During my SWTOR break I got into the ME series and KOTOR.
In both of those games whenever I went to a new quest hub (planet), I felt immersed in the locality I was in because it seemed like every NPC I encountered had a story to them. As I talked to folk, I also explored the area. Within ten minutes I felt like a citizen of The Citadel, Omega, Tatooine, Taris, or Ilum.
Sure in SWTOR there is a class story, but other than collecting quests I don't really feel immersed at all in the locality I'm in. The voice acting and video for every quest doesn't give me a feel for the culture or day to day lives of inhabitants. There really isn't much exploration going on because most hubs could fit within a couple football pitches.
Granted in ME and KOTOR there was a maximum of one quest hub on every planet and it is assumed players would explore and smell the roses.
The nature of MMO's is to get to max level as soon as possible. With each planet having 3-5 quest hubs perhaps it would have been a waste of resources to give each quest hub a character of its own.
Thoughts?