I have been playing since late beta. I was in a top raiding guild, arguably the top raiding guild, on my starting server Lord Praven. Everyone I know that left didn't leave because of lack of story or lack of things to do endgame, they left because the endgame content was buggy as hell. I honestly think that's the reason we lost most people is just the sheer buggy issues in raiding and the game in general, ILLUM PvP disaster we lost a lot of PvP people, balance being changed too quickly in PvP in 1.2 hurt as well and drove lots of people away I PvP'd with. I don't know anyone that left because of the lack of enough story to play. People concerned with that would take their time, play through more stories etc. Funny enough I am now a casual. I've since had two kids, I find it really hard to play more than 30-60 minute sittings and even then I can get interrupted. I literally only stay for the story now, but to say a MMO can survive on solo-focused story alone I think is a bit crazy. What we need is for SWTOR to have more consistent content release IN GENERAL. Content release has always been too slow, which I find especially odd since leading up to the game the devs touted how this engine made it easy to create content yet we seem to have gotten results that oppose that heavily. I get that they expected to keep a huge sub amount and keep a huge team, but even still the slow response time on quality of life improvements and bug issues at launch just demolished the game. While not having more raids certainly didn't help, I genuinely don't feel that was the prime issue. I do think the raid release schedule and PvP map release schedule has been too slow and has since hurt the game as well. At this point I think a lot of the really hardcore raiders have left, the people left who are hardcore raiders are largely a minority because they're the only ones with a lot of tolerance and patience - whether as personality traits or because their love for Star Wars and enjoyment of various facets of the game over-ruled the problems the game faced. While I think it is likely true there are more subs who focus on story now than raids and PvP, I don't think that's a good excuse to write out the other content. Ultimately what it comes down to is whatever they do they need to be releasing content in a faster pace in general and without introducing huge bug issues in the process or at least fixing them quickly. I do think story is their bread and butter right now, so I think it makes sense to put more focus on that, but I think it's damaging to a MMO to leave the other facets behind. I would also like to add, group content doesn't have to be raids, we could see more focus on flashpoints, or adding heroics into the game, or hell god forbid we have some inventiveness and something new be created -- sadly I think the ship maybe has sailed on that because of the engine limitations, which is really sad.

This is a perfect example of why they really need to re-do the name system to allow duplicate names and have it based on our legacy name or some other name/title we add. I also lost 4 character names in the server merge no fault of my own since I had been subbed the entire time including the character my entire legacy was based around so I had to come up with a new legacy name also in the process to make it fit in my head-canon/RP wise. Was not amused...also happens to be the name I've used in Star Wars roleplaying for 15~ years at the time. There was a reason I grabbed it immediately and to have it ripped from me for no good reason because they didn't plan ahead well is a load of crap. The fact I did and can use other names doesn't change it only happened because Bioware lacked forethought and planning that screwed over and pissed off some of their main fan-base.

Exactly, these rewards were just for temp events that happen to be then, not rewards for long-term players. Some people may not have even been aware of the game then for example so they should be punished and not be able to get a gear-set they think looks nice just because they didn't know about the game to get a temp event gear set? Guess agree to disagree.

While I am pro-level sync, I get people want choices. Anytime as a developer you make a decision to change the game significantly it is always best to go with the method that allows the most choice, that is my opinion. While I love the idea of level sync, and am one of the original beta people begging for a mentoring type system so I'm thrilled to have something that accomplishes this in a way, I get that some people enjoy going back and doing old content over-leveled or to achievement hunt and would prefer to not be forced to group to do so. I don't think it's as big a deal as some people are making it out to be (the doom and gloom game is going to fail people), but I don't see what it would have hurt to give a way to turn it off/make it optional for those people that don't want to use it.

I'll never understand the mentality of keeping rare items that are just for looks rarer somehow makes things better for people who were around for them initially. I've been playing since late-beta, have all the event stuff I could want (I've only ever seen 1 person wearing the blood-stained sand people armor I have from one of the early events that doesn't return, I use it on my main BH) and couldn't care less if they re-release this limited time stuff to others. For one, some people weren't even playing then so they literally have had no way to get it, secondly it's all for looks and frankly it should be about giving people as many options as possible to look the way they want so they feel the best about their gaming experience especially as it pertains to doing story and RPing. I don't measure the degree of my satisfaction in a MMO with owning items that are super-rare...they're not real things, eventually this will all be gone, I rate my satisfaction with getting enjoyment out of the actual playing. Everything else is just to enhance that experience and I certainly don't get enhancement from depriving other people certain armor or weapon looks. Note: I've had the bowcasters since the Chevin (? think that was the event they were from) event and have yet to use one once and I have I think 3-4 of them lol. Just cause something is super-rare and limited time doesn't even make it cool to everyone. The only thing I'm wearing from the events I got armor and weapons from is that Sand People set. Personally think the original Containment armor is rather meh looking. Now give me my sand people yell/gaffi stick swinging emote Bioware!

Save for a very serious emergency I really don't see the problem. Note, I have a wife and kids. I know I can get interrupted at any point and most of my gaming time is only after my baby is asleep and my son is in his room for the night (supposed to be falling asleep). I know I can still get interrupted. So save if I talk w/ my wife and set aside a no-interruption time I DO NOT queue. Because I know there's a decent chance I could be interrupted with minor son issues and have to keep walking away for a few minutes. It's called simple courtesy. Now if someone has a serious emergency happen somehow I doubt they'll give a crap if they're locked out for 12 hours or 24 hours, whatever number you want to give it that seems reasonable to dissuade people from dropping for no good reason/not even giving it a go. If I had a serious emergency the last thing on my mind would be how I'm locked out of GF for a while. People who don't want to deal with the kind of crap that comes with GF queue shouldn't be using it then, simple as that. Only group with guildies/friends then if you're picky.

Also completely disagree with OP, feel this is adding choices. If anything I will now be more apt to level multiple of every class to see how the different companions react through the whole class story 1-50 at least, whereas say before on my Agent I had Kaliyo cause I needed a tank to let me stabby stabby like someone else said etc. I have started breaking these "norms" and path of least resistance in my last few characters I leveled just cause I wanted to see different companions commentary and just use a different companion for fun than the same old same old, but it will be nice to be able to put them in the ideal role for my situation rather than just making do running two DPS or tank and DPS.

Have the wireless model, but like the guy above me I always use it wired. I don't think I could ever go to a different mouse now after a Naga, god willing mine will keep chugging a good while yet since boy are they expensive...but well worth it.

Not going to hold my breath, but I agree I'd really like to see a GSF PvE style expansion, or even improvements to the current tunnel shooter to maybe allow a multiplayer aspect with someone else in the ship with you both shooting, or multiple paths. I honestly don't see why they couldn't do a limited space free roam like GSF that is mission based like you drop in and have to do a certain task (blow up supplies, take out a capital ship etc).

In my experience in the game the reason so many people left within a couple months of launch wasn't just the lack of end-game content, it was several things that mostly revolved around one single principle: Lack of polish. There was a lack of polish that MMOers had become used to thanks to WoW, which is often what causes MMOs to have huge initial influx then a huge drop-off. Some of this is just the MMO raider locusts who'll beat what there is and move on as fast as possible no matter what you do cause they get bored way too easily. Others it is the lack of polish and it can be difficult to adjust to if you're not seeing a good turn-around on resolving issues and adding QoL items you've become accustomed to. That and some of the early design decisions just being poorly thought out like gambling PvP boxes helped to kill other specific crowds. Then consider people who were in guilds who had a lot of people who fit into one of these groups and their guilds largely evaporated and often times these people left (and probably often came back like myself, I fell into this last category and left after 1.2 for several months). Content cadence certainly is a factor too, but the amount of bugs in raids, even random buggy issues and lack of QoL stuff I think is really what caused the mass drop.

Maybe some-day I'll reinstall it and try that DLC see if it helps. I just need to head-canon it frankly by saying the ending is just Shepherd dying and coming to terms w/ it by imagining he succeeded. It just irks me that it could have been so better, we could have had a DLC where he fought off the Indoctrination through a lvl-piece and then had a real encounter with Harbinger and Harbinger gave a better explanation for their existence and what they were doing and gave you a genuinely tough decision on what to do. Example of what it could have been from stuff I've read is that the use of EVO (or whatever the heck the material was called that was used by mass relays, and the higher tech, been so long since I've played ME I'm forgetting stuf now) could have been creating some kind of ill-effect like an increase in dark matter that eventually would cause a sped-up cataclysm/death of the Universe or something that was a threat to the Universe at large like that and their cyclical wiping out of advanced civilizations was created by some early species that created them to solve how to deal w/ the situation. That doesn't have a logical hole in it and makes some good sense. Also you'd then have a genuinely tough and impactful decision - do I defeat them now and hope we can find a way to deal w/ this, do I allow the cyclical process to continue for the good of the Universe as a whole, do I try to defeat them and ultimately fail etc. I just think it would have been far more moving and significant. And if they did it right they could have incorporated into an extra lvl using our decisions in the series on who we saved, helped, united actually being present and helping us try to stop the Reapers like that would lead up to talking to Harbinger and finding out the real reason for the process. Anyhow, I am digressing again. Thankfully nothing in Star Wars has affected me that significantly and I think I have a little more lenient relationship with Star Wars because of my old RP days where we basically RP'd an alternate reality Star Wars. Why I can't seem to make my own alternate reality ME in my head and accept it is beyond me, I think it's because I just know the next game coming out will invalidate it and for some reason in this instance I can't accept it as insane as it sounds. My comments certainly come from emotion not from sanity and logic lol.

Yes, it really ruined the whole thing for me. I don't know why honestly, normally I am pretty easy to please when it comes to movies, games etc especially since I am a big RPer. But it just seemed like blatant stupidity that they didn't do an Indoctrination Theory DLC. There is no way the stuff in the game that supports that theory was accidental, I genuinely think it was planned originall and Bioware was rushed by EA to finish, but that still doesn't explain why they didn't take the time to release it later as an alternate ending. They lost my business on all the DLC past the free one cause of it and I'm sure I'm not the only one. The ending we got was tripe compared to what an Indoctrination Theory ending/s could have given us and they pulled exactly the kind of crap they said they weren't going to pull ending-wise. I honestly think I took it so poorly because I was SO deeply invested in the story and the characters and loved it so much to just have it spit on in the end with that set of sub-par endings was an insult to my love of the franchise and time investment. I really wish Drew Karpyshyn had never been pulled over to SWTOR cause I think things would have gone much better story-wise although the JK story may not have been as good then. I am with you though there's content in the game that is amazing, I loved the parts you mentioned also. But the ending just put such a sour taste in my mouth I couldn't bring myself to replay the game even. And what's sad is the ME universe was nearing equal-footing with Star Wars in my mind, which is saying something cause I have been a huge Star Wars nerd my entire life. All ruined with that ending. I won't touch another ME game for fear of having it happen to me again now.

Hope the above person is right and they're just increasing XP output on class missions and honestly I'd like to see planet arcs included in that just not the side quests. Please please don't remove content though, just make it so people don't have to do the side-quests to level. It's still nice to do some here and there as desired.

I did, don't know about him. Still was massively disappointed with ME3. I played ME1 and 2 7...SEVEN...times. I played ME3 1 time. Nothing short of an expansion w/ a resolution/s fitting w/ the indoctrination theory would save the game and make it worth replaying to me. It spoiled me on the Mass Effect series, I will not touch another ME game now thanks to it. Why they'd be against doing that and making more money is beyond me, especially when the game set it up so perfectly. But I digress. I am not real trusting of anything Mr. Ohlen says anymore honestly. I am cautiously optimistic. I'm sure I'll enjoy the game but I'll believe the choices are more diverse than the class 1-50 stories when I see it.

And why couldn't she decide after these years ruling she needs a hiatus/break back to the old days running around w/ you and leaves a trusted advisor in control who calls her now and then to get her final say on things and goes off on a new adventure with you . I'm just saying you're going to piss people off if you take characters they loved having with them as a companion and have them run off and do things on their own without the option of having them come back and help. Edit: Let me clarify I will play and enjoy it either way, but I get why people would be upset. I would be a little perturbed if like a handful I couldn't get back but it wouldn't ruin the whole experience for me or anything.