Darth Hater

It's sad when the quality of modelling gets outshined by the junk one can find on Turbosquid.  I'm not sure if it's an art direction problem or if they don't have any skilled personnel left. They have at least one guy (the one that added the Christmas lights to the speeder).  I don't mean reskinning, that can be done by anybody that can pass a basic HS art class.

I just shake my head at people claiming that the reskinned gear being added to the CM takes development resources away from a different part of the game.  That's busy-work for interns.  A more valid complaint is only adding new CM stuff and not adding new crafting recipes or updating any of the special vendors.

ObIANAL

And likely quite illegal.  It's defective, so they owe you a replacement or a refund.  If you live in the US, contact your state's Dept. of Consumer Affairs and file a complaint.

Well, to be fair, I've not made it to endgame in any MMO.  I'm only repeating a commonly repeated criticism.  From what I understand, the tactics used on a group of spawns is counter-intuitive (kill the weak ones first).  Maybe that is what is frustrating those unhappy with the endgame.

Quote from Remlish »

take your rage hate to another game, we will be better off without you.

The problem with SW:TOR is that too many people decided that they were better off without it.  It's hard to tell if EA is scrambling for new revenue or if they're just milking anybody they can squeeze money out of before shutting the game down.  Either way, encouraging people who have demonstrated their willingness to hand them money to GTFO is not something I think they'll appreciate.

Quote from uq1»

The whole premise behind your massively flawed arguements is "I am a sub, I should be better then you". Just completely wrong.

Subs are a guaranteed revenue stream so they should be treated like gold.  Instead, they get treated poorly and we get treated like poo.  The Cartel Market should have been the big advantage for subs with their stipend.  Instead it's full of gamble boxes and poorly done armor reskins that are stupidly overpriced.  Cash only Makeb is another big fail.  Unless somebody is really into the anemic endgame or pvp, there's no incentive to subscribe.

As for your specific complaint about not receiving the free recruit gear, they were pretty up-front about that.  If you really want to play endgame content you'll need to subscribe.  Actually, putting that set in the Cartel Market isn't a bad idea.

Quote from iceberg265»

$20 for one planet that gets you from level 50 to 55.  Aka that one planet will be the size of Pandaland, Cataclysm, etc.  And for less than half the price.

Never played WoW, but from what I understand the feature list of MoP is worthy of being called "expansion".  The RotHC press release was so devoid of details the backlash it received forced EA's Community handlers into damage control mode.  The few crumbs of information revealed still don't suggest that RotHC has 10% of what MoP offers.

Quote from Remlish »

They didnt offer a F2P model because the game was hurting, ...

 Dude...

11.06.2012 SW:TOR Dev Blog

From Hickman's own mouth:

2. The subscription requirement was driving away huge numbers of people who do not want to commit to paying monthly.

Dunno what your definition of "hurting" is, but that's an unusually explicit mea culpa.

Quote from Remlish »

All of you "they offered me an inch when i wanted a foot" players are actually hurting the improvment process by crying about not getting enough.

What we want is something best-in-class.  Failing that what we want is parity with the other MMO's that SW:TOR claims as peers.  What we have is the laughingstock of the MMO community.

TOR's model as it exists today is all about punishing its players.  The F2P rollout limited that to non-subs.  The abuse has now extended to the subscribers by making the Life Day items a Cartel Market exclusive, offering Best In Slot ship parts in the cash shop and the decision that Makeb is cash only.

Judging by Hickman's reaction in the Livestream, the CM rollout sounded like a fantastic success for them.  Unfortunately it seems like it's gone to their head.  They badly needed to cauterize the loss of subs but their latest missteps looks like it's only made the hemorrhaging worse.  EA's corporate culture is far too focused on short-term gains.  MMO's are a long-term commitment.  If EA doesn't grow up soon SW:TOR will not last.

Quote from Remlish»

Ultimatly you still want something for nothing.

Really?  First line of his post:

Quote from uq1»

As a player who is now in the high 40's levels in game, these have been my findings on the 'preferred' model.

The "something for nothing" argument is a tiresome strawman, please stop.  Preferred accounts paid real money for SW:TOR features.  As I'm sure you're well aware of that is not "nothing".  I can just as easily turn that argument around: EA wants my subscription money for nothing.  See how that works?  It is equally invalid.

The truth of the matter is that we want to pay, but only after Bioware delivers.  The subscription model has failed precisely because they have not delivered on their promises.  If they want to match their subscription revenue, then they'll need to deliver $150 worth of content that we want to pay for over the course of a year.

I would have been perfectly content with the GW2 B2P model but it seems that EA needs to learn this the hard way.  Hopefully they'll figure it out before they have to shut things down.

Quote from lucasdeis »

the expansion is coming. swtor.com/buy

20USD cash only?  Whatever they're smoking I want nooooooo part of.

As a non-sub, I'd be happy to plunk down 1000CC once I knew how the content was received.  20 cash for one planet?  Weak.

Quote from lucasdeis »

 can you make an article about this?

 Please, the cash-grab needs to be aired.

Quote from Remlish»

Credit Cap - This is a nessacary evil , gold farming is already rampant enough.

The farming accounts are more than likely subs and probably hacked accounts.  That's the only way to generate enough volume.  The only thing that the credit cap does is to irritate people.  This works to convert some people into subscribers but it serves to alienate a much larger population.  Keep the cap for the true F2P people, but the preferred folk should have it lifted.  I've been told this is how it works in GW2.

Sub or GTFO is a failing business strategy.  B2P is a much more successful model because a LOT of people refuse to rent their perks.  Instead of punishing those of us who'd rather not sub they should have made new perks for the subs.  I'm not asking for a handout, I'm quite prepared to pay a reasonable amount for unlocks.  (2700 for an account wide unlock is not reasonable).  

What SW:TOR needs are more customers.  Every three people that spend $60/yr in the Cartel Market are worth one month-to-month subscriber.  There is so much potential in the Cartel Market, but they need to stop making stuff gamble box exclusive.  People are begging to pay for some of the cool mounts and armor straight up.

Quote from Aries »

While I agree that Space Parts do not matter much, as it is a part of the game that is not widely played (most people I have seen in "space" location were 10 shortly after launch), it is a troubling thing to see items with stats on Cartel Market.

The parts don't matter yet.  If and when the SSSP sees the light of day, then it'll matter.  If the main forums were any indication, EA just saw a large wave of people unsubscribing over this move.  Hopefully this will be the last attempt to put P2W items in the Cartel Market.

Honestly if the clothes on the CM were Level1 empty shells for 300-600 points, I'd be all over the Outlaw set.