The Issue with TOR and why people are leaving

You do realize we never see Darth Malgus actually die? Did you ever think that the reason we have to knock him off is so we don't actually kill him? Same goes for Revan in the Foundry, he doesn't die onscreen either in the traditional sense. Both of these characters are too well entrenched in SWTOR lore to die at the hands for 4 people in a heroic instance. They met their demise in a way that could allow them to be brought back at a later date and for that Bioware actually handled the situations right.

As a new player started two months ago I couldn't agree with the above more +1 well said.
The thing that annoys me the most is the amount of patches on a weekly basis because they have broken something again.
PVP is well compared to other MMOs it stinks
And finding groups as pointed out already is a pain.

But yeah I agree with EV and KP, especially KP. Atleast EV you're saving the Galaxy from this ancient evil that has awoken. Wheras KP, just a big fat Hutt causin trouble on the streets.

Tbh, I think people should spend just that little bit less time space-barring everything. The immersion from cinematics can make things a wee bit more fun. Not much, but a little.

And it's exactly why they should have never catered to the "Single-Player" antisocial crowd.

But people are leaving for more reasons than that.

Especially the ones stuck on dead servers where the game feels the worse.

My take on the effectiveness of a story hook is partly what the OP said. The fact that Darth Malgus is PRed to a high level and yet killed in an early FP by being thrown off a ledge is a big let down. That tougher FPs have unheard of bosses with little emotional buildup (PR) before finding them and killing them means they are just loot runs.

But also other story mistakes. Most prominently that the repeatable quests (dailies and heroics that is) are storied as if you do them once and you're done. Once you go to do any of them a second time, the story becomes meaningless as a result. This trains me to ignore the story completely just to get to the options that matter (if any do). Which means that, when I then encounter a quest I haven't done yet, I get impatient at the story details that I've learned won't matter - even when it's a class story quest for an alt where it actually does matter (sort of, maybe).

Come on, if it's repeatable, give a story justification for why I have to do it again!!

Another story mistake is that, other than the class quest and FPs, every quest involves just the planet it's on and just the local area. Come on, this is a galactic conflict we're in. Surely there's got to be someone on Nar Shaddaa or Corellia that needs something acquired from (or someone killed on) Balmorra or Dromund Kaas or Voss, and only asks the player to do it because of <something other than just "you look powerful, help me">.

The recent event was an improvement, but it still suffered from many flaws where the story didn't match the quests: news announcements proclaiming "stay away from Tatooine", but effectively nothing that impeded getting to Tatooine or, more importantly, leaving (like not being able to use a fleet pass if infected, for example); daily missions that only became available the day after doing some other daily, but no story justification for the delay or progress; a quest to infect 10 others without a quest giver who actually seeks such an outcome (a quest giver for this who would only talk to you if you were sick would have been perfect); a "vaccine" that cured you too. I could go on.

I think it would be wonderful if some quests could only be found after reading something about it on a news terminal, for example.

The fun I have in this game largely comes from playing with others, friends and strangers alike. But the only reason to *do* anything in this game is to acquire things and the stories, as written, just get in the way. And acquiring virtual stuff isn't really a draw for me. As things now stand, my guildies and the as yet unfinished class story lines are the only things keeping me in the game - and many of my guildies are leaving.

TL;DR

As long as the story for a quest reinforces ignoring the story, the story won't matter. Make the story and responses matter - off the cuff example: a daily quest where one option opens up one FP and another opens a different FP, but you can't have both open at once (yes, it would be less convenient, but story immersion is really the only way to keep the story relevant).

As it stands now, Bioware is using story like giftwrap - it looks good when you get it, but everyone quickly tears through it and throws it away.

WHAT!? Revan is rescued in Maelstrom Prison.. He mentioned going off to the Foundry... and he apparently dies? WOW Glad we got informed.. Friggin Winnie The Pooh dropped the ball on that one...

I've watched every cinematic in this game, there is story, when you enter the Op, but theres 0 leading up to it, telling us why we need to head there. Theres probably thousands of people who don't know why SOA needs to die, or What Karraga is doing. because they've never been in the Op to find out.

The class Stories are great, but they lead to nothing, in my mind I was expecting them to all lead to the final end game plot.

You are aware that what really kill MMO's are people like you posting on official forums like this, right ?

Laundry list of what Tor is missing and where it can improve.

^ moved to the "Suggestion" forum by a moderator instead of letting the players see it and speak about it.

They ought to do what STO did and release a level maker.

That is absolutely hysterical. 10 man Heroic LK was a g'damn JOKE compared to 25 man.