Like it or not SWTOR is in competition with WoW and other MMOs for subscribers so comparisons will always be made. A common scenario last December will likely have been, a current [insert name of MMO] subscriber buys TOR and tries to run it on their off the shelf machine that runs [insert name of MMO] perfectly well. TOR does not run well on their machine but they really like the look of it so they have to make a decision, go back to [insert name of MMO] or shell out 6 or 7 hundred pounds for a new PC to run TOR. In most cases are they going to go back to [insert name of MMO]
No it does not require a modern gaming computer, according to the published system requirements it needs a Dual Core processor, 2GB of RAM and an ATI x1800 or nVidia 7800 graphics card....hardly modern gaming computer spec. My PC, whilst not great, easily surpasses these requirements and still only just runs TOR on the minimum setting.
My point was only that if they wanted to be competitive with WoW and other MMOs in terms of number of subscriptions they should not have developed a game that need the latest off the shelf machines or dedicated gaming PCs, if you do that you are immediately alienating a large number of potential customers. Not all of us can “Upgrade your computer” just so we can play one particular game.