exactly. Launch had more story than we will ever see again and for the most part they were all good and so much better than kotfe/kotet/iokath could ever offer. bioware had an over reliance on that story and forget end game content was needed. Assumed players would consume story as fast as they did to get to end game. They were wrong of course.

 

Drove this game to F2P faster than most other games out there. With the speed at which players consume content and bioware even said as much, story was relied on to be the retention factor and it didn't work.

You have to have worth repeating end game content. Story simply doesn't get the job done holding gamers in game and it's a big problem that rolled around again as they once again thought it would with kotfe/kotet/iokath and no new end game content worth repeating.

 

The difference being for kotfe/kotet/iokath bioware thought old/stale, rehashed content would work in place of having so little content like they had at launch. Truth is, most people in games know the problems with pushing old, stale and rehashed content. It's never going to go over well and gamers have historically disliked companies resorting to using that. It was a screw up just like launch.

 

I don't know what made them try that failure of a move again but I'd have loved to heard that pitch in the board room.

[SolarSaenz]

This thread has wandered so far away from the original post that it is almost unrecognizable. What started out as a potential discussion of how to best use limited resources at Bioware (not that that is our decision anyway), it has devolved into a "your type of content killed the game" rant. The best use of resources is to do yearly Expansions that contain all types of content to the extent possible and for them all to be integrated content. Releasing things drip - drop (like the current Operation or snipits of story or one WZ) is creating nothing but division in the community. A Shadow of Revan type Expansion should be the goal. Its clear mistakes were made in the past but "making up for them" is not the answer. Yes, OPS people waited 2 years for a new OPS but stopping every other bit of content to "focus" on that (or any other content for that matter) is what is killing this game. There is too much of a I want it now mentality perhaps created by too many updates.

 

I agree with your post, especially the bold. I have advocated that BW do a SoR type expansion myself. However, I question whether or not it is practical to expect BW/Ea to create a SoR type expansion without taking like more than a year. And, even if they did, given the quality and overall reception of content post 5.0, would it even be that good?

 

My 2 cents on the original topic ( how to best use limited resources at Bioware) is this. Right now, what is BW best at doing? I honestly don't know.

But whatever they're best at doing, perhaps BW should go all out with that.

If it's story, then give us a great, compelling, memorable, INSERT SYNONYMS FOR GREAT HERE, on going story and story arcs.

If it's repeatable content (ops, daily areas, whatever), give us good bosses with challenging and fun (but not nearly impossible) mechanics.

If it's PVP, then class balance should have been done like a long time ago. Give us new WZ maps with new objectives, not just reskins of old maps with the same objective.

 

And, while bug fixes, QoL improvements, and server merges are nice and welcome, they are not a substitutes for actual content. They should be worked on and released parallel to real content.

[Quraswren]

Endgame isn't the problem, raiding is, if a lot of people start queuing tomorrow pvp is instantly popular and something worth investing in, literally all it needs is people genuinely interested in doing it (why those people don't seem to exist is a different issue)

 

Raids aren't like that, 8 players willing to do an Ops don't guarantee you will actually be able to do that OP, you may have 4 that like SM Ops, 2 that are into HM, and 2 that are NiM raiders, these 8 raiders are not going to play with each other even though they all like raiding, and this excludes the fact that there's no NiM mode for the latest bosses, constant nerfs, and the fact that someone that was already doing NiM raiding has to go back to a lower level to get the gear they need, or even do other content to get the gear they need.

 

IF this game looked like it was investing in raids properly it might not help the game in general, but it wouldn't hurt it either, as it it raiding hurts every other aspect of the game.

 

 

This idea that raids are super popular in another game so as long as we force people to do them they'll grow to like them is absurd, nothing is stopping non raiders from playing those other games, that have more and better raids.

 

And it doesn't look like our raids are attracting raiders from other games, and generating either more population or more profit.

 

I think thats where the phrase "the damage is done" aptly applies here.

 

bioware has just done so much damage to this IP over the years I have to wonder if anything they do at this point would make a real difference.

 

More end game group content?

Another round of story?

More PVP?

More solo content?

 

It would take a content boom in most all areas and bioware is really at this just incapable of that nor does it seem the word would really get out even if they did. Advertising is at an all time low.

 

I know people talk about what FF14 did to recover that travesty but it sadly might be the only way this game could ever really recover at this point. Maybe thats where their resources should go beucase there are not hitting the mark with what they have been doing for the past couple years.

 

To much damage has been done thanks to biowares mistakes.

[Jamtas]

No, I am not. Iokath and Umbara are roughly 10 minutes of story that cannot be repeated. It is a scrap.

 

So what you are saying is that the story doesn't have replay value to keep you subscribing month over month?

 

PvP has a whole new map coming up, there are several ops bosses coming and you guys are able to get a companion that is not available for solo players.

 

And story has return of companions. And more story coming out as well. Since 5.0, operations have gotten 2 bosses. Story got all chapters of KOTET, Iokath and Umbra story. With more on the way with the Chiss.

 

None of it is a lot but story has been just as minimal as everything else.

There has not been an operation/pvp patch without story released along with it, but there have been many instances of story releases without either. The 2 operation bosses this year are the first since 2014. Between Revan/WB Monolith there has been the Ziost storyline, KOTFE/KOTET storylines. That is a content drought story has never seen nor will it.

 

And I'm not calling for story to be ignored - just stating that saying story is just as neglected as the other content types in this game is flat out wrong.

[ivanhedgehog]

Allow them? Yes...there are a million reasons to "allow" them to get it. Their $ is just as valuable as yours. If I were a solo player, you bet your *** I'd want BiS still...who wouldn't want to be the best they can be at something? Why would you want to always be an underachiever?

 

Top tier gear dropping from crates for solo players, is the best damn thing to happen to this game - arguably the best part of CXP/GC imo. MAYBE...just maybe...by having that top tier gear, they'll be encouraged to try something they were cautious about before.

 

This post has so much truth in it you deserve an award. I am a raider and I am perfectly happy for nonraiders to get BIS. If they have fun with it and dont feel like they are not welcome in a raid team due to poor gear, they may just have enough fun to want to join us in more raids and wadda ya know!!! a new raider is born! this bs of ________ group doesnt do _______ content so they dont need this gear is bs. My gear level does not somehow validate my life. The game is here for us to have fun, not a continuation of the haves and have nots

[ivanhedgehog]

Yup.

massive snip

 

Word. When this game launched, the entire MMO landscape was different. Free to play wasn't even a thing then. Suddenly, the terrain changed and a game set up for a world where FtP was for phone games had to maneuver its bulk through a door not designed for it into a room where all the furniture's at weird angles.

 

Free to play was in play long before SWTOR launched. City of Heroes had it and they didnt invent it.

[DWho]

There is so much that can be done with the existing infrastructure. There are many planets that are underutilized and adding a new zone to them should not take to much time. All the textures and models already exist. "Rehashing old content" can be done in a way that makes it interesting again. Say you took the existing KotFE storyline and made a non-Force user mirror of it. You can still use all the combat sequences and scripting. You could reuse most of the old dialog, voice-overs, and cutscenes. With a little added material, it becomes a "new storyline" at a fraction of the cost and effort. That's harder to do with Operations and Flashpoints but it could be done by rearranging the encounters or replacing old encounters with new ones while leaving the bosses in place. Not everything needs to be brand new material to expand the game.

[YlliyaXor]

I think thats where the phrase "the damage is done" aptly applies here.

 

bioware has just done so much damage to this IP over the years I have to wonder if anything they do at this point would make a real difference.

 

More end game group content?

Another round of story?

More PVP?

More solo content?

 

It would take a content boom in most all areas and bioware is really at this just incapable of that nor does it seem the word would really get out even if they did. Advertising is at an all time low.

 

I know people talk about what FF14 did to recover that travesty but it sadly might be the only way this game could ever really recover at this point. Maybe thats where their resources should go beucase there are not hitting the mark with what they have been doing for the past couple years.

 

To much damage has been done thanks to biowares mistakes.

 

We can only hope that is not true, but that really seems to be the case.

 

If they could at least stick to some kind of consistency it would be a bonus, this constant zigzagging just leaves everyone frustrated.

[kodrac]

I hadn't realized I had done that. You are correct. I didn't say players to mislead, I simply misspoke.

 

/shakefist That lead to my whole characters/players/math debate! /shakefist Explains all the confusion between us though.

Edited October 18, 2017 by kodrac

[Rion_Starkiller]

I hadn't realized I had done that. You are correct. I didn't say players to mislead, I simply misspoke.

/shakefist That lead to my whole characters/players/math debate! /shakefist Explains all the confusion between us though.

 

Kind of like when Keith said "per character" but actually meant "per base class?" /snark .

Edited October 18, 2017 by Rion_Starkiller

[kodrac]

Kind of like when Keith said "per character" but actually meant "per base class?" /snark .

 

Oh snap!

[Tsillah]

This post has so much truth in it you deserve an award. I am a raider and I am perfectly happy for nonraiders to get BIS. If they have fun with it and dont feel like they are not welcome in a raid team due to poor gear, they may just have enough fun to want to join us in more raids and wadda ya know!!! a new raider is born! this bs of ________ group doesnt do _______ content so they dont need this gear is bs. My gear level does not somehow validate my life. The game is here for us to have fun, not a continuation of the haves and have nots

Dunno if I share the optimism. Gear is a factor but player skill is key in the harder content.

 

Equally you could say that people try for example operations because they have high level gear and then suck donkeyballs just the same cause the gear won't solve that. That might discourage them even more since even BiS gear didn't keep them from that experience so what hope do they have then?

 

I think the only thing that really works is that there are people who are willing to teach and people who are willing to learn that end up meeting each other. Good things come from that.

 

A bit of gear can help but BiS gear won't keep you from dying and wiping if you don't know what you're doing. I don't mind if solo players have BiS gear but it won't make them good enough for group content without learning some things and unfortunately GC also means that we have entered a sort of system where attendance is rewarded over achievement. I just can't see that as a positive thing. It's a side effect of having a single reward system for everything.

[Rion_Starkiller]

Oh snap!

 

Rion_Starkiller 1

Kodrac, TuX 0

[DWho]

It tells me for all the reason anyone in game might created toons. It wasn't really for story or those two numbers would be a bit closer. They create toons for all kids of reason but in all those toons a small percent were used to actually see the story.

 

Well, since this seems to be the core of your "proof", let me blow a few holes in it for you with a list of reasons why someone might create a character and then never progress it past Coruscant.

 

1) Created character on a server they didn't like (friends are on a different server)

2) Created a Jedi Knight but found out they couldn't use a double bladed lightsaber (created a new Consular)

3) Created a Consular but found out they could use 2 lightsabers (created a new Knight)

4) Got to selecting an Advanced class and didn't find any of the choices appealing

5) Leveled character through PVP

6) Server was too crowded for their tastes

7) Server was to empty for their tastes

8) Severe server lag (Slideshow effect)

9) Couldn't progress due to a bug and switched to a different class

10) Found the class they started not to their liking (combat style, skills, etc)

 

There are numerous other possibilities of why someone would create a character and then never progress it past the Homeworld, especially at launch.

 

By the way, 2 and 3 were very common. Everyone wanted to use a double bladed lightsaber like Darth Maul and Satelle Shan. I can't even count the number of people who asked in general chat if they could us a double bladed saber (or two sabers) and were disappointed it was class restricted.

 

People who quit before Tython/Ord Mantel had not even experienced a tiny fraction of the story. Tython/Ord Mantel was about getting to know your class not engaging story. It's silly to say that at that point they could have determined that the story was not worth playing.

[Transcendent]

Kind of like when Keith said "per character" but actually meant "per base class?" /snark .

 

Oh, I see what you did there!

[DarthDymond]

Allow them? Yes...there are a million reasons to "allow" them to get it. Their $ is just as valuable as yours. If I were a solo player, you bet your *** I'd want BiS still...who wouldn't want to be the best they can be at something? Why would you want to always be an underachiever?

 

Top tier gear dropping from crates for solo players, is the best damn thing to happen to this game - arguably the best part of CXP/GC imo. MAYBE...just maybe...by having that top tier gear, they'll be encouraged to try something they were cautious about before.

Say it again for the kids in the back! Great post.