Story-based themepark MMO can only fail

Why assume that they or any company hasn't done any research on how different MMO players..play.

Yep many players do live by their main. A good many don't. I can easily say that the majority of players in past and current games that I have played with all have alts and spend a lot of time on alts as well. So many do that all the guilds I've ever been in actually have ranks and ways of identifying whose alt is whose.

At the end of the day, it won't matter if new flashpoints or operations come out following the old "magic formula".

The gameplay is mostly the same. The spells (or force powers) are mostly the same. The talent point system is the same. You won't beat Blizz at their own game. They've had 7 years to polish and hunt down bugs.

I agree with the OP. He speaks truth on all levels.

+1 /agree

So..if thats your position then why write the OP to begin with?

That... is a lot of KOTOR.

The OP was to try to make a case for sandbox tools. Turn this game from a theme park, on-rails experience into an open-world player-driven experience with user generated content. I'm not asking them to copy that other game more by cranking out more content. I'm asking them to start thinking outside the box because there is already an enormous elephant taking up all the room inside the little box!

I sincerely believe that if we got the tools to make our own story, and fix the incentives in the game so that players are nudged towards desired actions (community, story, progression, exploration), then SWTOR would explode with the creativity and passion inherent in the Star Wars franchise.

Not to sound like a jerk, but you know that is the joke over at the WoW Forums. "TOR's got a wicked end game!!! YOu reroll a class and play the same thing AGAIN!" That's not a MMO, pal, that's a single player game. They need to get their ducks in a row and do it fast.

Now, that being said... I'm really enjoying my play through. My main is only 40, and I've got a 22 side project, but guess what... that level 22 has spacebarred through the majority of his lifespan because the content is the EXACT same. There is no way whatsoever I could do that 6 more times.

Yes, and then he states that WoW is better anyway so give up, I find it hard to reconcile the two but whatever floats your boat.

Also, name me one MMO that has worked out the formula you describe?

The tricky thing about the whole "make a new character when your old one hits max" is that, unless you make a new character on the opposite faction from your old one, you're going to be seeing the same missions you just got done playing through; the only bit of light in the tunnel will be your class missions, and those are a minority of the mission content when compared to all the other stuff which is the same for everyone in that faction. I'm sure the class missions are all good, but I can only run through all of the same side missions once, maybe twice, before I'm bored to tears. That means I'll probably only have two characters before I quit and move on, one on both factions.

Grinding for commendations and gear is right out. I didn't do that in any other MMO I've ever played, and I'm not going to start now because grinding for anything simply isn't content and it isn't fun. So yeah, game is great from 1-49 and then, everything that makes it good dies at 50. My character is 45 right now and I'm not looking forward to when the ride ends.