I will not be leaving FOR GW2, I will simply be leaving after my subscription runs out later in August. The endless repetition in SWTOR is getting to to me. I've lost count of how many dailies I've done (got over 500 unused daily commendations, even more tionese comms and crystals etc. etc)..and I just can't do it anymore. I probably stayed with SWTOR longer that I should have. That is not EA/BW's fault - that is my own. I've enjoyed SWTOR a lot and many enjoyable hours have been had - most certainly worth the 15 bucks a months. Heck, that's what you pay for one drink in some places. But, I am certain that BW cannot produce content in large enough batches, to literally keep me occupied and entertained at the same time, for very long. There is a good chance I will pick up GW2 - it is a visually beautiful game and the ease with which you can team up with others, not steal from one another and get a share in everything if you participate and contribute, is the way MMOs should be, I feel. Getting away from the whole "LFG"-nonsense, just to be able to get started with your gaming, should be a relief. It may be that GW2 can't offer more than a few months of entertainment, but that is enough for the price. We shall see.

SWTOR is making enough money. F2P is a clever way to get more money out of the fans. Many of you paid an excess amount of money for a few "digital items" and therein lies the secret to increased revenue. There is an untapped market for players who are willing to pay for extras. The perceived status of getting access to a so-called VIP area, the ability to pop a flare to demonstrate some sort of elevated player status and the ePrestige imagined by some when wearing "rare" items in-game is what's going to crank up the revenue. With a straight up P2P, there is no way to really get more money out of people beyond the subscription. The next stage in this evolution is - quite naturally - to tap into people's innate competitiveness and offer actual advantages when purchasing in-game items. Any for-profit company will of course follow the money and the path is shown to them by the lazy "why work for it when I can buy it"-crowd. It's no different than "gold sellers" except, in this case, this revenue goes to the company instead of some 3rd party parasite living off the efforts of others. Predictable, understandable and utterly unavoidable. Welcome to the new age of online gaming. If you expected anything else, you simply haven't paid attention....

LoL..just...lol. Although old, suggested many times and consistently rejected, these ideas will not improve the subscriber-numbers or even halt the attrition. Here's a little insider tip: people do not leave because of the environments in and of themselves - they leave because of the gameplay. ..and if that seems obscure: cosmetics will not create beauty, it will only temporarily conceal imperfections.

Heh...true. There is definitely such a "crowd" as you say. However, I maintain that SWTOR has gone too far (just as DCUO did it) in terms of how fast the content can be consumed. Not sure what the magic balance is or even if the "I want it all, now!" crowd is large enough to design the game for, but I do believe SWTOR could have had significantly more shelf-life if content was slower to consume. ...but who really knows..

Look kid, There is no relevance to whatever other games did or do. SWTOR lacks content for a few very simple reasons that have been explained several times in this thread. But to make it real easy to grasp: When you can chew through the full content of the game in a matter of 3-4 weeks, 7 months into this 200+ million dollar game, obviously there is something wrong. At 6 years old, I don't believe you were old enough to really grasp the level of expectations that any gaming community might have to any game. However, I can tell you with authority that no MMO-gamer throughout the history of MMOs would EVER be satisfied with content that can be consumed in a matter of 3-4 weeks. What happened to DC Universe Online is exactly what is happening to SWTOR. They both start with a FANTASTIC base: a long-standing a beloved universe that hundreds of millions of people have known for many many years. They create a game with a great premise - a super-promising story. Then they proceed to make the game so fast and easy to complete that people are bored and waiting for new releases within a few weeks. What's most amazing to me is that BW should have seen this coming. They KNEW how quick it was to level. They KNEW how quickly it was to chew through the end-game - even WITH the artificial delays ("only once a week"). And they had DCUO to look at. Oh well...

A fine set of rules that are well put! The only amendment I would interject is that everyone should expect that both SM and HM will play the cut scenes, unless it's specifically agreed in advance to skip them. The exception is to skip them, hence the initiative to build consensus around skipping them is the burden of those who want to skip. There doesn't have to be a reason to see them - it is enough that one person simply likes to. This has nothing to do with "story mode" vs. "hard mode". Story mode is simply a code-word for the difficulty level, which is "default". Anyone and everyone has the right to enjoy what the game has to offer. No flashpoint/operation will be extended by more than a few minutes by letting them roll. Other than that, I'm in agreement with them. Nice work!

This issue has already been addressed by third party providers. You can download and run DPS meter for you individual performance and group performance - not only DPs but for heals, damage taken etc. Since this is already available for free, there is no reason for Bioware to spend resources towards this.

The total amount of time for cut scenes in any and all FPs is small fraction of the overall time required to complete the FP. The self-induced, semi-hysterical state of impatience is the only thing that makes people perceive that it is longer, Always assume and plan for 1 or more players wanting to enjoy the cut scenes and you can ONLY be pleasantly surprised and never disappointed. There is zero excuse for being rude about it.

Hi JeffKretz, I've been following this debate for a while as I was curious about the reigning view on this. Just wanna say thanks for make this very apples-to-apples comparison by setting up two fully built characters like that. That was very helpful! What I take away from it is that, on the whole, the difference really is quite marginal and that it's highly unlikely that any difference is going to make or break a team's chance of success in a raid. In other words: if you fumble the rotation or don't activate perfectly efficiently just ONCE in a boss fight, you've probably made more of a difference in the DPS than any decision on the augments you may have made WP/P-wise. After seeing this, I have decided not to get rid of all my power-augments and replace them with willpower-augments. Not only is such an undertaking rather cost-prohibitive, but more importantly: it's not going to make any practical and noticeable difference. Thanks for providing clear, readable data on this matter! Cheers :-)

There is nothing wrong with the group finder. You're complaining that, at the time of your choosing, there weren't 3 others in complementary roles, who happened to be queued up at the same time you were. However, that has nothing to do with the tool.The tool functions just fine.

It ought to be fairly obvious to anyone that not every person has the same taste where games are concerned. As such, it's not exactly a revelation that there is a person or two out there who are "bored". In the meantime, hundreds of thousands of players are still enjoying themselves. There is no point in trying to "understand" - either you feel it or you don't. Galactic warfare as a fantasy is not for everyone.

For starters, I'm sure they have learned not to use the forums as a source of "inspiration" for new features that will attract more players. This place is like a medieval market with fishwives gleefully spreading unsubstantiated rumors just to stir up trouble. Wild conjecture, sweeping generalization, rampant ignorance...it all here. They should sample the people who actually play the game...not read bitter retoric from WoW rejects.

Nothing wrong with it at all - just hard to really understand. You got this great Star Wars game where you can make money, do missions and explore..and you spend your time playing...investor? The GTN is a simplified, primitive, one-dimensional construct that is uglier than a Facebook game..and out of all the content in the game, people spend their time on buying and selling items on the GTN for a virtual profit? I could see it as a means to an end, if there really was an end - e.g. guild capital ships, player housing, etc. etc...in other words, something grand and worthwhile to spend the credits on... But that's just me. If you enjoy yourself doing it, then that's all that matters.

There is no "trick" per se. Every military is obliged to carry out the orders of the legally appointed government. Whether a solider has this thought "implanted" during growth or is simply conditioned through training, the result is largely the same. It's simply a soldier's code - they must obey lawfully issued commands no matter if they agree with them or not. In Star Wars, the clone army was specifically bred to be even more obedient than your average soldier, thus making the command structure more effective from a "speed of execution" standpoint.

Look...you're over analyzing. This whole story is imaginary. Of course these belief systems aren't perfectly defined and they are full of inconsistencies and self-contradictions..and as such, just as imperfect as any "real" belief systems we can observe in our world outside the Star Wars universe. This dedication to the "the light side" and "good" and all the subordinate objectives such as "protecting the weak" and "uphold justice" is of course emotionally based too. All motivation originate from emotion. So of course Jedi have emotions. The difference lies in how these emotions influence your action and your decision making. Was Obi-Wan angry about Darth Maul killing Qui-Gon? Sure he was! Was Yoda angry when he fought the Emperor in the Senate? Yes..the movies make no bones about that. However, the stories all tell the same story - only because they were able to keep a level head, they survived and prevailed in the end. It was never intended for Jedi to be like Borg drones, only that they become masters of their own emotions instead of the other way around.