I never listened to people missing to point of an MMO such much like these four people.
They are talking and reviewing everything about the story mode and how "great" it is. Everything is the story mode, everything is about the single player content. Nothing at all about the core of an MMO or a RPG. It's like playing the Origin stories of Dragon Age and it's very well presented, but you are completely missing the point of an MMO. Even worse in the review. Of course the single player mode is good, but it's not the point in a multiplayer game.
Everything they said or wrote in the review is about this one point, which makes about 10% of a good MMO. The leveling process is irrelevant to an MMO. Everything after the leveling process makes a good MMO or breaks a bad one. And that's why Star Wars ToR will fail and that's why people are actually leaving the game or criticizing it so much. Nobody thinks the story mode is not good, but in a MMO it is irrelevant, because it's all about the endgame. Of course you can start twinks and play the other side, but that's like playing another Origin story in Dragon Age and praising an MMO for the leveling content is like praising a FPS game for good looking guns. You are reviewing and discussing a single player game.
Endgame not mentioned at all, which is terrible compared to other MMOs. PVP is not mentioned at all. The ability lag in PVP is game breaking, but because it's not about the story mode, it's not even interesting for you. Illium is a complete terrible mess and it's PVP and endgame.The skill trees are bloated mess, 2007 WoW like. You have one cookie cutter build and that's that. And because there is no dual skill like in WoW you have to stay tank or healer even in PVP or DD even in raids.
SW ToR in it's core is an outdated game. But because you are only praising the make up of the photoshopped face Bioware is presenting you, you are missing all it's core problems. Wow has changes since launch, but SW ToR has just copied WoW as it was in the year 2007, where the skill trees were still bloated, there was no dual skill option and the PVP was about arena and a few battlegrounds. Because they spent so much energy in the make up you are praising so much, they completely missed keeping the core up to date.
You saying people are having a blast, while they are still slowly leveling. Yes, that's true, but that's not the point in a MMO game. The social interaction on the other hand is not working at all and that is the point in a MMO. Because the is no looking for group tool, people have to stay on the fleet, if they want to find a group, like 2005 in WoW. The economy is not working because the trade skills are not worth leveling. The auction house is maybe one of the worst in all MMOs up to date. You are getting all the good equip while leveling, you don't even have to visit the flashpoints.
In the long run, every MMO without a real endgame has failed. And SW ToR is missing the endgame, there is no reason to visit the old planets after you finished all the missions. Maybe for the holocrons, but that's about it. Remember WoW, when suddenly a high level player was passing you because he needed something out of this place or was just traveling through and was helping you with your quest, just because he or she was there. This will not happen in SW ToR because people are playing in it's core a single player game, there is no real reason to interact with each other. And that's the biggest problem of the whole game. Maybe you are single player gamers and it's ok for you, but for MMO players this a the deal breaker.
Multiplayer games and MMORPGs are all about social interaction. SW ToR does everything to limit the social interaction. Single player content, a companion, limited bubbles because of the technical limitations of the hero engine, space travel, which is a pain in the ass, limited sized levels, single player story content. If you negate all of this problems because of the pretty single player mode, then you completely missed the point of a multiplayer game as much as Bioware.