Darth Hater

I read this post on the swtor forums and Im glad youve posted it here as well. I share your sentiments.

I am surprised how so many people on the swtor forums argue that this is not pay2win. People are stuck on this notion that something is not pay2win if it is attainable in game. Giving people the ability to circumvent the grind/effort required to attain endgame gear with rl money is the very definition of pay2win.

Disturbing is the fact that people believe Bioware allows cartel items to be sold on the AH out of benevolence, when in reality they know they will reap greater profits by allowing those with excess dollars to churn these items out for credits. One person may be a single speeder for himself, while another buys twenty to sell for credits to buy mods from the AH.

The entire focus of the the games development now has devolved into designing new armor and cartel pack items. Since f2p, the only content that has been released is the piecemeal content that was meant for actual content patches. New cartel armor is a regularity, and still the punitive credit costs related to removing and purchasing high end mods remains.

Much of the content we have had since F2P was announced this summer was datamined well before EA started planning the F2P conversion in May. This content, (which includes HK-47, Terror from Beyond, and eventually Makeb), was developed by the original team which has since been hit hard by two rounds of layoffs and some other key departures.

Since the announcement of f2p was made Bioware has detailed and adhered to a strict schedule of six week content update intervals. Again, these updates have been composed of the content that had been in the pipeline well before F2P was announced (excluding some of the cartel market items). The last significant chunk of this pre-F2P content to be released is Makeb.

Now bare with me. The pre-order for Makeb was announced shortly after a significant piece of pre-F2P content was released (hypergate wz), which I believe is the last piece of content before the release of Makeb.

Other than specifying a level increase they have offered no real information on what the Makeb expansion includes. The following worries me:

1) They have mentioned nothing about new fps, ops, etc... (we do know that Cathar will be a seperate cartel purchase).

2) They have also set a very low price point of $10.

3) They have given a very leisurely spring release window, yet made it available for pre-order.

Looking at points 1-3, I believe it adds up to one thing. Despite grand intentions, with the resources they now have development wise, Makeb will likely be what it appears ... just a planet with 5 levels of faction quests, and that is all. All of the old content that had been developed will now have been exhausted, with the small team remaining being allocated to developing cartel store items for as long as Swtor remains profitable.

I may very well and sincerely hope that I am wrong. Time will tell. If we see no content other than cartel items until Makeb I will really start to worry. Unfortunately, I think that after Makeb we will see nothing new in terms of quality content.

Datamined content from Feb 2012: http://www.torhead.com/guide/leaks

F2P announcement which confirms May 2012 was the beginning of F2P:  http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/367/feature/6609/Star-Wars-The-Old-Republic-Free-to-Play-This-Fall.html

On another note: Looser/Loose. Lose/Loser. Learn the difference. It's the new your/you're.