Do you work for Bioware because you are so delusional as only someone from Bioware could be.... 1 million subs? If you think there are anymore than 150K or so you are smoking the good stuff. F2P should not, under any circumstance be used to try and get people to sub to a game that BIOWARE THEMSELVES said "Most customers do not feel 15 bucks a month is worth it." It should be a robust full play experiece that encourages F2Pers to want to spend cash to replace subscribers. Bioware/EA's business model for F2P is an unmitigated disaster about to happen. This game is in serious, serious trouble and you don't have to look past the last EA Quarterly Report to see it. Wow, I am stunned that people continue to ignore the reality of what has happened to SWTOR in under a year.

I will ask again, what do the facts say? Would you call losing 2 million subscribers (or 1.8 for arguments sake) a small minority being led around or would you say the subscribers that left wholesale drive the article score? Because the facts say the game is not an 8/10 in anyway other than some personal opinions here on this board.

So what you are saying is you live in a fantasy land where a better game than most out there can't succeed in capturing the share of the market it hoped for.... If SWTOR was even an average game it would be doing far better than it is now. You have to realize this game is broken from the ground up. This is not a marketing problem. This is not a bad press problem. This is a 2.4 million people tried it and the vast majority left because it is an inferior product problem. Its great you like this game but you are trying to pee and tell everyone else it is raining...most of us know the difference.

There is an easy way to gauge whether this article is closer to reality or closer to trash. The facts. Since the last review what has happened? Has the game increased subscribers? Has the subscriber base stayed about the same? Has it lost subscribers? Has it bled out subscribers? Has the game become financially viable in its release model? Has the game seen a growth in developers working on it? Has the game seen an increase in customer service and interaction or a decrease? (Forums, news releases etc) Has the game improved its quality of content released from a QA perspective? Has it stayed the same or decreased? Has the parent/owning company gotten solidly behind the game in support of it promising a bright future or has it resigned it to try and make every last buck possible before sending it off the hospice for a slow, painful death (like STO)? You can very easily answer these questions and understand that ignoring the first article and focusing on this latest Eurogamer the facts show 4/10 is a well deserved score today. The facts of what has happened to SWTOR show it is a train wreck of a game. A group of people like it, they seem to be trying to convince themselves all over this thread with their sycophant like defense . I don't doubt there are people who are happy with the barely mediocre game SWTOR has turned out to be...bully for you. Facts say many more people, people that used to pay cash to Bioware...disagree. Fake Edit: Oh and for those that keep asking why people who think this game is a 4/10 are still playing...here is some help...we came back to give SWTOR one last shot...for most of us it took just a few days to see it is still a train wreck and we have 20+ days to ride out. So you are going to hear from us as we rightfully pin the blame on Bioware for all to see including people thinking about making the mistake and coming back or starting at all.

The facts do not support the idea that SWTOR is anything but a historic failure. 2 Million Subs lost, F2P in less than one year, EA won't even talk about SWTOR in their quarterly statement instead skipping to the cash flow from that resounding success......Simpsons Online. If this game was even half way decent it would not have suffered the brutality it has experienced. When the bosses at EA are so wary of saying word one other than "We sure do hope F2P brings in cash"....you know it is much, much worse than anyone thought. Biggest budget for an MMO to date....

It was posted Nov 14th....before the patch came out, bug filled and before the Devs then went on vacation for 10 days. FAIL.

This is Your reality. It would suggest that there is not much wrong with the game and all of this is overblown. Then there is the reality where they lost 2 million subscribers and went F2P in under a year with the biggest dev budget in the history of MMOs. One is actual reality, one is the hopes and dreams of a Stepford wife.

Game bleeding subscribers...Check. Game releasing major new way to get back lost revenue...Check. Release Major patch which inludes a Cash Shop which includes a "No refunds, bugged or not" policy and go on vacation for entire week...2 days after release....Check. Sorry, not a single employee working on this game should feel safe in their job and they should have been all hands on deck to show possible new customers top notch service and "bug maintence". There is plenty of time for breaks, 2 days after major release? Worst time ever. You don't have to look any further than a message about a cash shop item being mislabeled for 8 days on the logon screen after a major release to know how dire it has become.

I paid my 15 bucks...the options were be entertained in game....or out of game. In game didn't work, so....

I played enough to know what the legacy perks were. What does that have to do at all with something sold in a cash shop that is entirely new to everyone? I read the label...just as I would anywhere in any store...like what I saw...bought it only to be told..."Oh sorry, its mislabeled and no you can't have your money back". Oh, and the best part of it? After bing told in no uncertain terms...Go Pound Sand No Refunds...I go ahead and use the speeder 2 training at level 25...it works. I have rank 2 speeder in abilities. I go to the speeder vendor...sort by "useable" and sure enough Rank 1 and Rank 2 speeders show up. So I buy a rank 2 speeder. So far so good other than the whole waste of coins thing. I click on the speeder to add it to my vehicles and bam..."You are not the correct level for this". What? Sure enough I submit a ticket and get "Yes, the speeders are actually bugged, the devs are aware of it and there should be a patch SOON". Not only was the Speeder 2 training terribly mislabeled...when you use it...the speeders are bugged. It would be hilarious if it wasn't the epitome of pathetic.

Expecting quality for your dollar is not an "entitlement" it is a basic level of common freaking sense. If anything, putting up with inferior service or quality of product for your dollar makes you a pattsy that every company desires. You just gobble up mediocre and "live with it". Where I work, mediocre means fired. I live in something called the real world where other people want to take my companies income and thus my income so we have to be better. I guess in MMO land putting out inferior crap is acceptable because we wouldn't want to hurt anyones feelings. If Bioware/EA devs worked in code and production for my company they would all have been fired a long...long time ago. That is the real old school view. Put up or get out.

It went awesome. I bought Speeder 2 for 225 coins and found out it was not account wide (before the announcement). I put in a ticket for them to take it back and was told "Sorry, no refunds from cash shop...so go pound sand". I then found out that there is a bug with the coin shop potions overwriting each others which meant another 240 coins went...POOF. Ticket response? "Yes, that is a bug that has been reported and it should be patched soon but we can't give refunds....so go pound sand". Totally awesome.

I got one after 4 days. I put in a ticket stating that the Speeder 2 training was not working for the entire account. The next day they put up that message that they know the item is mislabeled and "might get around to fixing it some day". So I wanted a refund. I was told "Sorry, can't refund cash items, particularly when you are at fault". I didn't bother resubmitting a ticket, I just unsubbed and will now post a few times a day on this forum and make sure anyone considering coming back....doesn't. It is worse than I could possibly imagine.

Yea well, Unhappy re-subscriber thinks what this game has become is sad. What a pile of trash. At least I did my due dilligence and gave them a fair second chance. I was not disappointed...it is still a horrible MMO.

The article is spot on. And for the people who keep asking "If it sucks so much why are you still paying for it?". The answer is simple, I stopped paying for it over the summer and came back to give it one last try and see if they learned anything. I was subesequently hit with the 1.5 "Cash Shop" patch which by its very nature was a massive change to the game. Said patch was released 2 days before a holiday week so the bugs introduced with 1.5 including the mislabeled and bugged Cash Shop items which they will admit are their fault but will not reimburse under any circumstance....go unchecked going on 10 days now. They literally have bugs live right now costing people money. Use an XP potion? Better not make the mistake of using any other kind of potion at the same time or it gets overridden and you lose...cash. What kind of company fighting for subscribers and income releases a huge bug filled patch then freaking leaves for a week? A really crappy one. I am able to post because I gave them a chance to win me back. Not only did they not do that, they embarassed themselves with how shockingly they have treated this IP. Bioware/EA have learned nothing. 4/10 is generous. They literally took out a planets entire purpose (PVP) and replaced it with...Nothing. And for anyone who is holding on to some mistaken belief this game has anywhere close to 500K subsribers you really should go look at the Quarterly Statement released Oct 30th. They not only would not discuss SWTOR subscriber numbers they pointed out they would have to revisit SWTOR revenue after FTP went live.... Why would they do that? Because their self committed break even point was 500k and they are well below it and by SEC regulations would have to submit a guidance that income would be off...so they put in a deferal. Now they will be able to put in the guidance but pretty it up a little with the F2P dollars they will no doubt get. Expect it by Dec 30th. You fanbois shuld ask yourself something....When have you been right about the state of this game? Easy answer...you have yet to be right. It has lost subscribers by droves since day 1. It has gone F2P in under a year (something fanbois swore would NEVER happen) and now the F2P model is the laughing stock of the industry. It was clear this game was going F2P in under a year back in Jan. It is also now clear this game will not see a 2nd aniversary.

Yea they are way ahead of you. They were already looking to capitalize on this golden opportunity: They waste 4 months of dev time creating a cash shop throwing out a few bones that were likely already done in the pipe just needing a final once over. They then release said cash shop with no real fan fare or advertising or anything. To top it off they release said cash shop and patch 1.5 full of bugs that in the case of the cash shop are costing people real life money because they will not refund your coins even when they admit it is their fault...and as if that wasn't totally awesome enough they release the patch 2 days before a major holiday week and close up shop leaving huge bugs to fester for 10 days until they can be bothered. Yup, Bioware did capitalize and showed every person who was ever interested in SWTOR and came to see it for free...what total crap the game and customer service truly are...

Maybe because TOR has been an unmitigated disaster for EA that has already cost them millions and ultimately will cost them millions more? This was supposed to be at least in the neighborhood of WOW...it has become the most expensive flop in the history of online gaming to date. They were told to leave...they didn't get a choice and any company would have fired management who did such a terrible job. The last EA Quarterly report said volumes by saying as little as possible about SWTOR. You know how bad it was when SWTOR was burried in the report and Simpsons Online was trumpeted as a rousing cash success. Simpsons...Online....think about that.

The ones that aren't bugged. Like the XP potions...some stims overwrite them which means 120 coins...poof. Ticket? Nope...they do not refund cash items. Go pound sand. Per them "Hopefully the devs will fix this bug...sometime soon".

Where is the episode where the Cartel Coin shop items are bugged and when you put a ticket in they say its bugged but you aren't getting a refund and before you ask again, go read the TOS and then proceed to pounding sand? Because I am out 400 coins so far in bugged coin shop items that they say "We hope the devs will get them fixed ASAP until then there is nothing we can do for you as we do not refund anything from the Cartel Market". I hope that episode includes the Devs going on vacation for 8 days just 2 days after releasing said buggy Cartel Market.

So you don't really know what account unlocks cost it appears. Go check then get back to us. F2P is not an option for this game if you want to play at any kind of reasonable level, it is 100x worse if you were ever a subscriber. This F2P model is a laughing stock.

You people really have very low expectations. The devs in the game should have been fired a long time ago. Release buggy Cash shop where you will be giving no refunds then go on a week vacation. Who does that? What company that is not about to put this game on autopilot does that? None. Devs should have been putting in 12 hour shifts since the 1.5 patch and cash shop to make sure it was working flawlessly...they have no room for error...their jobs literally are on the hook. Nah, we need a breather and pat on the back. Enjoy the unemployment line, I hear game programmers is a much sought after position....hahahah.

Market has crashed. Give it a few weeks for people to start leaving again and items will start to catch up.

Heres a thought that tells anyone who is playing the State of the Game (being its crap).... How about you friggin geniuses don't drop a bugged Cash store and major game changing patch 2 days before a vacation week? No one in your company should be having a light week....you should all be fearing for your jobs and working your asses off to make sure the ship doesn't keep sinking faster. It is inconceivable that they did what they did with this patch and subsequent total Dev drop off.

Better to just quit. With the bugged items from the shop and the lack of any customer service support for F2P or the cash shop (their only answer is...sorry your item was bugged but you aren't getting anything) F2P will be total hell.

A massive bug and Bioware on vacation with no chance for patching until next week? No way you say! They are laughing at us all.