Seems like there ought to be some kind of grace period for poking fun at SWTOR email typos...

One can probably say the same about blind, uncritical adulation too. People should appreciate it when positive developments come to pass. But if they are to be meaningful and the people are not to be taken for bunnies anew, there needs to be an appreciation of the context of the action, to put it into some kind of meaning. Where any would just rail with rage, we will find no more opportunity for meaningful dialogue between disputants than we will be likely to see with its polar opposite, unquestioning obedience. Many of the posts I saw in many places - not just the forums here - were full of reasonable, clear discussion over the grace period fiasco. These people did us all a favor, and I'm very glad they helped get us where we are today. And, as I've already indicated, I'm also glad EA/Bioware blinked and reconsidered their bad decision enough to offer a smaller serve of the grace period they "lead us to believe" they'd already granted us. I just think some of us could recognize that there are TWO parties to thank for the present evolution of the situation, instead of just ONE.

I don't. Re-read. I said nothing about "the customer always being right". You falsely extrapolated.

I am sorry you feel that way. Perhaps you really think that like your compatriot earlier, that Anything Goes isn't just a song title, but a maxim for consumer relations? "Self congratulations"? People were shafted, even you if you could but see it, and those of us willing to help your beloved Bioware (and mine, I have pretty much their whole back catalog - as do many of the other people you deride) do the right thing by not sitting on our hands and taking the double talk for an answer, by pressing them to come clean and do right by us, we should get the brick bats? Okeydoke. I'm as worthy of respect as a customer as you and all others are, and the fact that EA/Bioware is now trying harder to reconnect with that fact demonstrates their agreement with me and those who share that view. Hence the post at the start of this thread. Good on them! It's a positive development over where we were at recently. But to assume that this would have come to pass without a single peep out of a single one of us when we as an entire customer base were taken for a ride over the grace period mess EA/Bioware made all by themselves, is a little much. If you only give credt where it's due - and never acknowledge the bad - then there's a problem in the dynamic, and it can lead the way to encouraging worse. Some of us love EA/Bioware enough to do both.

Anything goes, huh? I missed have missed that bit where the BUSINESS is always right, no matter how shabbily they treat their customers. As did the thousands of your fellow gamers equally of the same mind at the announcement of this news, represented on the boards. But sure, patronize away. It helps to build your reputation and foster team spirit!

This is important to pay attention to. EA/Bioware messed this up. See this post at the bottom of the page by LagunaD: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:kEHoYGga1coJ:www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php%3Fp%3D12045669+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&client=firefox-a Their solution appears - at least in part - to have made it Amazon (and the retailers') problem to fix for them and us. Is it incredibly lucky for us (and EA/Bioware) that Amazon wanted to play ball - and were able to do so - under these terms, as they appear to be doing? I certainly think so - this time of year is crazy for shipping and still EA/Bioware persisted with their launch and when it went pear shaped by their own hand, asked for third parties to magic away the problem whilst stonewalling until the last minute about the reinstatement of the rescinded grace period. Near as I can tell at this stage, Amazon has looted some pretty sweet reputation-boosting Commendations off the self-harmed corpse that is EA/Bioware's launch of this MMO. I am not likely to forget how they came to the fore on this, and I daresay others will be equally more favorably disposed than they might have been in the past.

To the extent that your claim of punishing the wronged party (ie, all of us) isn't some kind of postmodern comedy, you have my sympathy.

So we're still 3 days down on the official deal as presented by the SWTOR Protocol Droids as late as the 9th of this month. But even so, yes - this can and will go some ways toward restoring consumer confidence and good will. I'm sure there are still many of us who wish to know what the Dickens happened, and why that was. The press release that started this thread ignores the role EA/Bioware played in making this problem, by inconsistency and last minute changes without explanation or honesty as to what had gone before. The post near the bottom of this page by LagunaD seems to cover the basics well: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:kEHoYGga1coJ:www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php%3Fp%3D12045669+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&client=firefox-a So whilst I'm certainly happy we've seen this partial reversal, let's not go nuts and forget what happened, and how it happened.

You are so far off base that there are no words. "Hysterical delusion"? Saints preserve us. Go here, scroll down and read the post by LagunaD, it goes from left to right: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:kEHoYGga1coJ:www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php%3Fp%3D12045669+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&client=firefox-a Near as I can tell, only one gaming press (not fan press) outfit and writer had the stones and wit to cover this, a BIG story about a own-goaled launch of perhaps the most ambitious, most expensive MMO in history. Said outfit being Kotaku AU and said writer being one Mark Serrels. Have a read here, along with the comments from posters just like everyone else equally disadvantaged over this mess: http://www.kotaku.com.au/2011/12/star-wars-the-old-republic-and-the-grace-period-fiasco/ To the extent that this piece helped in any way to speed the plow to this point, we ought to be grateful it saw print, when many other online vendors and press organs (I use that latter term advisedly) knew about it and didn't give a toss. I'll be thanking him, and all of us who said "Not good enough, damn it". I just hope that this experience will encourage EA/Bioware to remember what it means to jerk us around after giving us an undertaking, and to more than redouble their efforts to manage this potentially outstanding MMO better - including clear and reliable, consistent official communication at all times. We deserve nothing less, and they know it.