Who Swtor was made for.

OP should not be disheartened. This game has a nice levelling pace if you are a casual player and cannot play all the time. The pace is great if you want to level multiple classes. If you only want to level 1 character it is way too fast. I actually found the game to be a bit easier than i liked. It is still very fun if you play casually when you can (2-3 afternoons a week).

I want to bane a town, kill it's guild and steal their loot.

I miss you Shadowbane.....

As per the site I don't believe they are including what it cost to launch TOR rather just to make it. Marketing, especially how much was done in its various forms, is fairly expensive. The Panel interview is up on Darthhater.com.

Also

EA actually spent more than $747 million on marketing last year.

Deleted. No point. Everyone is TLDR these days. +See Sig.

I think people are over-analyzing the playstyle terms here. The difference between casual and hardcore is the approach the player takes to the game, and what they find fun.

I would say the hardcore players enjoy the number-crunching part of the game. The hardcore players are the ones min/maxing, and spending time to ensure that there character is running not only statistically flawless as possible, but that they are controlling their character with the keyboard and mouse in the most efficient way to accomplish their particular role as best as possible. Hardcore players like this part of the game, and since they have fun doing this they tend to be some of the best players in the game.

Casual players don't care about min/maxing their character or trying to be one of the players with the best gear on the server. They may say they do (which everyone wants to be the best), however they don't put in the time and/or effort required to be a hardcore player. It's not saying they couldn't, but it's saying that they don't find that part fun and don't care to. Casual players usually don't participate in the extremely time-consuming and difficult parts of the game.

Time, in my opinion, is an irrelevant statistic for both groups -- and by time I mean time spent playing the game. In fact, I would say hardcore players tend to take their time seriously so they try to be efficient as possible with it, so they can spend less time doing the trivial/less fun things and more time spent doing what is fun -- the actual encounter. On average the more "hardcore" players probably spend more time playing the game, however it's certainly not required since I knew people who were some of the best players in the nation but only logged on when required of them to raid or pvp.

Anyway, casual and hardcore have nothing to do with what they do, but how they do it. Playstyles ask "How?" not "What?". Both casual and hardcore players raid. Both casual and hardcore players do warzones. Both casual and hardcore players do dailies, and quest, and gather things, etc. etc. etc. They do the same things for the most part, but they do it in a different way.

I seen a statement from the dev's a long time ago, this game is made for the Star Wars/Bioware fan, does anyone really make mmo's that lean toward the hardcore niche market post wow ?

Pretty sure anyone who followed this game AT all in beta or pre release knew this game wasn't aimed at hardcore.Using WoW in this post also tells me either you are not quite sure what hardcore is when it comes to gaming.There really aren't any new hardcore mmogs that have came out for along time FF online (not the new one) was probly the last before you fall back on stuff like Eq1 and Anarchy Online etc etc.

WoW lost some of its hardcore playability with the BC expansion, then went easy button with LK. I think unless a game is specific to hardcores the way MIT-level racing sims are aimed at gearheads who can't afford to race IRL, they're going the way of the dinosaur. At least in the MMO genre.

Best post I've seen in quite awhile. You nailed it. This game was never meant for the hard-core gamers. It was meant for the casual ADHD players like me who will re-roll alts forever. That is the vast majority of gamers these days and that is why SWTOR will succeed for many years to come. Despite it's flaws it still caters to people like me.

Not to nitpick, but the boss fights in BC were plenty difficult (pre nerf Kael, pre nerf Vashj, the ********* that was pre-nerf Mu'ru, etc.) IMHO, BC had a good difficulty going on for it. The bosses were hard, but not impossible.

I will agree that Wrath was a huge drop in difficulty overall, with the exception of a few bosses.

I agree that it seems that the MMO market is heading towards a more "pick up and play" experience rather than a "hardcore" one.