Jeff Hickman, Executive Producer of Star Wars: The Old Republic, issued an official State of the Game post to the SWTOR community yesterday. In it, he addressed many issues that are on players’ minds, including the reasoning for the move to free to play, the fact that content updates were often behind schedule, the amount of bugs that were released in Game Update 1.4, Oceanic server populations, and BioWare’s internal transition after losing quite a few staff members. It’s an interesting read, and one that I feel the community very much needed.

Keep reading to see a sample.

With the release of Game Update 1.3, most SWTOR players are, of course, enjoying the new features it brought, but many players are also beginning to wonder what we’ll see next in Game Update 1.4. The Group Finder tool and Ranked Warzones were much-needed additions, but what’s next on the horizon? What else do we need the most?

A couple threads have popped up on the official forums with some great suggestions. Here is one of them:

“Bioware hit at least two key things that were wanted by the players and community which was a group finder system and ranked warzones. There are still many expectations from the community for Bioware to implement into the game. A few ideas would be guild ship, paid character transfers, cross server warzones/ cross faction LFG system, additional race unlocks, and etc. So what are you expecting from the game next?”

Definitely some good ideas. Keep reading for a huge list of ideas players have!

The SWTOR community has seen its fair share of crashing lumber and bent nails flying through the air this week while server transfers have been happening. Oh, yeah, and official forum drama. Lots of that. Always lots of that. Folks who were unhappy about logging in to empty servers are now unhappy about server queues, and on top of that– they’re mourning over lost names and Legacy names. The complaints are valid, and BioWare could have approached this whole server transfer thing better, but by the end of this adventure– at least we’ll sort of feel like we’re in an MMO again.

In case you haven’t heard the news, at E3 yesterday, EA made some pretty huge announcements about SWTOR and the next year of updates to come. This was exciting news to many fans of the game. Content updates are always important in an MMO, and many SWTOR players are especially eager for additional content to explore.

One of the most interesting announcements was regarding the addition of a higher level cap. This bit of information in particular is seeing a high amount of community feedback– both good and bad. Players were, in general, quite surprised by this news. Let’s take a look at some community opinions, shall we?

By now, we all are probably familiar with the rumors spreading mass amounts of doom and gloom about SWTOR across the MMORPG community. Practically every forum and review site has at least a handful of negative opinions regarding the game. The term “TOR-tanic” is often used, comparing SWTOR to both a legendary disaster and a sinking ship. And then there’s this article, and others like it that seem to support these disastrous claims.

As if all the sinking ship images aren’t enough, EA has to throw us this iceberg. Now folks out there are really spreading doom and gloom about SWTOR, and it’s difficult to even avoid it over on the official forums. And I know– you’re wondering why I’m wasting my time discussing the negativity here, where actual fans of the game want to read about cool stuff, and not leaky framework hulls and wildfire-filled articles. Sometimes, I think it’s important to embrace a portion of negativity– a bit of the storm– because it lets us look at our games objectively, and discover what really matters to us in an MMO.

I’ve said it before and I’ll stay it again– Now’s a great time to be a gamer. Not only do we have multiple gaming platforms, systems, genres, and ways of interacting with fellow gamers, we have a huge variety when it comes to game choice. The MMO market, in particular, is huge right now, with some great titles recently released and planned in the year to come. Diablo III, anyone? How about TERA, Guild Wars 2, and The Secret World? Let’s not forget about the plethora of great games already on the market.

Yeah, I know. You’re cringing at some of those titles. You’re wondering why the heck I’m talking about other games besides SWTOR. For some silly reason, within this often-paranoid gaming community, it’s sometimes seen as an act of betrayal to positively discuss more than one game at a time. Maybe it’s our inner competitive spirits that make uttering words like, “Wow, TERA’s pretty damn fun. I may have to play it and SWTOR!” seem like taboo. I’m here today to reassure everyone of one simple fact: it’s okay. It’s not taboo. Talk about other games, and try other games. SWTOR isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

We’re now coming up on the first month that Star Wars: The Old Republic has been released. Many players are taking the time to decide whether or not the game is for them, and if it’s worth a recurring subscription. The official forums, unsurprisingly, are filled with an explosion of negativity, about everything from the game’s aesthetic qualities and light/dark options to bugs, class balance issues, the lack of endgame content, graphical issues, and a lot of sweeping opinions. Many seem to be of the opinion that SWTOR has had one of the worst launches ever, and that the game is doomed to disappear within the next year.

Star Wars: The Old Republic has more than a couple large gifts for MMO fans. Eight fantastic stories, a large portion of the Star Wars universe to explore, an involved companion system, crafting, space battles, warzones, flashpoints, heroic quests, and operations. Big features that excite us about the game and keep us playing until endgame and beyond. Big features are necessary for any successful MMO.

Often overlooked are the small things, which are also necessary for any successful MMO. This is especially the case when it comes to a game’s possible longevity. All MMOs should desire to live a long, successful life. The small details are important because they are what give life to a game world.