Having played EQ1 (which I consider the first modern MMO), I can give you a little background about what happened.

Originally in the released game there were only 2 “level cap” dungeons and 2 dragons for raiding and that was it for “endgame” content. It really was more about the leveling.

At one point fairly early on they paniced a little because people were leveling “too” fast — they worried they’d quit once they got to level 50. So they changed it so at certain points the exp needed to level took a big jump (the so called hell levels).

Nothing was instanced, so gathering up BIS (best in slot) gear took a long time. Nothing was BoP (bind on pickup) so if you had the cash, you could buy stuff. Pretty much what happened was a group would camp a certain named mob in each dungeon so they could get him as soon as he spawned. When someone left, they’d just shout out for a replacement. People would sit at the zone-in waiting for a group. The most covetted drops (like the flowing black silk sash which wsa the only item that gave melee haste) usually had a waiting list of people to come in.

When the dragons spawned, people would shout out to gather up as many people as they could since the only limit to how many people you could bring was how lagged out the server would get (around 30 or so back then).

Later they added the first real raids (plane of hate and plane of fear) as a way to add more content for level 45-50 people did. You lost exp when you died so it wasn’t unusual to lose a few levels during a messy raid where you wiped alot.

Leveling was so slow and the gameplay of most classes so basic, there wasn’t very many people that had level-cap alts.

Really the purpose of raiding / endgame content is to just keep you subscribed to get your ~$15 / mo

I’m thinking we’ve set the bar for what constitutes strong storytelling and characterisation in CRPG’s a little low. Compared with something like Bastion or on a similar THIS IS A GREAT BIG GAME scale, Red Dead Redemption, for example, I’m wondering if we should be a bit harsher on the genre.

In traditional RPG’s, the idea was to “complete” the game at level cap and the journey there was the content. In MMORPG’s, the endgame is where the content starts and everything before it is of less importance.

I agree, the shift back in SW:TOR was welcome and is far better than the meaningless nonsense that Blizzard has gone for.

Some examples might be having it provide a rest bonus beyond experience, something that helps you craft, or gives you a timed presence bonus. The Legacy system could also be built into this and things like a medicinal droid (mainly for repairs) or the ability to get craft bonuses would be nice.

Crafting itself should have been developed as its own endgame, and it really isn’t – it just polished the streamlined turd that it inherited from World of Warcraft. Obviously this isn’t all that a crafting system could be, and it could have played into the player ship idea.

With all of those weird factions, groups, splits and hegemonies in the galaxy, I’m amazed to see no reputation system make it into the game. Again, this could easily be developed into its own endgame for those who enjoy that type of thing, or those chasing rare craft or mission patterns as well as open-slot gear.

I’d have LOVED to have seen an RP interface to actually promote RP communities, servers and guilds. You know, something like MRP or GHI making it into the game as default rather than relying on websites to both design and drive your RP gaming.

Companion development could have been far more in-depth, using them to both develop your crafting abilities as well as actually having them interrelate and interact with one another at endgame. They start off with certain bonuses, but the ability to work with them to change it would have been appreciated.

I’m at work so can’t really go into it, but that’s some of the things I’d have enjoyed seeing available. Some of the bare bones are in there, I just like the idea of the potential being developed for those that want to play with their friends in an aesthetic they like (Star Wars galaxy), but have meaningful things to do that don’t require dungeon/warfront grinds.