Why all the hate?

I think the company's strategy is to make players grind so that they stay around longer before getting a reward. Squeeze the most money possible out of the player. Not to mention spend the least amount of time on developing various aspects of the game. You have rails; be happy on your rails.

However, I do think the company will feel the pinch when the last round of 6 month subs run out and many of those people don't renew. Players may have their attention then.

The game is bad. The developers are more focused on keeping players busy than they are on making the game as good as possible.

I would argue that the game was good and recent decisions are overwriting the previous good design with bad or questionable design.

No offense, but this is exactly how MMOs get shut down.

By catering to a lot of play styles you end up displeasing everyone. And no one is happy. Several MMOs have tried this approach over the years. None were successful. The MMOs that are successful know exactly who they are and who their player base is. Look at LOTRO and EVE. They carved out niches for themselves and make content for that niche.

BioWare has recognized that a large portion of this player base plays for the story. These forums are not indicative of the larger playerbase. Check out their social media pages. They recently tweeted out a question asking what everyone's favorite planet was. Lots of engagement with that- as in likes, shares and tetweets. And a lot of comments.

That same question asked here would get MAYBE a few posts actually answering the question. The rest would be complaints about GC, RNG, lack of ops, etc. That's the difference.

And by the way, I'm not entirely happy with the game. But my gripes are more about technical stuff and more overall engagement with this game's community and with Star Wars in general.

If MMOs never successfully catered to multiple playstyles, they would have never gotten in the habit of adding content beyond raiding. PvP is a very popular playstyle, it is not raiding though. Raiding is the traditional MMO core, would you advocate SWTOR cut PvP just to appeal to one core demographic? Expanding to attract other playstyles is part of what let them grow beyond obscurity.

I disagree with this assessment. I, and many others are in fact playing alts as much as ever. But these are players that quickly figured out that you did not need GC to play in 5.0. In fact, I have 3 alts that are more alternate mains then actual alts.. largely in 240 gear already... and that's without grinding GC in any way. The rest are in 228s, as they are actual alts that simply do not need anything better for the duration of 5.0

Now.. players that feel their only access to gear is grinding GC.. yeah.. they will feel this way. But it really is an uninformed approach to the broken state of GC.

I just find it a giant comedy now. Any point to be serious was 2-3 years ago when this game could be taken seriously as an MMO. It's now good for laughs for the last rounds of milking. :^

I think they are actually still tinkering to find the sweet spot in terms of retaining players while still interesting players enough to sub.

Each expac has represented a slightly different approach.

For example: some players proved with 4.0 that they would just game the subscription option to gather up multiple chapters under one month of sub. The studio admitted this and acknowledged that many MMO players these days are binge players.. looking for new content, to consume new content ASAP, and then hit a wall and wonder why they are unhappy.

Now.. the long absence of new Operations represents a different example: About the time the studio stopped releasing new OPs... they also declared there would never be new NiMs.. period. This to me says they have come to the conclusion that for the business model of this MMO.. there is limited return on investment in putting the heavy effort required for good new OPs. So they stopped, and now they appear to be trying in 5.0 to make more group content that is challenging enough and interesting enough to largely replace OPs.. and at reduced effort.

The above examples are certainly not acceptable to every player. I get that, and honestly I think the studio does as well. It would help if they were more transparent about this... as it would help people get off of the "hope bandwagon" which is nothing but a time release hate and rage pill some players are on right now.

While I do not think every choice by the studio is good, I do applaud their willingness to pursue certain themes in their development efforts fairly consistently: 1) continuing to make QoL changes to the game, particularly in context of new content (take the heroics in 4.0 as one example). 2) making changes, even if only on a limited time basis, that give players more degrees of freedom in how they play (such as low cost server transfers, and the ability to buy/sell CM items so that no player is directly dependent on buying and spending CCs). 3) introducing new forms of content themes (such as the story arcs in chapters in 4.0 and 5.0. and GC in 5.0... though they failed on implementation on GC badly).

Of course no matter what a studio does or does not do, some players will like, some will love, some will not like, and some will hate. No MMO is perfect, so they all represent trade-offs for players to consider and to make for themselves. For example... a lot of players are applauding and holding up FFXIV and ESO as brilliant MMOs that cater to end game raiding. For people that prefer to raid or die.. I can see why they would do this. But if you are more interested in great story arcs, and plenty of solo and small group play, in an actual Sci Fi theme, particularly a much loved lore like Star Wars..... FFXIV and ESO are pretty much non-starters. Raiders tend to see the world only from their viewpoint.. and disregard and dismiss the fact that a large majority of MMO players simply are not progression raiders. The same applies for PvP.. as this particular MMO has never been a good PvP MMO in my experience. PvP has always been sub par in this MMO.. and 5 years in.. people still expecting and demanding it be a good PvP MMO.. are simply not being realistic about it.

Hate is an unchecked emotional outburst, driven by frustration(s) that are not being coped with well by the individual. But this is the nature of humans... some handle frustrations better then others, and some take their gaming way too seriously and behave like it's real life and deserving of a crisis style lash out of behavior. So.. people are going to say some pretty terrible things in the forum as they express their frustrations. Likewise, people are going to disagree with them, and those feeling hateful will take that as a lack of validation and then lash out at anyone who disagree with them. This really is a question of an individuals emotional intelligence more then anything else.

You and other players are the ones in organized guilds (probably large and still alive guilds), working for getting the best gear possible for your group. That is not actual Bioware's target, focused in delivering story experience for solo players (new group content like Uprisings is a bait for people demanding group content). The fact that you get 3 characters in largely 240 means that there are some people in your group that got the right schematics so you all craft what you all need, or money is not a problem for you. So don't translate that your experience can be applied to those players that like to play at his pace, out of a guild and/or in a casual way.

Game alt friendly, such a mockery.

You realize you just played the "poverty card" here, right? Claiming I only benefit in gearing and playing alts because I either have the credit wealth to do, or the social wealth of an organized guild, or both? Yeah.. right.. because I am somehow doing something that nobody else can do as well.

Sorry... but ANY player can in fact play alts @70 as much as they like in 5.0 using crafted 228s. The only exception would be if they are playing an alt as a second main and need BiS gear for said alt... which is the exception not the rule in reality. ANY player can build relationships via a guild or informal group of friends and do exactly the same thing. Any player can in fact gear an alt in fully augmented 228s, and do any content except the most difficult OPs without much issue.

Game IS more alt friendly then at any time in it's exisitence. You can level an alt to 70 on nothing but items drops in game, with essentially zero credit expenses, and at a faster pace then at any time in the history of the game. You can in fact run alts at 70 by simply purchasing reasonable priced equipment from the GTN, if you have no access to crafting. You can in fact run multiple level 70 mains on competitive content ... as long as you are part of a good group of like minded folks... and ignore GC completely.

I do agree that GC is not alt friendly at this time. But GC is NOT the only pathway to gearing (not that all alts actually need the gear from GC to begin with) .. despite some peoples insistence that it is.