Like many when this launched I was skeptical, I wanted this to be like galaxies and when it didn't compare I didn't play. There were a few people that I saw spamming in general about how their guilds were recruiting for heavy involvement and I just went about my way because I was disappointed in it. Then one day as my boredom set in a guildy of mine asked me to play, when I said it wasn't me he bribed me to do it. And so my journey through the world of GSF began. If I was going to do it I was going to commit, I started a new character unlocking the legacy perks for GSF. I then just started to play, over and over. Through crashes and the rage of being killed over and over the experience was fun. I was always playing other teams with 5 ships when I started with 2, then through just playing that turned to 3. I purchased my first gunship, then I bought a bomber, eventually I was one of the players with 5 ships and to me it was fun. I had gotten past the learning curve and I became one of the pilots people either come after in pairs, or they run from me.

Every time I do my weekly and daily I play the same people, now the games go either way and on that aspect it is fun. I try to get people to do it much like my guildy did on me, but the problem I run into is people say it's not real content. It gives you no gear, it gives you no valor, it serves no purpose other than to sit there on a screen you are the only one to see.

The ships we get we can customize the paint jobs, but aside for that we are the only ones who ever see that new paint job and it's only when we select the spec's on the ship. We now get the starfighter coms to be used to purchase the old railway items, but players still are not interested. Until the hutt event came and with the double scorecard introduced several new players in search for credits. With the average game giving you 10k for loss or up to 32 for a win I saw many new players entering. Several more people were exposed and I was happy to share the knowledge I learned on how to play. As soon as we switched to the pvp event I went back and started to pvp more like many others. In order to do my weekly again i had to wait for queues to pop, I completed all my dailies on Oricon before I got my first queue to pop for GSF. I'd suggest keeping the rewards as they were, give people a reason to play and you will see a larger turnout.

But that is me, I enjoy playing it regardless if there was more meat to it other players would come and do it. The reason they don't is we only see the benefit in a tiny window and it only impacts those that play. There are no major titles, no unique gear, and the ships with the exception of the blasters we hardly see any of the changes we make to the ships.

Nice post. I'm glad you got through the learning curve and are enjoying yourself.

The thing about GSF is that, even when I've got everything mastered, I still try to play every day because it's just so fun. But it takes a lot of practice and patience to get to that point, and I agree the game needs more of a carrot to get people to not only try, but slog long enough to become proficient.

I agree that keeping the credit reward substantial is a good start. As long as you have some simple protections against bots and gold farmers, then I see no problem with GSF having a higher credit-per-hour rate than some other activities. It should, since it is more difficult and interactive than most activities.

I am hoping Strongholds offers some really neat decorations that can only be won in GSF. That would be another way to strongarm people into trying it. That being said, the bulk of those items would need to be possible for a new pilot to imagine himself one day achieving purely through participation, and not through victory or dominance.

For example, I know that there are some decorations I am never going to be able to get because they require completing some Nightmare Mode of a raid. I don't do Nightmare modes, and I'm not part of a raiding guild. And no decoration is going to make me join one and do Nightmare modes. But decoration rewards for completing Story modes? Sure, that'll get me in the op queue from time to time.

The same kinds of rewards need to be offered for GSF. A broad tier of rewards achievable through participation, and then a narrow set of rewards given only to the elite and dedicated GSFers.

That being said, I'm genuinely concerned that GSF populations may not survive the fall/winter of 2014. It looks like there will be no new GSF content this year, and meanwhile, starting in September, we're going to be seeing a huge amount of new and exciting games--on PC and consoles--that will take up people's time.

For example, I doubt I will be playing GSF every day once I'm trying to work my way through the new Dragon Age. Destiny also looks like it might have potential (and I suspect they will have space combat at one point, given some clues I've seen).

Any significant new GSF content (ships, maps, modes) would keep me glued to SWTOR, but it just doesn't look like that's happening.

It's always nice to hear tale of someone who climbed the learning curve and found much fun at the top!

That being said, I'm genuinely concerned that GSF populations may not survive the fall/winter of 2014. It looks like there will be no new GSF content this year, and meanwhile, starting in September, we're going to be seeing a huge amount of new and exciting games--on PC and consoles--that will take up people's time.

I'm hanging for Star Citizen (got a pledge boat )

I really hope BioWare runs with GSF some more.

It's an awesome little time-killer.

Sadly, so much time can be spent in a queue.

Gieb Cross-Server!!!!!