Thoughts on SWTOR and where things are headed.

1)

2) You laundry list features you wish were in the game, but concede they've already been done. How about listing 3-4 "innovative" ideas that haven't been done by WoW, EQ, GW2, Lineage, etc. It's not as easy as you think. The industry has been saturated by MMOs since WoW exploded. GW2 tried to be "innovative" by straying from the holy trinity concept and its a muddled mess. Please list 3-4 completely new ideas you want to see implemented that have NEVER BEEN DONE IN ANY GAME EVER BEFORE. Good luck.

rather an entitled pov isn't it? History will show you, that when done correctly, free to play players actually spend a lot of money and keep a game alive.
absolutely!! By all means yes, if doing it correctly is the plan then it sure could, but if bw plans to put the game on autopilot and suck every last revenue out of it, instead of nurturing it into the game it could be then i suspect that it is not going to be done correctly.

as for degrading 'you'r experience, that's a little self entitled, usually that attitude comes with 'paying' your sub, you will find the majority of free to play players very amenable and friendly people

maybe, but i know for sure that there are a lot of paying players who can be unmitigated d'bags with account being handed out like candy, how many more credit spammers and trolls will we be treated to? Yes i am self entitled to a point, i consider the money i dished out and spent (and continue to spend) on the game to be an investment of sorts i bought a product and kept paying for it and as a customer I hope to get to speak my mind on the product i am getting, i understand that opinions only have value in the eye of the beholder

for the rest of what you said, agree with most it

for the other poster, lotro has become hugely financially successful since it went f2p btw

I could take a shot at this but I suspect a really industrious player might be able to find anything I suggest at least somewhere.

1. I want a droid arena, where we can work on and customize droids and then battle them, start with the droids already in the game, then expand it, add to the ability to find rare and different parts and then let our droids duke it out in a geonosian style arena.

2. Data pads. this is a world of high tech, and some of us are travelling across the galaxy to get daily quests, and shop at the gtn. How cool would it be to get quests and collect the prize on our data pads and to search the gtn from a handheld device. Heck I can do it on my ipad at home.

3.Sabbac, ok not really my idea, but it is one that belongs to Bioware already, hey and why not swoops races as well.

4. Customizable lightsabers- let us seek out parts that enhance the look and feel of our lightsabers, I know one of the big moments in every actor who played a sith/jedi in the movies is when they get to choose their lightsabers. Really they are Iconic, There are even a few very cool looking handles in the game, but by and large its pretty much the luck of the draw on looks.

5. class based quests- bounty hunters who hunt bounties!! smugglers who smuggle!!! assassins who assasinate!! troopers who TROOP?!?! but you get the idea.

6.Expand on the mount system- dewbacks, veractyls or even make a paint booth for swoops and speeders.

7.give us a barber shop (ok not even kind of original but I still want one)

8. I think mentioned this before. but tailor the companion system to be a bit more reflective of the choices we make. Some quests seem to have 2 quest givers and who we help decides how we are granted favor with our companions and light/dark side. How about having 2 potential companions and allow our decisions to dictate which one we choose?

I am sorry if I sound too critical, but FTP, freemium or what have you is not the next big wave of MMO structure, its the beginning of the end.

It promises that all of us who followed this game for years will never see this game a reach its potential (and I have payed this long because I had hope)

1)

There's plenty of things they can do to make the game feel more like a Star Wars game, and there's plenty of things can do to make it feel more like World of Warcraft, but all of those take time and money to implement and saying that it should have all be done and complete by year one isn't fair.

Market forces disagree with you. In 2010, revenue from F2P exceeded revenue from subscriptions, and revenue from F2P is growing at twice the rate of subscription revenue in MMOs. Clearly the player base likes it and and it's filling the pockets of the game producers.

How many of these games started free to play and how many converted? narrow it down a bit lets exclude social games, like facebook games, because we are talking MMOs here, oh and are we talking all games? or western games because in some markets certain types of games traditionally do better

You are speculating, based on a personal bias. How about we wait and see, because if MMO history is any indicator, freemium dual access MMOs do very well and go on to produce great incremental content and continue to expand in their potential

I sure am speculating, I was hoping to get across from the beginning that this thread is wishful thinking and speculation. I am however not going to overlook EAs track record with games that don't perform well, as opposed to games that make them the money they expect. I may seem sceptical about believing they will make a game that is worth continuing to spend my money on, but that is mostly bias on past actions, if they prove me wrong and I truly hope they do I will admit that I jumped to conclusions, willingly

.

I feel they are focusing on the wrong things moving forward. Adding end game content has done little to stem the tide of sub losses IMO...though it can be argued that a lack of server consolidation might have been the biggest factor there.

I think bug fixes, current feature overhauls (like LFG and GTN) and adding features like what I described in my sig links would go a long way toward putting the game on the right track.

End game and more space missions? Not so much.