Can we get a developer dialogue going on why class stories are not in the cards?

As with many others, the class stories are the main reason for me to play. I have zero interest in PvP or raiding, so without further class stories, there is extremely little for me to do aside from running dailies (which I utterly despise due to their horrific and uninspired design).
Planet stories like Makeb are well and good, but they lack replayability in the way they are currently done.

This. People are always telling others what the Devs intended or what the Devs aren't willing to do. Let them say something definitive that's not open to any other interpretation.

Precisely.

Personally, I'd like to see the class stories continued, but I'd like to see them more tied together as well. More like the "Avengers-style story" the devs have claimed Makeb to be.

The problem is Makeb isn't anything like the Avengers. In the Avengers, each of the characters is working towards the same goal and participate in the same battles, but each one does something different and has a unique role to play. In Makeb, each class does the exact same things, talk to the same people, and kill the same enemies. For me, and many others I have talked to, this repetition makes it difficult to play through Makeb with multiple characters.

If Makeb was truly like the Avengers, then we'd still have unique class stories. All of the Republic stories would be working towards the same goal of evacuating the citizens of Makeb, but each class would do something different to help achieve that goal. Same thing for the 4 Imperial classes - all 4 have the same final objective, but each contributes in their own way.

I seriously doubt that Developers actually polled a bunch of players and they said "Oh, class stories? YUCK. Get rid of them! We want generic missions fighting as a faceless Imperial/Republic hero, all with identical dialogue!"

Really? No, I think not.

A "State of the Game" is quite a bit overdue from Daniel Erickson, plus they should be discussing Fall/Winter content (*cough cough*), and I mean more than leaving the forum cleanup to the moderators. Again. I'm in agreement with ZH that this is a big issue and deserves a comment from the Devs either way.

If EA/Bioware ~was~ looking to throw us a bone, I think they could conceivably stick a story quest or two in the upcoming content pushes. We know they have it. Or give us a plausible explanation as to why they're letting class stories die out.
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Well I'd like to hear a clear statement from the devs on this - whether there will ever be any more class story content, or if they're done and the future is only combined story arcs.

The problem with combined story arcs is there's little incentive to repeat them on alts. Makeb gets very tedious after the first play through per faction because there's no story variation and the content is designed to slow the player down (to cover up for a lack of story).

Class stories are Swtor's main unique selling point. Without them this is a pretty mediocre MMO. It's the class content, the voice acting, the unique and interwoven storylines which breath life and immersion into the game.

If the class content has hit the end of the road, then the devs will really have to pull their socks up with all the other aspects of the game (flashpoints, raids, PvP, space etc) to keep the game compelling. This is unlikely to happen if recent content is anything to go by.

The current strategy for player retention seems to be a steady stream of new reputation grinds and a constant churn of recycled or hastily thrown together junk via the Cartel Market and a cynical use of gambling packs. But there's only so much mileage in this approach, eventually even the most gullible will grow tired of it and without any meaningful character and story progression will walk away.

To kill off class stories would send a message that essentially the game is dead and exists only as a vehicle to milk players via the Cartel Market.

Good luck with that. They are not going to come out and give a concrete no answer. That would be bad for business.

No, I think Mr. Boyd was pretty blatant with his meaning when he said "Sorry, still no plans for more class-specific storylines, though we'll still have class-based content in our shared storylines"

- that, to me, says that Bioware don't understand that people enjoy the class story content more than the - or as much as, dependant on the player - "shared" story content. It's not as if the shared story content is inherently easier to multi-play, either, as if you have a specific goal in mind (say, the romances on Makeb), you must engage in the conversations (i.e. the story) outside of a party, lest another person's decision trump your own. That isn't an issue in class story conversations.

See, that right there, his statement, makes it sound like something more along the lines of my idea #2 - but its not 100% clear.

And devs since then have kind of went away from this.

More direct clarification would really help here.

That would be interesting, seeing as Daniel Erickson unceremoniously left the company during the F2P switch.

Indeed, my pet conspiracy theory about class stories is that the big attitude shift against them had a lot to do with them being Erickson's (and only Erickson's) project, like Legacy, such that without him no one particularly cares.


Or more realistically, no one is particularly interested in dealing with the complexity James Ohlen warned against.

"'Don't be scared about adding voice over and cool cinematic content,' he advised his audience, 'but do be careful about adding lots of choice with consequence because that adds to QA cost and development cost and makes it hard to design everything.'" Perhaps a cost Erickson was willing to risk, but Ohlen, Hickman, Schubert et al are not?

Don't get me wrong, Schubert in particular saved this game, which I certainly appreciate. But it's telling that a) Erickson's departure wasn't even officially acknowledged, and b) to my knowledge, he was also never replaced.

Who is the creative director of SWTOR right now? This I'd give a few cartel packs to know.