I believe that it has been confirmed that on Makeb, Republic female characters and Imperial male characters will have same sex romance options. Republic male and Imperial female will not.

Unfortunately it appears that the expansion of the class stories is not a part of SWTORs future. That was an element that I think a lot of people found interest in an encouragement to play. Lots of people have leveled multiple toons to 50 to experience the different story lines. There won't be as much reason to level up more than one Rep and Imp character through Makeb. The only element I see out there that might be a significant alteration in the game's path is the SSSP. That is if the SSSP is still active and consists of more than a useless, largely unrelated side game as the current space battles are.

SW on Hoth I think, typical mission intro, mission giver is explaining how something got screwed up and they need you to fix it. There's a choice to tell them what they did was dumb and your response consists of... "You...are...an imbecile." The way the female SW delivered it with the pauses really cracked me up.

I would be surprised if there are ever extensions to the class stories. They kind of painted themselves into a corner. Since your choices can mean that your character will end up in different statuses at the end of the existing progression, picking each story up from those varying points would be somewhat complicated.

The section on the Oceanic servers makes it sound very unlikely that player controlled server transfers will be allowed any time soon, if ever.

While I think this column is an excellent step in the right direction as far as communication goes, I am concerned by the tone of complacency in it. The problems of the game are not limited to having to pay a subscription fee. Everything is not awesome with the game itself. There are substantial issues with the game itself that have caused many player to leave. The constructive criticisms of the game that players have expressed with genuine care and concern seem to have fallen on deaf ears.

That's the thing that really surprised me in all this. Whether EA/BW want to admit it publicly or not, the server population issues have been a significant contributor to this game's problems.The only means players have had to deal with the issues was to start new alts. We've had two rounds of less then voluntary and seemingly ad hoc, server merges to deal with the population imbalances, which caused problems for some of the folks who had taken the new alt route. I really thought that EA/BW was holding opening up server transfers for the cash shop. That they are pushing ahead into f2p without it really puzzles me.

Does this new 4-6 Month timeline for "major releases" apply only to the Cartel Market or does it tie in with the general content updates? To be more specific, does this mean that the 4-6 week update schedule that EA/BW has promised is for small content additions and that we can only expect to see anything of significance every 4 to 6 months?

Honestly we simply don't know that at this point. We don't know what EA's long term interest, if any , in this game is. They may very well have decided to cut their losses, get what they can out of what's already here and well along in the pipeline, and move on. In either event, these developments do not bode well for the health of the game or it's long term prospects.

I think you are articulating the OPs concern here. Has EA shifted from investing in the game, to squeezing what they can from what we already have now with minimal improvements?

I guess we disagree. You think the current level of customer service, as is, without access to the forums is perfectly acceptable. I do not. We will see what the F2P customer base decides.

If I buy something from the Cartel store and it say, doesn't appear, or it doesn't function correctly, is the In-game automated and close "watch for patch notes" response acceptable to you? I think the customer should at least have access to an alternate means of customer service communications like the forum to try and get a timely response to game issues. It's in EAs own interest to address issues.

If that level of service is acceptable to you, great. I'm sure you will be a paying customer for a long time. How long the guy who ends up not being able to use something he paid for or get the issue acknowledged will be around to keep playing is another question.

I guess I believe in a higher minimum level of customer service if you do. I don't think it should be acceptable to people if they have a problem with an element of the game they paid for to be fobbed off with nothing more than an automated e-mail with no follow up.

Many of the non-subscribers will also be paying customers. Should they have to pay a separate fee to have bugs addressed with something other than the automated "Your problem has been noted. Watch future patch notes. Your ticket has been closed" in game system?

I think you may want to re-read my posts to understand what I am trying to accomplish. I don't think the insultingly bad in-game CS system will be sufficient for the paying customers in the F2P system.

Except in the customer service forum. Individual issues are addressed there.

If I can't use the purple Item without payment, how is it functionally different?

I think everyone should have access to the customer service forum, or a vastly improved in-game customer service system.

Is forum access really going to be limited to subscribers? EA./BW rely heavily on the forums to provide customer service and trouble shooting. If F2P players are limited to the in-game "auto-close" ticket system, they are going to be in pretty sad shape.

Purple gear will be unobtainable in game without paying as I understand it. You either pay the subscription or you pay for a "license".

Paying for purple gear seems to me to violate the statements that were made about not going "pay to win".

A "SWTOR went F2P and all I got was this lousy t-shirt" chest piece will be 2,500 CC.

It didn't help me.

At least they aren't "optimizing" any graphic elements this time.