You know, I would agree with you and I am being patient since this is BW's first attempt, but the things they got wrong are things that they can't go back and fix now. Their worlds are designed very well for a single player game, but they are terrible for an MMO. That's not something patches are meant to fix. If it was just lag, disconnects and a small set of models that were bothering me (edit: these things they've done exceptionally well by the way!) I would be more optimistic but it's the fundamental design of the worlds that annoys me. I'm going to keep playing while waiting for GW2, I'm not letting on to my friends that I am bored to tears (although I do tell my family), and I'm going to hope it gets better. I just disagree with you that it will get better with patches. I also sincerely hope that I'm wrong, because TOR does have an excellent story to it. It's just not an MMO.

No Story is nice, but the world(s) design is a deal breaker. The blocking volumes are contrived and feel very artificial. There's too many areas you can see but can't walk to and too many slopes that end in invisible walls. They may as well not include jumping. Last patch lag completely ruins the high level space combat, now the missions are difficult because you have mini-lag hitches not because they are tough. Finally let's get a real definition of new here. Adding a space mission that is exactly the same as three other space missions with one or two more enemies is not adding a 'new' space mission. It's adding another difficulty to an existing space mission. I really want to like TOR because I love playing with my friends, but it's boring me to death and I don't think the boring is something that can be fixed.

voting/5char

It doesn't matter if it's 'his fault', he's paying a monthly sub for the game so he should be allowed to have it be 'his fault' and not suffer for a bug. This simply can't be working as intended, there's just no sense in being locked out of an instance for any reason whatsoever. If he wanted to run back in after it was complete and just wander around endlessly in an empty flashpoint, why would it matter? He's paying his monthly sub for the privilege. It's a video game. Most of us have day jobs, we're just looking for something fun to do in the evenings. Spending around an hour in an flashpoint just to miss loot on the climax of the whole thing is not fun, regardless of whether he dies to something he could avoid or something totally out of his control. That's the issue he's complaining about.

Boss Fight Dialog So, what's the big idea? Well, right now it feels like there's a big opportunity being missed in TOR for storytelling. I mean, there's some excellent storytelling in the game but often in movies and literature the best storytelling moments come as two parties compete with each other. TOR doesn't handle these kinds of communications yet, but it could... How could that work? This idea could be implemented in various ways, but thinking it through two methods seem the most interesting. First off, just use the current dialog system. Instead of sending us to a cut-scene though, just have a window for our choices added to the UI and let the timer count down much faster. Players all roll to see who would get to speak, but in the combat dialogs why not let silence count as a dialog choice? If someone chooses not to say anything and wins, the fight continues on with the player possibly just tossing the boss a fierce glare. Second, what if the boss fight dialogs were scripted around roles which were determined for each player as they made their way through the flashpoint? Top healer gets the healer role. Top damage taken gets the tank role. Top two dps get DPS 1 and DPS 2 roles. Now the boss has some context within the encounter and may accurately threaten the tank, intimidate the healer, or insult the DPS in the encounter with comments specifically aimed at them... and they can respond back using the same UI element that would have to be added for the first solution. In this case however, only the player filling the given role would be allowed to make a choice. This just seems like an excellent way to add even more story to the game, without slowing down the action any more. What do you think?

Had to stop playing at Broonmark for the same reason.

Around the office we sometimes have developers get into reply-all (why do people use that?) coding arguments about which syntax most closely follows MS standards. Those of us working in the office mostly just chuckle at the bickering, and try to stay out as much as possible while trying to convince our SA to remove the reply-all button from outlook. It's real life and yet we mock people for this kind of stuff.

You're not the only one. It struck me yesterday that my character was becoming less and less heroic every level. The ship situation was the most glaring example of this. Around Fifteen levels I spent taking a shuttle down to the planet, now I have my own personal spaceship and for the rest of the game to get to a planet I have to land on an orbital station, take a shuttle, then take an elevator. That doesn't feel very heroic.

I always make sure to take Dec 2011 posters with no avatar selected very seriously.

I think this is a decent summary, but I could be off since it's been a bit since I played Rift. I liked all three games, so I think this represents a fairly accurate review of them. If you want I can add clarifications at some point. (In case you're curious I'm playing SWTOR and happy with it, but I've really enjoyed all three games more than I want to admit so I don't feel that I'm biased toward SWTOR even though I'm happy with it) Rift Pros Excellent character customization Rich choices in class, which is governed by players choices of soul Game seems designed to focus players on being a better community Raids are easy to get together because players can drop in/drop out easily Very frequent updates No one hates Rift? Cons Everyone of your archetype has access to all souls in that archetype It's fantasy, which isn't bad but it has the most competition of the two genres No one seems to strongly hate Rift? Maybe it just doesn't elicit strong opinions? SWTOR Pros Great story and rich lore/history to pull from Excellent use of cinematics to convey the plot to players All classes are somewhat hybrid Four man groups change everything in terms of dealing with encounters Characters are made to feel like major heroes Combat animations are choreographed so combat looks great It's SciFi, not Fantasy Cons New release, so many bugs and uncertainty abounds Lots of misinformation about everything regarding the game Combat animations are choreographed so combat feels awkward, this may be fixed but for now it is jarring for someone used to very tight control of the characters Some people just hate SWTOR Bad UI, bad keybinding system and no mods or macros to improve things WOW Pros Great story, if you're willing to follow it Very, very tight control of character actions Easy to get in and play with friends You probably have a character here already Easy to access raiding with the LFR tool Excellent Macro/Mod system Cons "Which WOW am I playing?" phenomena where game seems to completely change every year Some people seem to hate Macros/Mods After seven years, many are just tired of the same world It's fantasy, which isn't bad but it has the most competition of the two genres Some people just hate WoW

So, I'm paying to beta test. I don't care, I'm having fun. Also, their game... Unless maybe you were pointing in the direction of the server when you typed it, then I guess, "there game" could possibly make sense.

hahah, this... so much this. How people can be humiliated in public by someone that knows the truth, and then continue to show up baffles me. I mean, unless they're being paid for it or something. hmm...

Having the same experience. I'm enjoying the game, and mostly laughing at the majority of bugs I've seen. Some of them really have provided me with a good chuckle, like last night when I saw my OOC heal had a 6 hour cooldown!?! My jaw hit the ground, and I thought maybe this was patched in for just a moment. Then I thought, "There's just no way they'd change that to have a cooldown, would they?" and tried using it. It was just a UI bug. I have to admit it was nervous laughter at first, but as the reality sank in the laughing became more sincere.

This is a major issue, but there is some good news. Bioware is aware of this, and they are looking into it. GZ even made a post about it in a previous incarnation of this very thread. (http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=897912#edit897912) When they get it fixed, and I'm sure they will, the game will be much better. Right now, I'm enjoying the story aspect and looking forward to seeing the abilities work better... Hoping it happens soon.

Sorry, they did not say they fixed it. They said this: "Graphics preferences in settings files are now consistent with actual settings in use." There's nothing in that statement that has anything to do with high resolution textures.