Am I spoiled by my previous MMO?

Actually no they were not "new & novel" WoW is one of the worst "borrowers" ever. Many features in WoW were/are features copied from various other games and it took time to get them in too.

What most players seem to lack is a concept of money. BioWare had $X to spend developing SWTOR and for $X you only get so many man hours. Then you get investors and execs going "So guys when are we going to start seeing a return on our investment?" So BioWare then ahs to determine when the game is ready for launch so they can sell copies and start making some of the $X back (or hopefully making more than $X). The sales and subscriptions go to further development and maintenace (hardware, bug fixes, etc.), they then start adding all the "Wouldn't it be cool if..." stuff that didn't get added in the initial development.

MY biggest gripe is the way they screwed up the servers at launch, things would vastly improve for many people if they'd just merge low population servers.

Speaking personally, I don't think anyone expected everything WoW had, and especially not the same level of content. No one. And if they did, I'll be the first person to ridicule them.

What people expected was something new. They didn't get that. We can spend all day talking about how new and innovative TOR is, but at the end of the day its WoW with lightsabers and VO circa 2007/08. The problem? This is 2012. If you are going to make a WoW clone, you damn well better have the same things it does and more, not one with a fraction of the features on a worse engine.

What many of the people here have trouble understanding is that a ton of people left WoW for this looking for something different - when they see a virtual clone with nearly the exact same type of mechanics, its like "Didn't I just leave this game?" Then, when they notice that half of the things they used to be able to do in a game that came out nearly 8 years ago they can't do here (40v40 WZ's, macros, moddable UI, real combat log, better appearance system) it quickly becomes "What the hell is the point?"

Further, when the people who tried and hated WoW begin to play TOR and notice all the similarities it becomes another letdown. "I hated WoW, why would I like TOR?" The ablities and talents are nearly identical. The gear system is nearly identical. End game is nearly identical. I mean really, you could take any class from this game and dump it into WoW and it could probably function without too much tweaking.

So, they launched a game that is basically identical to WoW without taking the time to implement the things that made it great, and then people wonder why so many are unhappy?

TOR launched with bare bones features - basically combat and a simple chat. No guild banks? No guild management tools? Day/night cycle? Swimming? Chairs? Combat log? Customizable UI? Chat Bubbles? LFG? Gear customization tools/Tab? The list (and its freaking long) goes on. And you know what the sad part is? I bet most people would have been just fine with having the pitiful amount in 1.2 - which we celebrated as TORs welcome to 5 years ago. Great job on those guild banks Bioware. Keep up the good work.

I'm sorry but expecting this game with the mega budget, years of development time, many other MMOs, and plenty of examples before them to have most things people associate with an MMO is not being unreasonable or unfair - especially when you consider other games that were released in the same time frame managed to show that it is possible while doing it on a fraction of the budget. This game launching with a pitiful amount of features (and not even close to the de-facto standard), buggy as hell, on a terribly optimized engine is not mine or anyone's fault but the developers, and being surprised that people are unhappy and blaming it on the community for having "unrealistic expectations" is a joke

Are you aware that there's a difference between content and feature? When you've figured it out, get back to me.

Players have access to the developers making and shaping the games they enjoy. Developers have the ear of the players who play their games, and have access to a wealth of first-hand insight into how their game works and plays. You don't seem to understand how this works...

I have yet to see a negative post saying "give the aforementioned to me now or else."

Your issue isn't that people are unhappy or dissatisfied; your issue is that you--while being happy and content (but posting, not playing)--have to read posts by people who are dissatisfied. You would rather silence criticism behind the tired banner of "you don't have to be here, move along." Sorry, but welcome to MMOs--and the internet.

Features are almost never included with launch, and usually trickle in over the first year. This is by design. Shall I show you my rundown of Rift again? And I only use Rift because it's the next-latest MMO. If I tried to use WoW, people use the failed strawman argument of it being released in 2004, which actually makes no difference...

Actually when they let the public know that swtor was in development the devs repeatedly said that "WOW did it right so we will be using this as a model for our game." (please not this is slightly paraphrased). So anyone who came in expecting anything other then wow with lightsabers and something new instead were kidding themselves.

Yes, I too want a game I can play with your wife.

It's not enough to rest on "we add them in over time." Players--clearly--expect certain features at launch. The games that include them will do better than those that don't.

guild wars 2 has just about all the features a modern mmo should have in it,at launch...tor is way behind in this department

That's probably true. Certain features are more important to the community than others. It's just hard, sometimes, to tell what those features are. Did you even see the outcry from this community when it was announced there would be no swimming? Tens of thousands of posts crying about it. Would you say it's a top feature or not?

TERA is launching with an LFG tool. However, it is NOT launching with several other features. Somehow, I think that the inclusion of an LFG tool at launch won't stop the haters from ragging on the features that aren't there, though...