Why rise of the Hutt Cartel is a failure

Players make those choices all the time. They just don't have any effect on the universe at all, and barely any impact on the player's universe either.

Really? Maybe you should play the Jedi Knight to the end of Chapter 3... and then play any of the Empire to the end of Makeb...

Maybe you'd see how the stories intertwine.

However, all MMO's have the your questing totally independent from the other players. "I helped that guy find his 10 sacks of flour a year ago and yet he's still asking people for help..."

This is nothing new.

That is my entire point. . .

In an MMO, I see how difficult it can be to have each individual make decisions that ACTUALLY affect the world.

If you have everyone playing in their own universe -- how is it an MMO?

You're preaching to the choir here.

It's long been my argument that this design decision was a bad one and contributes greatly to the lifeless feel of the game world as a community. Solo players who never interact with other players would likely feel the opposite since the overall game world means nothing to them.

That is my entire point. . .

In an MMO, I see how difficult it can be to have each individual make decisions that ACTUALLY affect the world.

If you have everyone playing in their own universe -- how is it an MMO?

You're preaching to the choir here.

It's long been my argument that this design decision was a bad one and contributes greatly to the lifeless feel of the game world as a community. Solo players who never interact with other players would likely feel the opposite since the overall game world means nothing to them.

Um... follow along with me
M = Massive
M = Multiplayer
O = Online

The term "massive" is debatable, but is it a game where a large number of players can play together online? Yes? then it's an MMO. It's an RPG because it has RPG elements. COD isn't an MMO because you're limited by the number of players who can exist together, at once. Planetside 2 is an MMO, but it's a MMOFPS. This is a MMORPG.

But any game that's an RPG, as CosmicKat pointed out, is lacking when it comes to a computer world. You're limited on what you can do based on the rules of the game. It's a glorified table-top game that has rules on movement, combat, etc. In those games you can't simply do whatever you want. It's not a true RPG like say a World of Darkness game such as Vampire: The Masquerade.

Bolded for emphasis. Why do you say that. I play in a duo usually, and the game world is rich to me, I do a lot of stuff that makes me feel like I am doing my part whatever side I am on. I also understand that this is a multiplayer game, and only so much can be changed for me and my little world. If i wanted it differently, I would play a Single Player game. There is tech out there to make small changes, but massive sweeping changes are not remotely possible with today's tech in a mutiplayer game. But to say as a solo/small group player the game world means nothing to me is just plain wrong. if anything its the raiders and PVPers that don't care about the game world. They repeatably kill the same raid boss 2 to 3 times a day. Jedi kill jedi, troopers kill troopers all in the name of gameplay. If they were to enact changes like what you seem to want, a raid would be run ONCE, and once only. The false emperor would be killed once, and no one could do that again, ever. Artifact weapons would be unique items, one person in the whole server would have that item, and no one else would be able to have it. If this is what ya want, I am sure that most players would disagree with you. They had this in Gemstone and MajorMud (granted not a real mmo, but still serves my point.) and people would hunt down folks that had these items, and kill them, led to a paranoid lifestyle of playing I sure as hell don't want.