I am still enjoying the game. The class storylines are the real redeeming portion of it, really - loving the Trooper and Agent stories. I don't care much for WoW-like MMOs, but it's evocative enough of KOTOR that I'm still playing for the story.

That said, I bought a 3 month sub and then immediately cancelled after they billed me. Endgame and content updates will determine whether I think it's worth it to continue, especially when I'm inclined to save that cash towards Skyrim and Reckoning.

I'm still playing, just started another alt to see another story line :)

Seems an over-reaction to me. No worse than any other "Where have you been?" email I get for not using some service for a while. I get them from movie rental places, online shops, all sorts of things. Standard practice.

And to spend 3/4s of the article complaining then say you're not keen on more negativity is a bit naff.

@bkbroiler said:

jeff actually finds this gross? wow that had stupid crying peon when you left. i see nothing wrong with either of them.

I think they're both pretty dumb. If my sub lapsed, it did for a reason. At least offer me an incentive to come back (you should see some of the Age of Conan emails I get).

I got an email about Battlefield 3 that was very similar to this. It hasn't even been that long since I've played Battlefield, either. Battlefield 3 has sold 10 million copies, too, so I don't think this email reflects poorly on the status of The Old Republic right now.

OMG! 75 cents for a magazine in 1973! 9 bucks a year. I pay eight bucks a month just to watch Daily Show in HD on Hulu Plus.

I'm still playing, but then again I've only had the game for about 2-3 weeks now. I play with people I've enjoyed playing other games with (not just MMO's either) and I find the stories to be entertaining. In fact, I wish more MMO's did full voice acting throughout and not just leave you hanging with silent NPC's after the first island (looking at you Age of Conan).

I may go for another month of the game, at least. And really, other games and services send out emails similar to the one mentioned in the article. Maybe I'm just remembering incorrectly but Blizzard sends these out sometimes, sometimes with free game time, or offers of a free new pet as part of their various celebrations throughout the year. I can get a new pet if I resubscribe for this very particular period of time? Well alright!

It's a quality product, but quite frankly, all MMOs require a good community to play with for any extended period of time. The Old Republic is no exception. I'm frankly surprised Jeff got over 100 hours in before quitting.

I still play, but I dunno if it can last past month 2. Depends on how good the other storylines are...

@PandaBear said:

@TPoppaPuff said:

@pplus0440 said:

Patrick this isn't news, this is marketing. WoW does this as well. Every time you try to unsubscirbe you see a peon crying. Which is funny to me b/c i played WIII. It's an appeal to nostalgia and it probably works. Yet again you fail to post anything news worthy and wwould rather waste time with your opinions on things. How about news? you know? Not your opinion? There's a SKYRIM PATCH COMMING GUYS! I HAD TO STOP PLAYING TIL THE PATCH CAME OUT! that was like a month of news on this site. SO terrible.

Patrick didn't write this article. Jeff wrote this article, which he will also tell you it is not a news article.

This is simply the ramblings of a man who is our god.

I wouldn't call Jeff our God (demi-god perhaps)... but to @pplus0440 - I think this is news, I liked the article and read the byline before accusing anyone of anything.

I actually did write demi-god at first, but then I looked at it and said "Is he an actual god? Is he of the highest echelon of gods?" And then I changed post.

Yeah I am still playing, have no intention to quit either. Also this email is pretty much on par with every other subscription service or online site that you have let lapse or not use in awhile. I get them on other mmo's from EVE to LoTR, hell I even get them from online stores I haven't used in a month or two. They don't mean anything other than that you used to play the game and don't anymore. Like all new mmo's half the people canceled after their free month to wait for the next new mmo or go back to playing that steaming pile of tired crap called WoW just because that is what their dumb friends play. I personally cant wait for the next expac so I can quit without leaving my raid team in the lurch.

I can't even pretend this is a big deal.

Jeff this is really really dumb. You're still cool though.

I've been playing with two other friends. Before, we would have occasional StarCraft II nights, along with a larger group. The larger group will never be in to MMOs, I think, but the three of us started with Ultima Online in high school, and have dabbled ever since. It helps that we are all fairly big Star Wars and Bioware geeks, I think. We've each got Imperial characters with around 100 hours in, at least. Now we're starting a trio of Jedi characters that we are planning to mainly play together. We always have our imperial characters and alts when not everyone is available.

I think the Bioware story has us more hooked than other MMOs have in the past. I also get a pretty steady sense of progression compared to say, Dark Age of Camelot, which is the last MMO that all three of us tried to play regularly together. That was very grindy.

I'll just leave this here for one of our resident Bioware/Star Wars fanboys:

SS TORtanic

Well, I just signed up on Sunday and having a ton of fun with the Imperial Agent. Apparently, space WoW is what I wanted.

Personally, I liked WoW and played a lot of it, but not too death. However, I'm not into the fantasy setting. I didn't realize how much it made a difference till I started geeking out on the skill tree in swtor. It just speaks to me more.

I also put some time into Star Trek and I find myself wishing STO had SWTOR's production quality, cuzz I think Star Wars is dumb (3,000 years and no one figured out how to make a color holo-transmission without static?). But, I prefer Star Wars' melodramatic pulp sci-fi to the fantasy setting.

Also: Space British

@RsistncE said:

I'll just leave this here for one of our resident Bioware/Star Wars fanboys:

SS TORtanic

http://pc.ign.com/articles/121/1217723p1.html

thanks to the bombcast, i went into the game knowing that it is what it is - a very well made, albeit standard MMO. i'm happy with that for the time being. i play these things casually, but i put enough time into them to get my money's worth at the end of the month.

I never started playing The Old Republic because its a MMO. Literally, that alone is enough for me to never care about it, regardless of how good the content Bioware makes actually is. I'm not paying $15 a month for the privilege of grinding through filler content after filler content just so I can interact in a few dialogue trees.

I was pumped to play it and love star wars and I couldn't get back to it once I stopped playing for a week.

If by yes you mean neglecting my account and playing some Super MNC instead, then yes I'm still playing

@CL60 said:

@RsistncE said:

I'll just leave this here for one of our resident Bioware/Star Wars fanboys:

SS TORtanic

http://pc.ign.com/articles/121/1217723p1.html

...I'm not following. The Titanic had a shit load of people on board too and look at what happened to it. I'm just sayin.

Also,

Wow, so they are already bleeding subscribers? Geez. I remember when I said this game would be a single-player game with MMO tacked on, and look at what the game is. Yep. No one saw that coming.

I am still playing, in the beginning there were more than enough people to party up with and knock out some heroic missions, now it's near impossible and all the worlds seem to be empty and the people in it unresponsive. This would be my second MMO, Final Fantasy was my first step into the MMO world, and I quit because it was taking up to much of my time, however I need had the problem I am having now in finding a party.

I agree with most post, whats wrong with Star Wars trying to get you to come back. Ebay, American Eagle, Express, any store that has my email address says they miss me and want me to come back, does that make every company pathetic or just trying to remind me to come back? What if Star Wars started to a BIG BIG LIVE show to get more subscribers?!

I am, yes. I paid for the six month subscription and have no regrets!

Yay for alarmist articles? I've received plenty of emails just like this for just about every MMO I've ever signed up for.

Still playing it. Still loving every second of it.

@mazik765: Usually MMOs wait til they have some sort of new feature going before they beg you to come back. Also, personally, I've never gotten an email implying that an NPC misses me.

Also, alarmist? Really, that seems a bit much.

Heck yeah!

Yea i'm still playing all the dam time :)

@mazik765 said:

Yay for alarmist articles? I've received plenty of emails just like this for just about every MMO I've ever signed up for.

I had WoW offer me 7 free days to continue my account, even though it's been quite a while since I quit. I consider that a pretty respectable attempt to sway me. Unfortunately, I have never been begged by an NPC to go on more adventures with them.

Pretty much just the ship combat is keeping me from abandoning the game. It's REALLY, REALLY good. Managing shields, timing your torpedoes, drive-by mine laying to assist teammates. Ground combat's OK. Shooter mode is interesting, and definitely more engaging than clicking on a toolbar. But it's also kind of disheartening, when you zoom in and it kinda looks like Mass Effect and you just wish it played like it.

All in all, Star Trek Online's pretty gre--

...oh.

not playing anymore.

@CaptainCody said:

@mazik765 said:

Yay for alarmist articles? I've received plenty of emails just like this for just about every MMO I've ever signed up for.

I had WoW offer me 7 free days to continue my account, even though it's been quite a while since I quit. I consider that a pretty respectable attempt to sway me. Unfortunately, I have never been begged by an NPC to go on more adventures with them.

You guys are seriously grasping at straws at this point. Every MMO sends out these kinds of emails. WoW has free days attached because it's old. New MMOs never even have trials until a few months out, obviously their emails wont have free time.. But oh no, TORs email is different.. it talks about a companion, that shits just UNACCEPTABLE and the most pathetic attempt at anything ever seen!

Next time WoW sends me an email saying. "AZEROTH NEEDS YOU!!! HURRY UP AND GET IN!!!" I'll be sure to make a topic explaining how it's the most pathetic attempt at trying to keep players of all time.

Or perhaps I should've made a topic when Aion did it? Or when Age of Conan did it? Or when Lord of the Rings did it? Or when every other MMO did it? ffs, it's a standard in the MMO genre and is quite literally no big deal at all, but of course, when TOR does it, you all lose your shit and say " don't think I've ever seen a more pathetic-looking attempt at player retention."

Nope. Got fed up with the unfinished and outdated game and quit when my month was up.

Man, I'm so pissed I haven't gotten one of these emails yet.

Tried it out because it was all the rage.

Didn't find it very noticeable, but wanted to at least get to max-level before I wrote it off. But apparently they don't like my credit card, so I guess I'm not playing it anymore?

Besides, it's still a WoW clone with a coop-KotOR tacked on. And for my money, the coop-KotOR bits are the only really interesting parts - imagine if they'd just made that, insteade of adding on all this MMO BS?

Crazy!

Yep, I am! I got in with a good guild early on that is involved in raiding and gearing guildies. Working on getting Battlemaster for PvP and my full Columi set.

Not going to defend that email - but I'll bite. I'm still into SWTOR for many reasons. One, I like the crafting system with its element of randomness to the patterns obtained, makes it a bit exciting to try to find a pattern that will sell or that will suit a friend's playstyle.

Another, I like the PVP. Each of the three arenas has grown on me. They're nuanced and the terrain actually matters in terms of LoS and so on. Again, I like that there's randomness to the rewards, much more than the cold long grinding of tokens from WoW. Ilum on the other hand, not doing so well.

Also, I've gotten attached to each of the two characters I made, right out of the gate. I want to see their storyline, and I bet I'll want to see some for the other faction too. Character creation's got just enough options. I don't like it when a game has fifty sliders with 100 settings each; I remember trying in vain to make something that looked humanoid in Oblivion.

And last, I think the game has strong potential for the future. Don't get me wrong, I don't mean multi-millions of players potential - I mean the opposite of that. I think it may come to have a very good player base rather than a very big one. My favorite MMOs have always been smaller. To play in one long-term meant you relied on tight-knit guilds who were each individually hooked, rather than relying on the general gaming audience.

I think this game has a much better potential fanbase than Warhammer, Aion, or Rift, just because of its stronger IP. But it'll take plenty of effort to keep their attention.

I'm honestly surprised its not performed as well as I expected. Hopefully this will serve as an example to other devs hoping to enter the MMO market. I don't hold a grudge against the game or anything(though my current avatar would say otherwise), but I never liked the idea of KOTOR being turned into an MMO and I'm kinda glad it hasn't been this big monster success.

Still playing and having a blast, but I've finally started managing my time with the game so I can get started on Uncharted 3, Revelations, Skyward Sword, and now Soul Calibur and XIII-2.

I'm spending most of my time owning up Hard Mode Flashpoints and leveling alts with friends.

I can't remember how many e-mails I received for various MMOs I played betas for, begging me to rejoin. The only one that never cared was... WoW. Don't you like me, Blizzard? I still like you...

HA! while I am still playing and having a lot of fun with the game, this email is just... embarrassingly pathetic.

Nope. I tried two different classes, convinced that this would be the MMORPG experience that would convert me from my single-player RPG ways. Every complaint you guys have expressed about the game, every complaint Yahtzee recently had about the game grinded me down until I uninstalled and unsubscribed. Just... yeesh.

I always get things from WoW and other MMO's asking me to return. it's nothing new. From what I've heard the subs are still strong.

No I stopped. I thought it needed some work.

I am leaving because of UI re-sizing, I know that sounds crazy but let me finish...

I have wanted to make the UI smaller since the first minute I started (like you can in almost every other MMO). No option to do so.

I think to myself: "Maybe EA wants to make sure the game stable first and they will include it later, no big deal"

The I see the "coming soon to TOR" video in which the show the UI being re-sized THROUGH A RE-SIZE UI OPTION IN THE CONTROL PANEL, color coordinated and all!

So now I think to myself: " Fucking EA has already finished a UI re-sizing option. They with patch it in eventually and claim that they are 'evolving the game' the way the fans want."

In reality, they have put UI re-sizing (?) behind a subscription paywall.

I am tired of EA treating it fans like stupid children who are there just to suck money out of. Fuck Them

PS: EA's stock has dropped 25% of its value since November, a loss of 1.6 billion in market cap if my math is right.

I wonder if a single person at EA is saying "maybe confidence in the stock would rise if we stop treating our customers like shit?"

Kinda sad really.

In the mean time: burn baby burn!

I love Star Wars but I never had any interest in SWTOR. Strangely enough I just started playing Star Trek Online and it's quite fun... given I don't understand everything yet, but discovering things is half of the appeal.

lol at some of the comments here.

@Mdk5631 said:

I am leaving because of UI re-sizing, I know that sounds crazy but let me finish...

I have wanted to make the UI smaller since the first minute I started (like you can in almost every other MMO). No option to do so.

I think to myself: "Maybe EA wants to make sure the game stable first and they will include it later, no big deal"

The I see the "coming soon to TOR" video in which the show the UI being re-sized THROUGH A RE-SIZE UI OPTION IN THE CONTROL PANEL, color coordinated and all!

So now I think to myself: " Fucking EA has already finished a UI re-sizing option. They with patch it in eventually and claim that they are 'evolving the game' the way the fans want."

In reality, they have put UI re-sizing (?) behind a subscription paywall.

I am tired of EA treating it fans like stupid children who are there just to suck money out of. Fuck Them

What? You understand how software development works? This option is there in some interal build, sure. But sure its is also buggy as hell. Haven't you noticed the abundance of UI bugs currently IN the game? The problem with EA games is that all of them are coming in hot.