And what are roleplayers getting with these updates?

I think the underlying message here is that they want you to remove the Commerce building from Coruscant and replace it with Goldshire.

Why is there so much push-back against roleplaying? I simply cannot understand why people would argue against the addition of features--features that everyone could use...

Because it's one or the other. Chat bubbles are a feature and would be the responsibility of the UI team which is currently working on the LFD tool or rather was. I'd rather have the LFD tool over chat bubbles.

They should have a section in the LFG tool for RP. Once you have a full group, it transports all party members to whichever dark dungeon or picnic table they chose to RP at.

What are you getting?

more people to RP with

/thread.

What's wrong with this community? The TC has legitimate concerns and the common sense thing to do is to agree, not make fun of him and his ways. Childish.

It's not one or the other, but you're right that it's prioritization. From the developers themselves:

November 2011: Fan Site Summit: Day 1 -- Q&A with James Ohlen, Fan Site Summit 2 Q&A Wrap-Up
Articles about the Fansite Summits from November 2011, where Bioware's Studio creative director James Ohlen promised chat bubbles to be a "high priority in BioWare's list of things to do". On a side note, Georg Zoeller confirmed this on the beta forums as well by posting "chat bubbles are a high-priority feature for launch or shortly thereafter" around the same timeframe.

February 17th, 2012: Community Q&A: Feb 17th 2012 -- in the February 17th 2012 Community Q&A post, Bioware's Damion Schubert confirmed that chat bubbles will be implemented: "They're definitely on the list. We’ve got many active roleplayers in the dev team and chat bubbles have always been important to us. We actually had chat bubbles in beta, but there was unfortunately some serious performance issues that our implementation caused that, for example, made things really suck in warzones and the fleet. They’ll be coming soon, but in priority, the GUI team is focused first on GUI customization. I'll have a better idea of timing once we get past that. And yes, for people who hate them, whenever we do them, they'll be toggleable."

March 5th 2012: STAR WARS: The Old Republic - Guild Summit 2012 Roleplaying Panel -- Bioware's new Lead Designer Daniel Erickson confirmed on the topic "The future of roleplaying" that chat bubbles are indeed coming and issues with chat bubbles having a negative effect on performance have been resolved: "Chat bubbles...yeah, chat bubbles. *bows his head in shame while applause roars through the room* So...this is...this is one of those weird...like... *sigh* ... there are things that you can always tell from our faces when we talk about it. There are things that are just kind of embarassing. Like we had chat bubbles in the game and for whatever reason there was a really strange technical... thing... with the chat bubbles that they totally dragged the performance of the game down. [takes a deep breath] We were like "chat bubbles...really? That's what's doing it?!" And you know, a tech came over and turned off the chat bubbles and framerate went way up and we were like "Oh god, okay." So...uh. We think we've got that worked out though. So chat bubbles: YES!"

Sourced here: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=41864

We're way past GUI customization. Where's the update? They were originally a priority, but now chat bubbles have filtered back to the bottom of the barrel. Or are they not even in the barrel anymore?

The fact of the matter is that the developers have dragged their feet on the issue of roleplaying support. Period.

I know it's been said until we all want to drive our fists through the monitors, but "be patient". This game has much bigger problems that they are trying to resolve to save the game. They are hemmoraging subscriptions because we don't have enough of a population on most servers to take part in some of the most basic elements of the game.

Let them get the stability of the game fixed and then they can add more of the smaller "fun elements". I've seen Chat Bubbles acknowledged by the devs, so it is being worked on, I'm sure...

Chat bubbles and sitting in chairs is purely cosmetic. It won't keep you from being able to RP. Only your imagination can do that.

The same argument can be made about the LFG tool: You can still group up and socialize with people without a LFG tool--we've been doing so for six months. The LFG tool also does not solve the population problem, only makes it less obvious. It's purely a band-aid.

Chat bubbles are paramount to large-scale roleplaying--a fact admitted by the developers themselves. Other players get use out of them when teamed up and can more easily read what their mates are saying without having to manage the space between their chat box and toolbars.

Wait, so I can imagine 3 other group members and they will tank, dps, and heal for me?

This is amazing!

BRB TESTING.