lol no SWTOR died long time ago, I believe the server I play on currently for SWG has more active users than the Ebon Hawk
Its a good game, it is a perfect sandbox, and it is in the pre-CU enviroment that is NOT anything alike swtor ( or wow with a SW skin onto it )
SWG provides:
-Freedom.
-A way more hardcore enviroment.
-Real Crafting, one of the best ever made crafting systems.
-hunting for this and that, that you are looking for.
-You really have to work for getting somewhere depending on how far one want to go.
-Not 10 sets of different armor to do things, you equip armor, get buffs, you pvp/pve or whatever.
-Player based economy.
-self made raids in a figure of speech, you decide what you want to raid and what to raid.
-Base busting.
-Factions not being seperated from each other and the only way you can get along with that faction would be small closed or arranged PvP events, instead you can actually meet your arch enemy on neutral ground.
-SWG was ahead of its time, and still am with a different gameplay that is more skill based, falling into catagories like eve online, to an extend elderscrolls online, and a bunch of the oldschool MMOs as well.
-It promotes RP way more than most other MMOs.
-Later on it will grant space as well, real space.
-to gain cool components you have to work for it or have a big wallet, krayt dragon fight can easely take 20minutes, but the reward if lucky is good, tissues/scales/pearls and more.
-all items you use is playermade, meaning you can only get as good a gun as the current crafting resources allow you to have, or armor.
-Decay with use of items, meaning at some point you got to replace your armor or an armor piece or get a new weapon meaning you need to go with a calculated risk, got to make your stuff you own pay off its value + more.
What SWG does not provide:
It does not provide long story lines, that later on gets watered out.
It does not provide arena alike PvP, other than the ones you create yourself.
It does not provide pre-made raids, that you have to do over and over again to get specific parts, for then starting over again when the next tier of gear arrive with new raids/pvp grounds.
It does not provide premade classes/professions that you go through.
It does not provide the easy way out, if you get killed you pay for it.
It does not provide a vanity gift shop.
It does not provide a decay free enviroment.
As for you cillian, I can't speak on your behalf, mostly because you joined SWG later on when none of the core game was still remaining due to 'combat' upgrades, personally went back to the roots and I love it very much lol, best MMO experience ever has been granted back, I was not to fond of the NGE, but did play partly in it as it is, for this and that reason and it had its uses too some extend.
What I can recommend, find your old SWG discs and install them, try out the server we play on, be in knowledge it will be a slow start but when starting to get an idea about how it run, it is very difficult to stop playing again.
Edit:
Forgot to add, it is a completely different game than what you probably remember it to be as well.
