In other words, now that gameplay is less fun due to class nerfs and abilities taken away, as well as 7.0 forcing you to do content you don't like, you can potentially skip content by having a stealth class as one of your combat styles. Yeah, you're done talking to me.

17 years ago, vanilla WoW came out, and had working animations for all the weapons a class could equip, as well as different racial and gendered animations for those same moves. In other words, Mortal Strike, an arms tree ability, had 16 animations that worked with every single melee weapon in the game. SWTOR players just wanted to equip weapons for their toons that fit how they saw their character. They wanted a juggernaut who dual wielded lightsabers, or a marauder with a double bladed light saber, or (GASP!) have their bounty hunter use a blaster rifle. Instead, we got an extremely half-assed class switching option. "Combat styles" are just trash versions of classes from 6.0, and except for new players, everyone had 10+ alts anyways. The ability to switch to another class was pointless, given how making tons of alts in SWTOR was mandatory for 10 years.

I'm in no way saying that devs need to listen to players, and then exactly follow their ideas. They do however, need to get a general idea of what everyone is saying, and then, if they are capable of doing their job well, come up with solutions that not only solve problems, but are innovative enough to make the game more fun with dynamic, intrinsic features. That's called "Development". 7.0 is the literal opposite of development. It made problems that didn't need to be created, it made activities less intrinsic, but more clunky, it forces players into content they don't like. What exactly do you mean by 7.0 being "good enough" ? When I hit the play button, the game loads up, I can select a character and move around. Yep. 10/10, the game is "good enough". Meanwhile, less people play the game now than were playing towards the end of 6.0, before all these changes, according to Steam. I guess it wasn't good enough for all those people who left, now was it?

Combat styles are lesser versions of classes from 6.0, and anyone with alts doesn't really benefit from them. SWTOR spent 10 years implementing systems to encourage making alts. So we might get weapons in the outfitter in 7.1. The devs intentionally created a problem (via gearing), and that problem might eventually be fixed. That's not a good thing, that's a mistake. Think for one second about when a casual, non-whale is most likely to drop 50 bucks on a weapon skin. The answer? The start of an expansion. Instead, all those people who could of used skins are now wielding the default level 80 weapons, which intentionally look bad as to drive people to the cartel market. Absolute failure, every level. Shared tagging actually discourages player interactions, and gives motivation to toxic behavior, but with the benefit of less frustration for doing quests. Net loss. See the WoW forums if you disagree on the long term effects of shared tagging. Why make friends when you can parasite off of strangers? The levels (of failure), as I see them, are 1: what the games wanted and needed 2: the game as a "game", it's integrity on a technical level aimed at longevity (bugs and features), and 3: The game's ability to function as a business. If you have a "level" that doesn't fall into one of those descriptions, lets hear it. They failed. On every level. If you still disagree, describe, in simple terms, "a level" and how they didn't fail on it. As far as resources are considered, follow along this metaphor. Bioware Bill has a month of vacation time, and wants to go to Italy. But, he doesn't have the money to stay in Italy for a month. He has a few options. He can go to Italy for a week, and then hang around at home afterward. He can go to Florida instead, and visit his family. He could also work for 2 weeks, and then spend two weeks in Italy. Lots of options. But what did Bioware Bill do? Bill went to Italy for a month anyways, got stranded due to lack of funds, ended up homeless, then beaten and robbed before eventually (hopefully, maybe) finding his way back home in time to enjoy 7.1. Bioware "Bill" Austin made bad choices with the resources they had. Having limited resources doesn't change that fact. You accuse people of lying on these forums, and tell them they need to stop. Who is lying, and what are they lying about? In concrete terms, show us. If you can't, then I humbly submit to you, that we already know who the liar is.

Game developers need to listen to feedback, and get a nuanced idea of what different player communities want. Then, the Devs actually need to know enough about their game to see what it actually needs, in terms of longevity and growth, and profit. Brainstorming time: It's literally the job of the Devs, to come up with solutions, preferably good ones, that blend together to satisfy the needs of the players, the game itself, and the game as a business. For 7.0, the devs failed. On. Every. Single. Level. The "why" doesn't even matter at this point. The players got systems and changes we didn't want, the game got modifications it couldn't handle and that don't fundementaly make the game better, and, if Steam charts are any indication, Bioware and EA have a damaged product which will be pulling in less and less money than they would of had if they had just not released an "expansion" at all.

"No matter where you go...there you are."

All the vets have the trainer toys, so removing training all together really just benefits newer players, which is fine, but there is something that's being lost here. It's like in classic wow, getting high enough level to get that one ability you've been waiting for, and then sc****** the coin together and rushing to the city to pay for it. Sometimes, abilities required you to go on a quest and actually obtain it that way. There's a sort of appreciation there that's long gone. The way SWTOR just tosses abilities at you now feels like a bad mobile game, kinda like the new UI. Maybe someday, a genius somewhere might figure out that all three methods are not mutually exclusive, and could make an mmo that gave players the choice. Pay for it, quest for it, or wait for it. It's not Bioware that's going to think of that though, they're just gonna toss abilities in your face, and with all the other problems and issues in 7.0, it makes it hard to care. Really? The present participle of scrape is censored? Trash forum. Unpostable.

The value of any art, or artist, is subjective, and that's what's so truly beautiful about it. Except Nickleback. If you ratio talent by exposure, they'd have the lowest score humanly possible. F those guys.

I said to pick companies that were worth your time, not AAA companies that were worth your time. Off the top of my head, I'd say Square Enix and Nintendo still take responsibility for their products, but that's a different culture. To find that from a western developer, you have to look at smaller studios or indie developers. To change anything, you'd need a AAA developer that isn't publicly traded, and without that as a foundation games will always be at the mercy of quarterly profits instead of long term profits. I don't think of F2P players as parasites. They're flotsam. Incidental passengers inevitably scooped up during whaling expeditions. Background marionettes, giving the illusion of vitality. Low hanging fruit for the ego of paying players to compare themselves to. Not harmful, just a symptom of harm being done. Cyberpunk just got a pretty huge update, it's probably a day late and a dollar short for most people, but it does more or less follow that old style-single player, single pay situation you're looking for. In 2 or 3 years it might actually be a pretty sweet game.

I'd love a return to form for the video game industry, even with inflation and old style monetization. As a functional adult, who happens to not live paycheck to paycheck, I wouldn't mind spending 100 bucks on a video game, and 50 dollars for an expansion every few years, on top of a sub fee. What I do mind is wasting my time playing games that I want to be good, but don't meet the bar for quality or fun. If I was a still a kid, my opinion would be different, and if I was struggling to pay bills I probably wouldn't play video games nearly as much. But as an adult, with a decently healthy checking account, I want to buy an MMO worth sinking my teeth into. Money isn't nearly as big as an issue as TIME is. I can make money. I can't make time. I remember spending 45 bucks for NES games back in the 80's. For 1988 to today, inflation alone calculates that at over 100 dollars in 2022. And those were games made by much smaller teams than AAA games today. So what's the new modus operandi for the video game market? Death by a thousand cuts via predatory cash shops, and sub par products that don't provide lasting entertainment, only the flash and promise of being the next big thing. So who is to blame for that, exactly? Marketing. Marketing, and upper management, following the Pied Piper of whaling to the destruction of your favorite genres and intellectual properties. The best thing you can do, the only thing really, is that to continue to support the video game industry pick companies that are worth your time. And current Bioware/EA doesn't cut it.

...because we knew exactly how it was going to be. "Maybe Blizzard fires people without looking them in the face, but I ain't a fink, dig? You've made your last "expansion" kid. Sorry you got twisted up in this scene. From where you're kneeling, must seem like a decade long run of bad luck. Truth is....the game was f$%@#d from the start." -Andrew "Benny" Wilson

Do we really trust Bioware to have the player's interest at heart, and to be honest and forthright about changes? No. Do we really trust Bioware to iron out the major, game breaking bugs of an expansion, without extensive PTS participation? No. It's going to be a bumpy couple of weeks, and chances are 7.0, even without those bumps, would let down the players on multiple levels regardless.

It says more about the state of the video game industry on the whole than anything else, when players stick around hoping that "this time" it's going to be better, but seeing the signs and knowing it isn't going to be. I consider schadenfreude as one of the most compelling reasons to stay subbed, but I'd happily trade that for a quality Star Wars mmo, with constant good story content and balanced classes, and hopefully, fun.

You'd be surprised on what companies to do maintain an IP, or in other words, keep their foot in the door for future projects or simply a sale down the line. Just google "Fantastic 4 movie 1994" for a prime example. (Better yet, watch Red Letter Media's review of it) 7.0 is probably going to fail the long term players looking to sink their teeth into something, but it won't fail in terms of drawing in a few new players to the cartel market, and keeping EA/Bioware "in the game" for the Star Wars IP. Bioware isn't even involved in the KOTOR remake. At this point, it's EA keeping the idea of that "Bioware magic" alive, even though the "real" Bioware died over 10 years ago. The name Bioware itself is still valuable, in conjunction with Star Wars, despite the current realities of the studio. Maybe EA will get them to make a quality game again someday, but "Bioware" is probably just going to be milking the fans down the line with some Star Wars trash game with predatory monetization.

April 4th, 2014. Mysteriously, rapid fire rotations of flash sales on the cartel market occurred, and that early in the cartel market's lifecycle it was a pretty big deal. April 4th, 2014 also happened to be the day ESO launched. Not a coincidence, and says a lot about how Bioware Austin views it's own product against other companies releases. Go play other games, and be happy, and when you're really bored, swing on by to check out 7.0. Regardless of when it launches, no one is going to be missing much if they play better supported games for a few weeks. Might even be preferable, if 7.0's launch is as buggy as it's probably going to be.