You fail to mention you were carried, had all 4 players in your group been equally as poorly geared as you claim you were then it would have failed spectacularly. Had I encountered you in my pug group you would have been kicked for being a free loader.

2 options to solve the problem of nom noms joining groups and not realizing they are locked out are 1) Use the FP/OP finder and do SM EV or KP where no one in your group is locked out. Convince BW to add HM EV & KP to the lst 2 Join a raiding guild I fall into category 2 and we never have the OP's problem, as far as helping other out thats what I use my lvl 50 alts for.

Flashpoints are fine as they are and should not exceed 30min to complete, skipping unessecary content is normal as most players are there for the daily and have better things to do. HM EV & KP take my group just over an hour to complete now. it sounds like to me that rather than complaining about FP durations you should just find yourself a half decent raiding guild to raid instead.

The main reason is to extend the raiding life of each new operation that is introduced. Given that EC has only 4 bosses if there wasnt a raid lockout of once per week players would be geared and complaining there was nothing to do 2 weeks after it's introduction. It's bad enough many players are sitting around twiddling their thumbs now waiting for the new OP but the situation would be far worse without raid lockouts.

I've often seen responses from developers like the one above from those at Blizzard, justification for the decisions made. I also often wonder whether the developers themselves actually run the completed FP's/OP's with fellow employees or pug as it's expected from partcipants. If Jesse Sky believed HM LI should be completed in Tionese then he geared this flashpoint for the 1% of players who are capable. Everyone I know in game has completed HM LI in a minimum of Columi gear, and I am of the opinion that in this Flashpoint (as good and enjoyable as it was) the reward does not equal the effort. I hope that with future development the fact that reward equals effort is kept in mind for what was essentially a mini raid.

As you stated this is a 6 month old post. Most of the complaints listed by the OP are now irrelevant with the addition of EC, the only valid complaint is that Nightmare mode EC still hasnt been implemented & that there was only 4 bosses. A new raid coming in approx 8 weeks. This game never has catered to special snowflakes and never will, going F2P has shown that their target audience is the unwashed masses.

I hear you, the CE vendor turned out to be a non event. All in all we still have the box with the assortment of items, but had the game felt successfull I would have considered the purchase to be worthwhile. Moral of the story is dont believe the hype.

If you truly believe the above then you have no concept of what a forums are, the general section is always the heartbeat of any forums. Although only a small percentage of players will ever post the feelings expressed will always deliver an indication of the direction of posters feelings on any subject the forums are dealing with. If you have the misconception that the forums should smell of roses when the subject matter pervades the nasal cavity like a putrid rotting corpse then i'm sorry but you should avoid the general section of the forums. With over 2 million box sets sold and only just over 500k subs after 9 months I hardly consider those posters criticising the game "trolls", these players are more in touch with the longevity of the game and see the direction it is heading. The fact BW/EA have announced F2P confirms this. As for offering constuctive criticism it has already been done hundreds of times in the first 2 months of launch even earlier if you go back to comments posted during beta. The search function is your friend, and a person can only offer constructive criticism for so long when it falls on deaf ears. As to why people continue to post long after they have already judged the subject matter is because in many cases they want to see it succeed. We are optimistic by nature and are always hoping for the best as only a masochists would continue to pay for something they dont like just to run it down.

As an active player of rpg mmo's for the last 15 years I would have said the game showed great potential and in fact a few acpects that you mentioned were indeed great. But overall BW failed to capitalise on aspects of the game that were successfull and fix those areas that were lacking. Going F2P in my eyes is an admission of defeat, which means that the game will never live upto it's potential.

Seriously folks this needs to stop. Truth of the matter is ever single one of us deserve to be rewarding for placing faith in BW and continueing to sub since the games pre launch. Yes CE owners have the right to be unhappy with the current situation as the promised regular updates in the CE vendor never eventuated. Which makes me wonder how long the F2P concept has been going on and whether the items earmarked for the CE vendor have been held back to go into the ingame store. Also dont be suprised if current items in the CE vendor will also be available in the ingame store, after all the entire point of micro transactions is a concept brought about by greed. Yes DDE owners deserve a bonus in relation to Cartel Coins, after all they paid more for the game than those who purchased the SE and should be rewarded as such. Truth of the matter is we all supported and continued to support a game that was only 50% complete at launch, we placed our faith in BW and accepted that development would be a long term goal and one we were willing to accept. In my opinion for this reason each and every one of us deserve a medal, we wanted the game to succeed and waited patiently only to find out that after 9 months the game will be going to F2P where the main focus of development will be micro transactions.

I dont accept this, yes there are those that will always complain and contnue to play but where there's smoke there is fire. The were far to many players who were dissapointed with the product released by BW, many left and others stayed hoping to see swift and significant change. Well it's been 9 months and we have had 1 raid(4 bosses) &2 flashpoints added, theres still alot of bugs, no changes to armour styles (except BH & campaign gear), slow implementation group finder and ranked warzones, no dual spec, & so many promises not kept. Yes there will always be those that cry the sky is falling but I have never played a game where so many posters were dissatisfied on the forums, which lends me to believe that there was something wrong and it wasnt only just the playerbase.

Basicly it's what alot of players have already said, it's not that $15 is to much but rather the game in it's format back prior to 1.3 wasnt worth $15 a month & going F2P wont change that.

Pretty much...........and here I was thinking our subs were paying for wages to fix existing bugs and create additional end game content.........how silly of me.

He's making an assumption based on hs judgement which can go either 1 of 2 ways, so the way it was orginal written is correct. Quietly I actually agree with the OP, played enough F2P games where subscribers and non subscribers are enticed to plough money through an ingame store. Rather than offering unique weapons or armour as a direct sale I believe they'll use the chance model seen in many SE Asian games. A system where you gamble buying tickets or such in the hope that you have a winning ticket and become the owner of a unique shiny, as the gambling method generates far more revenue. Actually saw a friend plough $300 in tokens to win a BIS item, he got it eventually.

Neither of your posts have been positive in any shape or form, also glad to see how your OP explains how F2P will fix existing problems with the game. Or are we all just supposed to be sidetracked by the notion of F2P that we forget whats broken 8 months into a new MMO.

I dont think it's that simple, my guild raids 4 nights a week when there is new content but things have slowed down at the moment. When the new raid is introduced in 1.4 and a guild member has chosen F2P and buys raid content for 1 night they wont get an invite. It takes a regular dedicated team to work through the content since the introduction of EC (which is a good thing), so I dont see F2P players being of any constructive value to my guild. Edit: If they can buy the entire raid for it's duration then that might change things

With dual spec I assertained that it would come withn 12 months, although had the decision been mine I would have introduced it at the same time as the LFG tool to alleviate queues. I can only speak for myself but it's the fact that BW/EA have obviously given thought to a F2P model for some time. And have or are allocating resources for it to be in place by the fall, when there is so much that subscribers are currently waiting on their decision comes as a slap in the face to those that gave BW the benefit of the doubt in the first place.

Still waiting on dual spec, bug fixes (to many to list), slow addition of end game content (1 raid with 4 bosses added within the 8 month mark), Tier gear with relevant statistics to your class, nightmare mode EC, & nightmare mode FP's just to name a few. Add them to what you've already mentioned and there is a significant proportion of content lacking in this game. And I sincerely doubt F2P and an ingame store will fix any of this.

Is $15 a month that great a burden? To me those people who are gainfully employed would have no problem budgeting aside $15 a month if that is what they wanted to do. On the other hand there are those who cancelled because they felt the game wasnt worth $15 a month, and yes they maybe interested in returning if it is F2P. Either way I judge F2P in MMO's that started as P2P as a failure of the game, and there are others that feel as i do. There are plenty of SE Asian MMO's that are F2P (that end up costing far more than any P2P I know) as well as World of Tanks (recognised as the best armoured warfare game on the market) and they are all P2W.

The remainder are either happy with the game as it is or those waiting and hoping that BW would fix what has been alluded to as being broken and willing to give BW time to deliver on their promises. But the announcement of F2P has players questioning whether anything will be fixed & promises delivered.

Dont forget all the promises of new items to be added to CE store that never eventuated. Meh i'm seriously over BW/EA couldnt care less what they do now, making an in game store the focus of the games future is the straw that broke the camels back for me.

Wouldnt suprise me in the slightest, a caped crusader fighting a losing cause.

Cant argue with facts ^^ Though there are some here who will try

Actually i'm a CPA Accountant who retired at 42 after investing in China's demand for resources back in 2001. I know a great deal more than your articulate way of saying a great deal while actually saying nothing other than to attempt to insult others as a means of denegrating their arguement. Your post shows absolutely no indication that you are either educated or experienced.

If the game wasnt broken then why is it going F2P? unless of course your gullible enough to believe all the claptrap on CNBC from EA's CEO.