• Crowd Control: Cartel Market Survey Results

    Last week we asked players to provide feedback about their experiences with the Cartel Market. This week we take an initial look at the results.

    As expected, the vast majority of respondents are still subscribers to Star Wars: The Old Republic. Almost 90% of the nearly 2500 people who responded to the survey said they still subscribe to the game. While this doesn't give us much insight into how Free to Play and Preferred status players are interacting with the Cartel Market, it still provides a very interesting look at what subscribers think about it and how they are interacting with it. Full results of the survey and some additional analysis available after the jump.

  • Free To Play Preview Video Part 3

    Star Wars: The Old Republic's Free to Play model is live. BioWare posted a new video on the official Star Wars: The Old Republic site providing some additional  information. Cory Butler explains details regarding "Preferred" status, highlights several customization options available on the Cartel Market, and talks about limited time Life Day items.

  • Crowd Control: I'd Buy That For A Dollar!

    Welcome to another edition of Crowd Control, a statistical analysis of Star Wars: The Old Republic and its players. Previous editions took a look at the What's In Your Wallet and Who’s Ganking Whom.

    This time around we’re interested in the Cartel Market in Star Wars: The Old Republic.

    - Are subscribers buying more items from the Cartel Market than Free To Play players?
    - How much money are players spending on extra Cartel Coins?
    - Which items on the Cartel Market are the most popular?

    To answer these questions, Crowd Control will employ a brief survey after which our team of Darth Hater astromech droids will analyze the data in search of the most interesting trends and correlations. Subsequent installments will offer color commentary on the insights provided for your reading pleasure.

    Please read on below the jump to take our two-minute survey, and let us know in the comments if you have ideas for future polls or analysis. Also note that any information you choose to share will not be used for any purposes outside of the scope of Crowd Control. If for any reason you prefer not to answer a particular question, just leave it blank. Thanks for participating, this project would not be possible without your support!

  • Game Update 1.6: Cartel Market Additions

    Game Update 1.6: Ancient Hypergate is now on live servers and with it comes a new assortment of items for the Cartel Market. In order to show the community at large the items, we created this post to serve as a listing for them. Initially, this post will only contain brief summaries with images due to time constraints. As the day progresses, we will make a list in entirety. As with new Cartel Packs, items may take a while to find for some but when we come across them, we will add them here. For the current items, hit the gallery below.

    Gallery: Game Update 1.6: Cartel Market Additons

    czerkacele
    microdefender
    mottledblurrg
    holochair

  • Lottery Boxes are the Devil

    With Game Update 1.5 and the F2P conversion upon us, many people have spent the last few weeks dissecting and analyzing all of BioWare’s decisions regarding how they have structured the conversion and the new Cartel Shop. Some have been received positively, others with disdain and dislike. However, there is one aspect that immediately gets my blood boiling -- Cartel Packs. Read on after the jump as I lay out just why I think these lottery boxes are possibly the worst thing to happen to The Old Republic, and MMOs in general.

  • Open Forum: First Impressions of the Cartel Market and Free-to-Play

    This week's Open Forum is a little different from what we usually do. Since Game Update 1.5 and the Free to Play option just came out, we’d like to see what the community at large thinks about the new content. How many Cartel Coins did you start out with? What did you spend those initial coins on? Did you end up buying more coins even as a subscriber? If you do not subscribe, did the game convince you to buy coins to use on things? If so, which points convinced you to buy coins to unlock? If you have a comment that does not fit these questions but you think is relevant to the subject, feel free to add it after the jump as well.

    We will hand select a few choice comments to be featured in the next podcast episode. Be constructive with your comments and do not flame or degrade others. We will moderate accordingly.