Complexity was never the issue.

Ok, I stand corrected. It took TSW only 5 months to go F2P, leaving TOR in second place. Taking the franchise into consideration, it is still very, very impressive.

While a new warzone is always welcome, the new one feels a bit too contrived and gimicky. Furthermore, the transportation of the energy charges could have been more believable and tactically demanding, if the charges were to be picked up in the form of an energy battery that kept the bearer from using their abilities while carrying it. That way people had to protect/take down the carrier, introducing another tactical element to the warzone, making it more than a hold and zerg fest. From what I've heard, the new missions are only doable with the latest tier of space ship upgrades, which can either be acquired through grinding comms and crafing, which also requires comms as well as high tier materials, OR can be bought conveniently through the cartel shop. ..... Really? How transparent can you get? What's next? A new, superhard operation only doable in the latest gear, now available for 3200 cartel points? That's just sad. Reskinned meshes and a bit of christmas tree decorations. For a price. The saddest thing is, that the red nuance is actually quite nice. They just had to take the ugliest robe model available, instead of making a handful of different outfits in light, medium and heavy armour. No event. No quests to earn a few christmas themed items. No decorations or ambience. Is it entitlement from our side, to want these things? Perhaps. However, other MMO providers make these events, both subscription based and F2P. Keyword here is "The competition". Sorry, but describing a year with this big decrease in subs, this many layoffs and the fastest transition from subs-based to F2P yet (you even beat TSW, though not by much) as "an amazing journey" does ring hollow. Other games give you pets, mounts, tabards, consumables, vanity items and whatnot on anniversary events. Oh... Fireworks... Yaaaaaaah..... That's odd. People on the forum have been very vocal about what they want and what they don't want. And yet the game trundles on in an entirely different direction. Well. At least we know who to blame. May I remind you, that the competition is making a better show of appreciation towards their player base. Perhaps WoW didn't sport so much content and events at launch, but the bar has been raised considerable since then. Personally I'll be looking at Rift and GW2 for my holiday content, because I surely won't find the christmas spirit here.

The new content does seem prone to griefing. Outlaw's Den is a glaring example. Section X is also festered with griefers. Yesterday one of the imperial guilds decided to camp there, and jump anyone flagged.

I think you missed the detail about not being able to wear purple quality gear. Furthermore, the cap on warzone commendations bars F2P players from acquiring top tier PvP weapons. In effect, TOR becomes a "Pay to Win" game. Do note that Section X will be restricted. Paid access or subs. While not a whole planet in itself, it is still part of the gameworld in exactly the same way as other open world sectors. I don't know about your playstyle, but my rotations alone take up half an actionbar. Then comes 2-4 AoE, 3-4 heals for those with access to that, 2-5 CC abilities, 3-8 escapes/ stealth and survival abilities, 3-5 medkits stims and adrenals, 1-3+ relics/grenades and other equipment used on the fly. Then comes the buffs, recuperation and reload abilities. Without convenience abilities like fast travel, speeders and such, I easily fill 3 bars with abilities I need fast access to. What you call "convenience", I and probably others call a necessity. This is VERY subjective. Most MMOs offer the helmet visibility option from the start, be it P2P or F2P, and while not necessary to playing the game in the basic sense, it is often vital to the players identification of him/herself in the character and the immersive aspect of the game. It is doubtful, that F2P players will find it PvP enjoyable getting roflstomped by players in high end gear, without the ability to get equipped well enough to be competitive. A lot of F2P and P-once2P offer the PvP experience without these restrictions. They promised a F2P model and ended up with a P2W game, whose restrictions on basic gameplay is very detrimental to the playing experience from my point of view. It also stratifies the player base, creating a "paying master race" with unrestricted access to crafting, trading and prosperity. F2P players will not be able to compete with paying players, be it PvE, PvP or economically. Furthermore, there was in AoC, when it went F2P, as well as here judging from the last quote, a tendency to view non-paying players as freeloaders. The big question is: Why would anyone even bother playing with the F2P model? I'm very sceptical about the success of the F2P version of TOR in its current form. I myself had no intention of playing without subs anyway, so it won't affect me directly. However, I can't recommend anyone to try the game on grounds of it being F2P, as I wouldn't find it an enjoyable playing experience myself with the restrictions currently in place. The P215 version failed to attract enough players, so this hamstrung F2P(P2W) version will not do much better, let alone make old players come back. I can recommend checking out the overviews of different facets of the F2P model on dulfy.net. It helps get a more clear picture of what is to come.

Personally I found the information about how many CC I got rather uninteresting without knowing how much things are going to cost. What worries me, though, is the stratification of the community that's going to happen. Some of the restrictions will have severe implications on the gameplay. Limiting crew skills to one per character will reduce the amount of materials and crafted items relative to the amount of players on a server. That is, if existing players stay subscribed and the overall playerbase is, say..., doubled. If a large enough percentage of subscribers go over to F2P, the shortage will be even worse. Inflation ensues. People start going to external sources for the needed credits (Yo, dawg. We heard u liek gold spammers...). Another problem lies in restricting the use of purple quality gear. This essentially turns SWTOR into a "Pay to Win" type of game. Again, a major differentiation between paying and non-paying players. The purpose of the conversion to the F2P model was to attract new players and entice former subscribers back to the game. However, if the player base is seperated into "elite subscriber master race" and "dirty freeloading nerfherders", chances are that new players attracted by the F2P model aren't going to bother getting into the game. The F2P model won't affect me much. I'll probably burn 1-2 cards a year, so I can see new content and polish off the rest of my alts' stories. I haven't seen much of the shop items, and none of it is needed. So... Coins? Meh.