Great post. In fact, #1 and #2, but mostly #2, are what most people did. I love how the suggestions people as ignorant as you ruins the game for the rest of the playerbase. I would suggest you take one of your own options and quit. For every 1 person like you that quits, the game retains 50 people.

Some of us have these things called jobs. Many of us within that group work anywhere from 8-16 hours a day, leaving very little time to "get good". But we still want to be able to enjoy the PvP of the game. Why not just have the flippin' matchmaking system, where people like me, who are too busy trying to make sure that model in excel has no formula errors, get matched up with other people like me? Of equal skill? Wouldn't THAT make more sense? To just match people that like occasional video game entertainment, instead of TELLING us to sacrifice time from our professional and social lives just to, as you call it, "get good"? I used to play SC 2 for a while after it came out. I was in Diamond League 1v1's. You know what? That never bothered me, because I knew I would never have the time to commit to learning uber-micro, high level strategies, or every detail about every unit of every race. I knew I would never get into Master/Grand-Master ranks, but I STILL HAD FUN. If that game had a sub, I would have paid it.

Source? Otherwise it's just conjecture.

It's pretty simple. It's a time sink. Every game has it. Just count your lucky stars you were not leveling back in the day when you weren't given a free Emergency Fleet Pass after completing your Chapter 1/2 mission. Every class has time sinks. There are parts of the operative story where you have to go from one planet to another, then back again, then to a new planet, and all you do it talk to someone at each point of contact. These days, it is much easier than it used to be. Mike "Gabe" Krahulik of Penny Arcade actually made a vicious post about the game and this very issue. The thing he complained about has been noted and fixed. I will not disagree with you OP, that sometimes it can get annoying, and as much as I want the time sink gone, it won't happen. Just like the end game grind, developers HAVE to use some technique to keep people from finishing/getting the best gear too quickly. The longer you play, the more you have to pay (if you are subbed that is, which you clearly are). That's their reasoning anyway.

If you don't buy ROTHC, you won't have access to the new HM FPS or the new OP.

This is just something I heard, so don't quote me, but for what it's worth, apparently BW starts uploading Tuesday's patch data on Sundays. I don't work in software, so I'm not sure if that's the case, but it would explain why Sundays & Mondays are typically so spiky in lag. DC's seem to be a higher issue on these days as well. Perhaps it's just coincidence though.

He didn't say it needs to have "no bugs". He said "too many bugs". I.e. the majority need to be fixed before release, otherwise you will see the forum flooded with irate players about, let's say, players in warzones having 300K HP and hitting for 30K damage per ability (that was an exaggerated example, clearly that one will be fixed).

For what it's worth, I remember this exact thing happening in DCUO. Exact same discussion, after it was announced it was going F2P. The DLCs were always 9.99. Then, a 2 months or so after F2P was announced, suddenly, they increased the price and "justified it" by saying it's a tax. To everyone. That begs the question, why not charge it from the beginning? It was either a case of being unscrupulous or incompetent, neither of which are in any way comforting. People became irate. They posted in the forums. They called CS. They thought SOE was ripping them off. Lo and behold, a few months later, the price went back to the original $9.99, with no sales tax. Now, I haven't played that game in a long time, but as far as I recall, tax disappeared from the DLC purchases. This does not necessarily mean that SOE was no longer charging taxes. Perhaps they just ate the cost and reverted the price of the DLC's to $9.99 (999 SOE coins, I don't remember what their currency was called anymore). It's very likely that when you purchased the SOE coins, they simply included the taxes they were charging before, in the revised price and simply making 10%ish less on every purchase. I realize correlation does not mean causation, but I'm wondering if something similar as at the root of this as well? Why was BW not charging sales tax before all this? I live in Alberta, and until last month, I never saw taxes on my sub. What gives all of a sudden?

I wouldn't. But even if there is, we know how BW likes to fix bugs. Anything that benefits the player: patched immediately. Anything that is a hindrance to the player: takes forever, or never gets patched. Thus: Paying [extra] taxes by mistake? "We're looking into it" -> 1 Year later, no resolution; Not paying enough taxes? Immediately fixed. This is just an example.

Great job. I love how you've ENTIRELY missed the point of the thread.

yes, but keep in mind that they are still waiting to do a closed beta on the Makeb content. How long do beta tests last in the context of this much content? I'm not a developer, so I can only conjecture, and I have no reference object for comparison. So based on absolutely nothing, I will say 2.0 will be on the PTS for 2-3 weeks, then they'll be a bit of a break, which Bioware will justify as "fixing bugs" (this may or may not be true), then the closed beta for ROTHC will begin and last anywhere from 2-8 weeks. I think May/June is entirely possible.

Are you sure about this? I thought every class would have their own story. Can you link to where you got the info from? I'd be very interested to see what their justification for this would be.

I know exactly what's going on here: I'm confused. So, are you saying that 2.0 BH gear will have the same stats as the current Columni? That the 2.0 DG will have the same stats as the current Rakata? OR, is it that 2.0 BH & DG gear will have the same stats as now, and only the existing content will be tweaked (damage dealt by NPCs, NPC HP, etc.)?

Good Luck. And I say that with no sarcasm whatsoever. I submitted a ticket 3 times to have one of my Inquisitor story quests reset/completed from Balmorra. Still hasn't happened, though every ticket has been "resolved". I've been level 50 since last February, and to this day, on every initial loading screen, I'm reminded of how I'm supposed to seek out the great doctor on Balmorra to develop a Colicoid vaccine. Word of warning to anyone leveling an inquisitor: when you get to that class quest chain, do nothing with your quest log.

EDIT: Just so you know, this is kind of off topic, but still relevant. The quest on Dromund Kaas is just the initial part of the whole Revan experience. Don't forget that there is a quest chain for Revan on Nar Shadaa as well, which introduces (or, re-introduces if you've played KOTOR) to ancient Rakata technology. In addition, PLEASE for the LOVE OF GOD, if you are running Boarding Party and, more importantly, The Foundry, for the first time, DO NOT skip cut scenes. That's all I will say. I've probably said too much. Speaking as a huge KOTOR fan, those 4 together (Dromund Kaas, Nar Shadaa, BP & Foundry) were probably the greatest part of my leveling experience. There's also little "cameos" that are made by "elements" from KOTOR. For example, the Endar Spire (anyone remember the starting ship?) has a crash site on Taris. I'm clueless as to how it got there, but it's still pretty cool nonetheless.

I told my mechanic he would need to perform bypass surgery on me; without missing a beat, he asked to have my investment manager assist. I'm now a cyborg that s**ts money. Isn't it unfortunate that the real world doesn't work that way?

No...they wouldn't. Because that's dumb. MOST people posting on these forums are intelligent enough to understand they don't get handouts. What they are NOT, are doormats, that don't voice their opinions on a seriously game impacting issue.

Did you upgrade your RAM and CPU as well? Those two items will have incredible impact on performance. When the game first came out, I had 8G of RAM, but on W7 32 bit. After I upgraded to 64 bit (so half my RAM wasn't going to waste), it made a huge difference in performance. Another thing you can try, is changing a setting in your preferences that determines how many characters around you, and in what proximity, are rendered at one time (I forgot what it's called, but it's on the bottom of the graphics settings page). I think there are 3 choices, Low, Medium and High.

While this would be nice, and maybe it will get looked at after items on the Cartel Market. You said you can just copy paste, which I think is fine in the interim. I actually have a word document that lists my most common phrases in the game. It includes, but is not limited to, answers to common questions about F2P restrictions (e.g. why is the game stealing my money and putting it into something called escrow), links, shouts for groups (e.g. Tank LFG HM EC full run), and [probably] my favorite, because it is such a time saver, answers about what to do once you hit 50 (e.g *** do I do!?!?!). I always have this open while I'm playing.

I was going to comment on this, but I knew someone would pick up in it

I agree. Figuring out a way to play your class at optimum levels adds another layer of "gaming" to the game. It's akin to RTS games, where once someone finds a counter a certain strategy, you need to re-evaluate and counter the counter. Ok...it's not EXACTLY like that, but it's along the same lines.

Just out of curiosity, will these new "Active Abilities" for each advanced class be available for unlock through the legacy system? What I mean is, will they work like the Class Buffs now, where, once you reach Act 2 on a certain class, you unlock that class' buff for all your other characters?

Has it ever crossed anyone's mind that if they're not paying to foot everyone's phone bill with their toll free number, that they just MAY hire more people to deal with CS issues? The cynics will say no, clearly. But it's a logical reason which we certainly can't rule out. I don't know about anyone else, but I'd much rather they NOT have a toll free number and speak to someone quickly, than have them pay a bill (that my phone company doesn't charge me for anyway) and wait for 4 hours.

There's quite a lot of new stuff coming in 1.3. A new Operation is actually pretty exciting. Watch the video on 1.3 & future updates. Pre-season ranked pvp will be coming soon as well, not necessarily with 1.3 though. I'm pretty excited actually!

No. I'm irate that I have nothing to do (mostly due to the lack of people for raids & pvp, since I already have my 4 50's), but I do not feel they "owe us" anything. There was no agreement, written or verbal, when I bought the game that said "we will compensate you for things you are not happy with in the game". This is still a business. You bought a product. When you buy a product, you take a risk that it will break. If it comes with a warranty, great. If not, the onus is on you as a consumer. In this case, the purchasers were well aware that there was indeed a risk the game would fail (I'm not saying it DID, simply that there was the RISK of failure), or that it would falter along the way. EA/Bioware does not need to be, and indeed should not be, accountable for a purchase the consumer made that, like any other product, has the inherent risk of failure, since the game does not come with a "warranty". If you walk into a department store, and you buy a microwave without a warranty, and you see that it is a final sale (i.e. no returns or exchanges), you cannot come back to the store and demand that it be replaced because it broke after the first week. You can be mad, yes. Mad as hell. But that doesn't mean you have the right to demand. You knew the risks. Again, the onus is on the customer. You bought the product, and if you had done your research, like any intelligent consumer, you would have known the risks.