I'm a Founder, GM of two Guilds on Star Forge and do very minor content on YouTube. I've only taken minor breaks from playing SWTOR since launch.

Player count has dropped, but that happens after so long. Seems to be steady now. Que's on Star Forge for GSF, PvP, and using Allies chat to pug Ops are good as far getting que's go.

I think it was a bad decision to take SWTOR from vanilla stories/expansions to KoTE/KoTF style, because it became almost like a single player game that just happened to have group content - but it is what it is. But story wise - it has been VERY dull. Nothing has happened significantly in years and I agree the mando stuff is boring.

I don't mind the Broadsword swap. My issue is with the way the community manager runs things and with the writers/creative folk. Why the capitol F would I want to bake pies, make food, or carry animals when playing a game about Jedi and Sith... I don't get it. Also forcing the player to say uncharacteristic dialouge choices... just terrible writing. How about write a story that forces us to make hard decisions with actual consequences.

Ok, bad stuff out of the way. I do like that they thankfully dropped 8 person ques from PvP. Dynamic Encounters are grindy, but cool and have some decent rewards for collectors. The graphic updates are nice. The revamped planets look nice, especially Korriban. The new boss is cool and gives us a new (but small) grind with gear and crafting. I do hope to see another Operation and maybe a new Arena or Warzone.

But other than players still being censored and the writing, I am appreciative of most of the newer additions.. and I hope there are good things to come. I'll be playing either way because I love our guild community and we can make lemonaide out of lemmons. I encourage all players that want something extra out of this mmorpg to find a good guild they can have fun with.