I still have game time left with SWTOR but recently have found that I can't even bring myself to log on. It's a sad day when I find all the whinging on these forums more entertaining that the game itself.

The game is bleeding subs and the forum community has nothing but negativity towards the game (or towards players posting negative things) so they need a shake up.

Top priority to keep me playing the game for more than another couple of months would be to make me feel engaged and actually care about my character. Not easy to do. Second would be to make the game enjoyable at all levels of play with my main and my alts. That's probably near impossible at this point. Last month I would have said that rated WZ would have kept me in the game but as it stands I'm fast running out of people to group with for that.

Lol I just spent the afternoon trying to remember how to play my Warden again. Was nice to actually have fun in an MMO again.

$15 should get me a game I enjoy playing. As it stands I have unsubbed.

Very constructive thread. Now time for my 2 cents: Firstly, SR was laid off so expect some changes. I'm sure he was a nice bloke and did what he could but posting more info on your personal Twitter page rather than on the official forums (or even the official Twitter) was a bad call. Either way, BW has, throughout development and launch, been quite closed with the community. Some Developers (Turbine comes to mind) tend to be much more transparent in the decisions they make and it really makes the player feel much more in touch with the company. Playing LOTRO I would always see forum posts from Devs sharing thought on what changes they are thinking of making long before any changes were actually made. This allowed them to get some feedback, make changes and more importantly show the players that problems weren't being brushed under the carpet. Secondly, server transfers and LFG tools are both nice things but will they really help retain/bring back a lot of players? I haven't logged on for 3 days yet play on an active server with a guild always up for running content. IMO the priorities for the Dev team both with post launch additions and essentials to launch with have been wrong. Many will no doubt disagree and I'm not sure what came out of the guild conference but seeing features added that bring little to the table do nothing to inspire confidence in the future. Legacy, crit crafted orange gear, color matching, whilst all nice are not deal makers. What happened to the same sex relationships that got so much hype? What about more gear options rather than an augment on the 5-6 different orange pieces available per class. Rated WZ should have been in at launch or at least already had a solid foundation. Mini games would also remove a lot of the boredom. LFG took way too long and the dead servers have already cemented the opinion that it is more a single player RPG than MMO for many people. Population drops have essentially been blamed on casual players not subbing but IMO to be successful they need to keep as many casual gamers as possible. As it stands the casuals are getting bored and leaving and the hard core are getting bored and leaving so what's left? More importantly who will be left in 6 months or even 2 years? This was BW 1st foray into an MMO but stuff like trying to maximize player retention should have still been a high priority rather than turning a quick buck from box sales. /rant

There was a trial weekend this month I think and they do use those and the 7 day trial to pad numbers but I still don't think it's enough to make it appear like the game is growing.

The community, whilst getting worse, was always pretty bad. There are a few exceptions in MMOs but as a general rule of thumb annonimoty leads to people being *****. LOTRO has an amazing community and I think that it stems from the community only coming over in dribs and drabs from games like WOW. SWG, whilst a horrid game, also had a good community. Coming over from LOTRO I tried to keep my cool, be helpful and patient with people but I am clearly in the minority. I said before launch that community will make or break this game for me and in the end it didn't though. I unsubbed a couple of days ago mostly due to Devs largely ignoring the problems with the game. I was in a guild I formed for most of the game though and so have a great bunch of guildies to negate all the bile in general chat.

I remember one of the devs saying something like that weren't trying to reinvent the MMO, just refine it. That worked for WOW many years ago but these days too many people are sick of that. A large part of the SWTOR player base left other games like WOW, RIFT and LOTRO for something different and after a few months it just feels like much of the same.

I was playing on Swiftsure and then Master Dar'Nala so population is no issue. I can imagine playing on a dead server with no chance of even a WZ popping would make the game even worse.

The WOW killer bit is more a bit of sarcasm than anything. I expected the game to be successful is all and having played a couple of MMOs that have fallen into the cracks before I can see the tell tale signs here. I'm not saying the game won't be around for a decade, I mean WAR is sill around when there own devs have admitted it's a failure.

1. It needs to be fun at all levels in both PVP/PVE 2. It needs to foster a good community SWTOR fails on both counts.

I have 2 level 50s, a lvl 40, a couple of level 30s and the rest of the classes are in the high teens. Class Story is great but after a while repeating all the other ones gets really tedious. You can skip them and PVP but then all the travel time going to and for from planets gets annoying. In a way, the class stories gave the game a lot more replayability but the linear nature of the rest of the questing really negates that.

I agree that I shouldn't have hyped the game up as much but it's SW and it's an MMO. I'm not ranting saying "I told you so" as I really do wish this game had that enjoyment some games have which gives them staying power. I just unsubbed and still have 85 days game time to try see a turn around but IMO the game is fundamentally flawed. Missing features and bugs is something I can deal with in a new MMO but too many of the core functions of the game are just poorly designed. Traveling to a planet takes way too long, expertise was IMO a bad way to go in PVP, Orange gear vs cosmetic gear/dyes, story/hard/nightmare as progression is a cop out, legacy is nothing but a credit sink, linear planet progression, space combat... The list goes on. Looking at what 1.3 entails it just seems like more of the same with a group finder. Ohh and 1 last thing, the community is horrible. When I left WOW it was largely due to what the community had become and here , that is where the community has started. I shudder to think of what it will be like in 6 months time. Seriously, scroll up and read a few of the posts above mine (and likely after) and get a decent cross section of the community.

I kinda feel stupid for ever expecting this game to do well. I honestly believed that the masses would flock to it and appreciate it as a far superior game to what's currently on the market. Turns out it's WAR all over again, with lackluster implementation ruining an otherwise brilliant opportunity. The game is no giant slayer & I'm pretty curious to see if it will weather the storm of MMOs coming out this year with a lot of potential.