After reading all the terrible things said about SWG on these forums, I finally decided to look at the game myself, with the free trial. I know nothing of end-game etc. so these impressions/suggestions primarily relate to attracting and keeping new players.

Problem : The Legacy quest is too geographically expansive and too linear for an MMO. With the playerbase so spread out and constantly following a linear series of quests, the opportunities for and benefits of teaming are minimal. It makes SWG play like a simplistic "go here, do this" single-player game.

Suggestion : Remove some of the quests from the series (a lot of them are repetitive "go there and kill 15 of those" anyway) and add in more quests of an appopriate level offered by NPCs near Legacy-quest-NPCs. That would result in players of a similar level gathering in one place for a time, making it easier to hook up for teaming. Those players would either need to do all of those optional quests to achieve a level where they can safely continue the Legacy quests (and teaming those quests would be quicker) or attempt those higher-level Legacy quests in the safety of teams.

Problem : The classes all seem much the same.

Suggestion : Redesign all the classes and make them unique. Sure it makes balancing more complicated but classes should be more than just cosmetic.

Problem : Medics suck. I mean my Medic was way meaner than my Jedi but my Medic had pretty weak healing capabilities. And with death having no penalty, I didn't feel very medical.

Suggestion : Make medics medics, and make death mean something.

JEDI

It doesn't make sense that so many Jedi/Sith should be running around at the time during which SWG is set. It would make sense for there to be untrained force-sensitives - individuals with some mystical abilities but lacking the training necessary to be uber Jedi and Sith. And certainly none of them would be waving lightsabers around. That would foolishly attract the attention of a certain Emperor who enjoys pruning competition.

But if SWG must have Jedi and Sith, then those classes should come with realistic limitations. The Jedi were a religious order, so it's members were peaceful (i.e. player Jedi should never be able to initiate combat against mobs or players) and monastic (i.e. player Jedi should not be able to amass wealth - their only possessions would be their lightsaber and their robes). Conversely Sith would be reviled everywhere they went and would be attacked on sight by town guards, or at least prodigiously sprinkled roaming Jedi NPCs.

To further balance the number of Jedi and Sith, I'd also present the players with this choice. To follow the path of the force requires intense and single-minded dedication. So to create a Jedi or Sith character would require an empty character register. And once you have one, you can't create any more characters. One character on one server. That's it.