SWTOR: Lacking in appeal for the casual gamer?

Absurd post. This game has more casual focus then hello kitty online.

The game practically begs you to level mass alts which is more or less as casual as it gets. Top it off with easy leveling and the fact that you can get the best gear in the game by spamming warzones and doing daily missions. What else more do you want?

Btw I am fully happy with the way these things are done

Contradictory bits bolded, italicized and underlined by me for emphasis. Yes, the LEVELING in this game is as casual friendly as it gets, but the problem is that it's OVER TOO SOON. Like most modern MMOs, this game puts too much emphasis on the endgame and not enough on the journey that's the actual game. If a person like me (who often chats and RPs rather than kills mobs in any efficient manner) can get to max level in a MMO in less than four weeks of playing, something is WRONG. It should take much, much, much longer than that.

And the PvE endgame (which even a casual player will get confronted with really fast in this game) in TOR is not, repeat NOT casual friendly. It's all about raids, and since when are raids casual friendly? Raids, by design, are a hardcore activity. I could name you enough reasons why I hate raiding that the sheer enumeration of them would result in a huge wall of text. And everything PvE that's not raiding is a clear second rate activity, like in all other MMOs having raids that I have ever seen. That's, in my opinion, why casual PvE players are bored to hell after reaching L50 with a couple of characters. There is literally nothing interesting/worthwhile to do if you're not a raider (and most people actually aren't). A handful of repetitive dailies with mediocre rewards don't quite cut it for me at least. Crafting in TOR (an activity often enjoyed by non-raiders) can't produce anything that's on par with the good endgame gear and is thus essentially worthless - who enjoys making second rate stuff anyway? There is no customizable player housing (another typical activity enjoyed by casual players) or social professions (fishing anyone?). The RP support is lackluster at best, there is not even a lot of armour we could collect. No dynamic open word PvE events that are easily accessible (like Rift has with their zone invasions or instant adventures). No gear/content progression outsides of raiding/dungeons, for those of us who want a medium sort of challenge that's NOT a dungeon/raid with its silly "don't stand in the fire when the boss reaches 20% health" sort of scripted boss fight mechanics that weren't terribly original even back in the last millennium. Even the legacy system that BW sold us as the best thing since sliced bread for casual players is laughable, with it doing oh-so desirable stuff like reducing the cooldown of travel powers by like 10% or so. Haha, good one! Yes, that makes SUCH a difference...not. Perhaps the unlocking of non-standard races would have been some sort of interesting - hadn't casual me already filled all eight character slots with alts, since that's the only thing a casual player can really do in this game after reaching L50. Ok, except the space combat. That takes me around 15 minutes a day to do. I do those in the morning while drinking a coffee. That's my glorious PvE endgame moment!!

Other than that, the PvE endgame in TOR has exactly NOTHING that caters to a causal player and would give them that fuzzy "Hey' that was made for us!" feeling that people get when they feel welcome and appreciated. Instead we read about all those awesome raids and mini-raids (oh wait, the game calls them 'Flashpoints', sorry!) being added with each new patch. Yeah, that's what a casual player really wants! More raids!!! *rolls eyes*

Mind you, 'casual attitude' doesn't necessarily equal to 'not a lot of hours spent in the game'. I think I am putting more hours into the game than many hardcore players, just my attitude to gaming isn't hardcore. There is only that much time I need to level eight characters to max... *shrug*

What does this mean exactly? That the numbers they reported as subscribers in the first report was...wrong? fudged? Different definition of paying?

How does one say 1.7M subscribers earlier, 1.3M subscribers later, and the percent of paying subscribers has gone up? That only means to me that the hyped up 1.7 million was incorrect =P

Casual gamers were never the majority to begin with. If they were, 1.3 million gamers would have left, and the 400k would be the ones still in this game.

Casual gamers are casual. They don't play the game for long. They are not the long-term gamers that will keep this going. They are not loyal. It is not good business sense to cater to them. It has nothing to do with lacking in appeal.

Lacks appeal to casuals? it also lacks appeal to "hardcore" players.

the lack of appeal is caused by the fact that its designed like a single player game with large speed bumps in a attempt to expand on its linear gameplay. This is not something that can be fixed at this point of development as it would require a complete rebuild from the ground up.

Then what pray tell am I?

I quit hardcore raiding and won't go back to the grind. I may still play more than 20 hours a week in SWTOR and also play hours on another MMO I like (SMT). So I put in time, yes, but I will not grind raids or anything like I used to, like spending time studying raids and bosses and all the fights in general.

I consider myself casual. I am still playing SWTOR with no real plans to leave, vacation maybe, but not leave. Also during the vacation time I would not even need to suspend my subscription.

So I say that I am CASUAL, not Hardcore. Well, EA, what is it?