Point #2 -- I'm in 100% agreement. I came back after a bit of a break, jumped into GSF, and immediately thought "I'm never playing this again. The tutorial didn't do anything to help me at all, and I'm being murdered while being nothing but a liability to my team." I've never played anything similar to GSF -- so I don't expect to be good. But it would be nice to have some type of a way to train, or a ranking system that will only match me with other crappy players, so we can slowly get better by playing without being purely demolished.

Very true! I just came back after 4-5 months of not playing, and only because my husband plays. After experiencing all of the storylines, there wasn't much keeping me in-game, so I took a much needed break. Now that I'm back, I still feel there is a lack of content that I personally enjoy -- but my raid group is keeping me here for now.

Incorrect. They've already stated that they will not be adding any more of the data cubes because of the reaction the community had to them. I highly doubt you will see story content in the CM again, but I also doubt we will see the individualized class stories like 1-50.

It was actually an alpha release =) Really, Simultronics shouldn't've released it to BW no matter what, because they're getting a bad rep for it. But I think they needed the money to help finish development and make the engine good. Edit: On top of it being alpha -- it was handling everything through a single thread when BW forked it. Not even sure if it is Multi-threaded for SWTOR, but HeroEngine plans to be when it is actually released.

Please, don't talk when you have no idea what you are talking about. The Hero Engine is not a single-player engine. It is built specifically for MMO-style games. HOWEVER, BioWare forked this (meaning, they took a copy of the code) while it was in the Alpha stages of development (waaaay less than ready).

OP could've easily made that clear, but chose not to. And to attack a game because they didn't design the game you wanted, that is just unfair and a tad pathetic. They made a business decision -- based on much more knowledge than any of us -- and it is a shame it "flopped" at first. But, it is also over and done with. There may never be a Kotor 3. This game certainly isn't -- nor was it meant to be. OP seems irrationally upset about this not being Kotor 3 -- and honeslty, it is rather immature. Many people like the game, and to try to find ways to attack it instead of finding ways to enjoy it -- just counterproductive. What would've happened if they *did* release Kotor 3, and it was a major failure -- worse than the most recent Sims launch? Or worse than [insert failed console/single player title here, can't think of any as I don't often play console/single player games].

Have you played KOTOR 1 and 2? If not, I highly recommend them. You'll love em. That isn't what the aim for this game was. While it might've been better for some, many others are happy it wasn't single-player. Though, really, if you try -- treat it like a Single Player game! The story aspects are the best pieces. You don't have to repeat planetary quests if you remember them well (I tried to swap between Pub/Imp side between each character, to get a change of pace).

Of course engines end up being "old" and "less than state of the art." That doesn't excuse BW in this situation. They took a partially finished engine and forked it while it was still missing a massive amount of development. They didn't build the engine from the ground up -- so they couldn't possibly understand the best way to continue development on it to bring it to a stable point prior to making customizations for release. Most game companies do one of two things: License a complete engine from a reputable company, or build their own. BW built their own engines for a while -- and they were brilliant and gorgeous. But, my assumption is that EA wanted costs cut.

Based on many things, this certainly appears to be a PEBKAC issue, and I don't know why you aren't taking it more seriously!

I understood what the poster meant -- in development, the engine matters more than most other things. It was a response to me saying once you're 1/2 way into dev, you can't change the engine. Correcting me to say, really, that it is even earlier than that. I kind-of agree. But, there have been other games who have released, scrapped the engine and client, rebuilt and re-released. FFXIV is a good example -- but I also have no idea if they re-did the engine, or used a different engine, etc. But, yeah. Once a game starts development on an engine -- each day that passes makes it harder to just "fix" the engine and/or port it to another engine. Hands down, MANY of the problems with this game are directly related to the engine -- BW made a stupid mistake.

You're a joke if you call yourself a raider and don't know what S&V or TFB are. That means you aren't actually playing this game or paying any attention to is as well. And don't compare a game that is less than 2 years old (SWTOR) with a game that is more than 8 years old (WoW). Also, I don't hate it -- I just recognize that this game isn't WoW. If I felt WoW was better, I'd go back to playing it. If I felt WoW was even worth my $15, I'd play it. In fact, at the moment FFXIV is the only thing I view as worth my money, but I'm sure that will eventually change as well.

Yep ^.^ Also, the person he quoted makes no sense. His response and the quote are seemingly 100% unrelated.

While I would not defend him based on the moronic things he's stated -- he did use the past tense. IF they HAD used a better engine, it absolutely would've been better for the game. The second the game launched (really, much eariler than that though, probably when dev was 1/2 finished) it was no longer an option. It would require completely reworking the entire game, finding a new engine, and customizing the engine to work with features they'd like to implement.

So, let me get this straight. You think that, because the current dev team hasn't been able to fix the bugs the PREVIOUS dev team made, that the original dev team was excellent? Do you realize that makes absolutely no sense? This game was NEVER top quality. It was launched without most of the features we find important and necessary. Mind you, the CURRENT dev team brought us: Dungeon Finder TFB S&V HK-51 Collections Bounty Contract Gree Event Tauntaun Mounts Makeb Macrobinoculars/Seeker Droid They've also fixed a few of the bugs that have been around since beta. AND they will be bringing us a big chunk of stuff in 2.4.

Trying to get opinions? I don't think so. Trying to force his opinion on others? Absolutely. 1.) "empty shell that is now Bioware" Bioware NOT an empty shell, they are still a separate studio with separate employees, just under EAs control. Mind you, ALL of the Mass Effect games weres released under EA, with ME2 and ME3 being developed after the purchase. 2.) "the failure of this game" The game 'failed' and didn't 'fail.' This is 100% subjective, and depends on what aspect you're talking about. Yeah, the game was nowhere near good enough to support a sub-only model. It is currently running, making a profit, and still being developed for. He goes on to complain about the reality of themepark MMOs, and act as if it is unique to SWTOR. And to ask such a ridiculous question is either out of stupidity, ignorance, or a trollish nature. "is there an actual reason behind making this game the way that it was made?" Seriously? No, no reason at all. Some random person just decided to make it this way, and everyone followed. It isn't like EA is a business. They definitely don't know more as a company than the OP does. They certainly couldn't've done the research and made an informed business decision, and failed at meeting demand. EA doesn't take risks often, yet they did with this. Stupid move? Absolutely -- without any experienced MMO leadership, they were asking for trouble.