While I've never been a hardcore RP gamer, I always like to know the backstory behind the quest I'm doing. I always read the quest description when I played WoW and paid attention to the dialogue. TOR's narrated quest-givers gave me a completely new dimension in MMO gaming. Their immersion in the story is one of the chief reasons I play this game.
That said, I think Bioware has an untapped RP goldmine with guilds. Guild capital ships would be a great way to expand space battles into PVP and Operation territory, and give guilds a greater sense of identity and competition with other guilds. Just imagine how cool it would be to have a space battle against another guild or board an enemy NPC capital ship to begin an Operation!