SWTOR is among the most popular MMO's on PC

I personally believe the conquest system was a fantastic addition... I hope it is expanded upon. While you could group forOps, Flashpoints, PvP, etc as a guild prior... this is the first thing that showcases what the guild accomplished together.

I'm a little shocked (actually) how much I enjoy the strongholds... I didnt think I'd be at all interested in interior decorating, or playing house... but i find myself taking a lot of time to make it look "right" to me.

Wildstar's not doing all that well lately from the looks of it.
http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/g...ent-Wrong.html

ESO seems pretty stable IMO, and I imagine it'll slowly gain momentum over the years just like SWTOR as it receives more updates and features that improve upon the base game.

I also had a similar experience. Player housing was a new concept to me and I didn't know if I'd like it or not. But after spending many hours making my place look like i want it, and then inviting my friends to my stronghold to see it, I've had a blast also checking out my friends strongholds. You kinda develop a sense of pride in your house, and when you party in your house with your friends, it can be lots of fun just chillin and having a good conversation in a lively place rather than the fleet or a planet we've all been to. I look forward to future patches adding more content to strongholds and conquest events!

This year had the feeling of being a wasted year. Mostly due to GSF. I think GSH did enough to at least put things on steady ground so that what ever 3.0 should bring things hopefully will be better

Interesting read. I really couldn't stand the graphics and all the various "don't stand here" highlighted areas. They just killed any kind of immersion. That, the clunky pop-references and general lack-of-seriousness given to the world really turned me off to WIldstar.

GSF on it's own is good and tons of fun. It's major problem is almost complete disconnetction from the rest of the game, the ultimate themepark side-activity. What it needs is a second part, PVE/open-space that would integrate it with the ground game/old content. It's what GSH did well. Decorations in every part of the game, old and new, gained by various means and mechanics. Seeker Droid/Binocular mechanics should be modified in this fashion as well. They're bringing a lot of good new alternative gameplay mechanics but not necessarily integrating them well enough in many cases, making them too much of side activities.

I don't know about ESO but the one who is definitely failing hard is WS. It suffered the biggest sub loss over the smallest time period than any other mmo. All EU realms bar one are empty and top tiered guilds are already leaving.

I personally feel GSF failed to meet expectations based on general poor design. It is not a failure by any stretch IMO, but in my eyes it certainly did not reach the level of adoption or attract any meaningful amount of new players.

I do feel, however, that GSH has more to offer, especially with respect to QoL and despite what I feel were some poor design choices this part of the feature gives is wide appeal, so it has a much better chance IMO of encouraging wide adoption numbers and effecting new player recruitment in a meaningful way.

It is a step in the right direction, though it still falls short in a few ways IMO.

For me the thing that turned me off GSF is...(may sound lame but...) that the starships are sooo slooowww. It takes you forever to get from one spot to another. It`s just not dynamic.

The most common complaint web wide about GSF seems to be the very steep curve when it comes to gear in the feature. Instead of being something more like BF2, which places most players on a relatively even plane and concentrates on skill, the feature allowed a player to outfit his or her ship in a way that almost completely shuts out new players. Lack of joystick compatibility does not help IMO.

This, IMO, discourages folks from giving it a real try and turns it into a niche product. Instead of giving it wide appeal I believe they designed it in a way that it is a product that appeals to few outside hardcore gear based PVP folks.