Is SWTOR the pariah of MMOs?

Again, wasn't talking about cross-server stuff.

Yes but we were. The line you quoted was specifically referencing cross-realm.

I probably should have been more specific; I wasn't commenting completely on cross server stuff, just features in general.

But to cite your example, still not an excuse. Why? Nothing game related is really hidden thanks to the internet. What players want and are clamoring for is open for all to see, including devs. If people have been wanting feature X for years, then maybe if a dev is making a competing game they should put serious thought into implementing feature X.

It boils down to Bioware not wanting to be innovative. As I said before, the played it safe. Heck maybe they didn't need to be innovative too much, but if you are shooting for Wow, at least make sure you are up to par (nothing to do with Cross-server stuff, just features in general).

If you are going to copy the B-29, make sure you at least get a Tu-4 out of the deal, and not a gimped Cessna in the process.

"You" isn't "We." And I stated in a reply that I wasn't specifically addressing cross-faction stuff, just the whole "Well it took WoW X number of years to implement Y."

But to address the cross-faction stuff, it wasn't exactly an NSA secret that something like that was wanted by the playerbase and Blizzard would make an attempt at it. Of course, this boils down to getting cheap and choosing an engine that severely limits options for future expansion.

Seriously, Star Trek Online's crappy engine can handle guild banks and guild space stations. You'd figure that Bioware would at least have chosen an engine that can handle basic guild options.

Not to mention that Wow was created without cross realm ability. So at some point they bit the bullet and put the time into creating a feature the play-base at that time wanted. Could they have thought forward enough to create a code base that allowed for adding this without a huge amount of rework? Possibly, but not likely.

Hur dur, I'll just ignore the fact that WoW makes a billion plus dollars a year from subs alone, hur dur.

"You" isn't "We." And I stated in a reply that I wasn't specifically addressing cross-faction stuff, just the whole "Well it took WoW X number of years to implement Y."

But to address the cross-faction stuff, it wasn't exactly an NSA secret that something like that was wanted by the playerbase and Blizzard would make an attempt at it. Of course, this boils down to getting cheap and choosing an engine that severely limits options for future expansion.

Seriously, Star Trek Online's crappy engine can handle guild banks and guild space stations. You'd figure that Bioware would at least have chosen an engine that can handle basic guild options.

Hur dur, I'll just ignore the fact that WoW makes a billion plus dollars a year from subs alone, hur dur.

I assumed "we" were talking about it when you said "But to reference your example".... maybe that means something different than I assumed.

The choice of engine is far more complex than people make it... as an engine is basically what you make out of it. The engine isn't keeping them from implementing guild features. In fact on this point you are spot on. That that are not investing the development time to do the guild options now is surprising (although nothing I know of has said they aren't developing it even as we speak).

My point was that people assume that game X came out with feature Y after several years of development, it should take game Z not time to do it.

Even if they observed the "clamor" for cross-realm in the WOW forums under the normal self-contradicting noise in game forums four years before it was even implemented by WOW; even if they were able to determine that it would translate to a need in their game, it would have taken them more development time than they had.

Resources are finite. Comparing a game that has had 6-7 years of development with one that has had probably over twice that amount of time (announced in 2001, so probably a year of coding before that) is folly because most of that time is actually spent designing and coding. It isn't wasted time waiting for the playerbase to come up with an idea. With the amount of time they had they wouldn't have been able to implement some of the stuff that was "standard" in WOW. They had to make decisions on what features to focus on and which ones to consider adding later. All games do.

If they had tried to put everything in they would have had to delay at least two+ years... and name one franchise ever that has survived a delay of two years to their announced release date and not been a laughing stock for it.

How do you think they got all those subs though?