Actually, no, they can't. BW, and its parent company EA, is a publicly traded company. Investors and stockholders rely on their various press statements to make informed decisions about their investing. Considering that BW has put this in both their official statements to stock holders and in their public press releases, if they are lying they can be in serious legal trouble with the SEC. If they go this route and their player base evaporates and seriously damages the profitability of EA/BW and thus by relation their stock prices, they will have to prove, at least to their board of directors that they had solid metrics that they were relying upon and acted in good faith. If they can't then well, again, serious legal trouble can follow.

Well they have learned one thing in the last decade. Companion affection and reaction to convo options is now set and not RNG dependent. Personally I never played ME or DA, but I can see the same BW story telling as when I was playing the Neverwinter Nights series(Yes I'm kind of dating myself).

Except that official statements from Bioware back up his opinion while they undermine your own. See above quoted Polygon article for example.

But you could rely a bit on this piece from Polygon: "We have three years of data on how people play the game and what they want. We know what our players want. They've told us. They've told us in person, on the forums. They've also told us through their play behaviors. "We can look at this stuff and say, 'look, if you want to go and play the standard MMO game — PvP, doing a flashpoint, operation raiding — we have that. We've always had that. We continue to expand on that. But we also heard, loud and clear, this scream for story, for personal custom story.'"

But they never promised you anything. They said you would have to wait and see, that they weren't going to answer the question of whether you could kill any comp or not, you would have to play and see. So in the end it doesn't matter if you can kill all of them, or if you can kill none of them. They never promised you either.

They talked about it at the August 7 Gamescon cantina event" http://dulfy.net/2015/08/06/swtor-gamescom-cantina-tour-qa/

Eric said they were in a recent Dev post, so no reason to think that they are not or that they are lying about it.

You are talking in circles on this one. FIrst you claim they promised that you could kill X companion and now you can't. When shown that they made no promises regarding this in any official post, but rather that you would only know when you actually played the expansion. Then you can say that they made said promise and broke it by using previously noted dubious source. Is your problem that you can kill a comp, or that you can't kill the comp you wanted to? Either way, BW in no official source has yet promised that you can kill any companion. They simply said that those questions would not be answered until you play the game. Of course BW is going to try and entice customers of their other games to play this one. They are offering rewards for SWTOR player for buying Battlefront too. That doesn't mean that they are worried about how Battlefront will do. Having bought all the games in the Neverwinter series as digitial downloads from BW in the past, I still get regular emails from them askiing me to consider other games that they have produced in a similar vein... That is just simple marketing. If you liked x-product of ours you may also enjoy this one. That doesn't equate to a dedicated marketing campaign. Likewise having a blogger(possibly a paid blogger) who is at Gamescon covering another of your games sit in on stuff for another of your products does not a dedicated marketing campaign make.

There are a number of problems with this statement. First you assume that all current users of SWTOR raid, or have done all the prior raids at lvl. Percentage of raiders in any MMO seems to be very small going from 1.35% to maybe upward of 10%. So that is a very small portion of the fan base to cater too. Second you assume that most of the players are active. While we have current official numbers, the most we have is from a cantina event a year and a half ago, where he said that there 10million casuals and 1million actives. So really you have no way of knowing what the current fan base is tired of. I can speak of my own guild, one of the largest on server, runs 3-4 raids a week, and has 360+ unique accounts. Of those that are raiders in that mix, the majority are excited at the prospect of having 9 ops at level... This statement is a logical fallacy called a "false dilemma" First for them to be "trying so hard" you would have to show a dedicated marketing initiative aimed at those two groups. Casual mentions of Mass Effect or Dragon Age simply don't cut it. IF this was back in 2009 they would be saying that its based on Mask of the Betrayer and Storm of Zehir. Earlier on still other games. This idea of time skip and loss/changing of companions and love interests has been around as long as I've been playing BW games(hellow Lady Aribeth), and waking up drugged without your gear in Hordes of the Underdark. So if you are going to make this claim you have to base it something more than them saying, "well we drrew inspiration from DA and ME", becasue with those the drew inspiration(read repackaged story elements) from previous games as well... Just no one was live streaming E3 back then. Well since the Dread Masters was part of the original Rise of the Hutt Cartel storyline, yes they had some heroics. There were several on Makeb, but Makeb sucked so hard that I did my best to avoid it, and there was one Heroic 2+ on Oricon that I was so happy be be able to solo once I got a set of 168 set bonus gear(because finding someone to go with you was a pain). Doesn't say that you will be able to kill a certain companion. In fact makes no actual promise that you will be able to kill any companion. Simply says Play and see means that they are making no promises and you will figure it out when the game goes live. Your original statement was: Once again they never said you could kill X companion. First they said play and see, which means no promises of being able to kill any companion, it means you will know if you can when the game goes live. Second they said choices matter, even if that is a possible outcome on some comp stories in expansion, you can, through you choices block that story path. Yes BW says they are working on something better than cross server. You seem to think that they are being less than honest because they haven't shared all their development ups and downs with you. No MMO that has gone cross server has given any solid numbers as to any actual improvements it has made for player base. If you can show solid numbers of x% more people taking part in PvE or PvP content that might be something. However as long as ranked PvP remains 4v4 cross server won't do a lot of good, in fact forced to play with ppl who may not for instance understand English, would actually IMO hinder 4v4. My rank is already based on how well my random team does, no my own performance, so having it further hindered by language barriers would actually drive me away from PvP. Same with ops. There are several sets of good and workable tactics for taking down a boss like Underlurker. However your raid team needs to be able to communicate in bosses as highly technical as that one. As it is a large percentage of ops that go through GF are premades... Don't see that changing even with cross server.

I'm sorry but that is not a fair burden to place on the leadership of a guild. I say this as an extreme extrovert who didn't really care to do ops because it involved voice coms, and even then didn't speak on voice coms for well over 6mos after starting ops with my guild. GMs are matchmakers and they aren't parents arranging play dates for their kids. They are people who have taken the initiative to form a group of like minded like interested folks and take the responsibility, and at times financial burden(voice coms and websites cost cash after all) to run the guild, and take care of day to day management. To demand or even expect that they are going to coax every new member into opening up is laughable at best. That in and of itself would be a full time job. It is neither feasible nor practical. Failure to do so is not about showing favoritism, its about expecting maturity and personal responsibility from your members. If not being wooed by the GM of every guild you enter is your definition of favoritism, then my friend you should consider seeking professional help.

I was fairly sure that in one of the interviews from E3 that was linked in an earlier thread the devs said that there would be new flashpoints, just not new ops this year(aka 2015). So please provide a source that says otherwise. LIkewise as far as saying ops won't be until mid next year, please provide a source on timing. Haven't seen anything regarding timing as to when new ops will come out. How is that a bad thing? If KOTFE is wildly popular and brings ppl to the game in droves they continue it. If its not they won't, this is a problem why? Any time they cede to their player base I count that as a win. No. This is specifically addressed in the Polygon article: Making MMO bits optional is not removing them, it is simply allowing players to play as they desire. Some people like to role play and not get kick voted because they want to watch a cut scene. I have actually never seen the cutscenes from many of the flashpoints for that very reason. Somewhere around Athiss I learned that if I wanted to stay in a group I had better mash the space bar as soon that the talking started. So in reality they are catering to both sets of folks. If you want MMO, you can still join up with other ppl to do the MMO content. If you want RPG you can do that as well. If you want MMORPG, well try an RP server maybe or go with guildies(which is what I do). They have not made this specific promise about any companion and have only said that it may be an option for companions. Clearly as they haven't released any info on what's going on with comps yet, that is all still in flux. So this is completely a non issue unless you are hanging your hopes on dubious third part information. 1) How is this a problem with KOTFE? 2) What evidence could they actually give? Do you want to see the lines of code that they tried and which didn't work? Do you wan to see minutes of the Dev meetings? Oh but they have brought it up. Same interview that I refrenced above, I believe he talked about it there, as well as the blog post on this forum which I can find and quote at the moment: Also there was the bit in the Gamescon Cantina where they admitted and apologized for ops being unbalanced and discussed the ne QA system they were putting in place to fix that(starts around 7:30). The ops in SOR were simply a flop on so many levels. They had to be nerfed multiple times so that raid groups could start clearing them. Clearly they need to rethink ops, and they are taking the time to do that, while simultaneously giving the player base 9ops with SM & HM that are level current and gear relevant, and 7 with a NiM difficulty. Honestly I don't see how this is a bad thing. Maybe me and my raid group is unique buy having only 2 ops that are gear and lvl relevant and 7 that can be face rolled has not been a positive ops experience. This is false. There is one progression guild that quit, <Zorz> . You can listen to why they quit on the Milas' podcast. It wasn't for lack of NiM. It was for lack of new ops content. In fact Milas clearly states he didn't really care for NiM. Further they aren't removing NiM from anything. They are simply not adding new NiM content. Every op that currently has a NiM will continue to have one. Since the ops are already overtuned, there is no point in adding new NiM. They had to nerf HM so guilds could clear it, so demanding NiM seems kinda of silly.

I'm sorry but guildies should fit in or move on. That's a very direct way of putting it but in general it is correct. You said you don't like age restricted voice coms. Others do. Still others have age restriction and profanity restrictions, the first to protect minors from groomers(yes they exist in game) and the second to create a harmonious environment. Some guilds are "elitist", some require certain levels of participation, some... well I have been in well over 20 guilds since I started this game, and I continue to sample new ones even though I am a part of the leadership in my own, in all of that I have found that no 2 guilds are alike. Each have their own unique make up. Further I have found that in every guild there is a core group of people, some officers, some guildies that are taken as seriously as officers. They are typically folks that have been in the guild for a while and have become trusted, and possibly friends. If you come into that and demand to immediately be a part of the core group.... well that is just silly. My primary guild for example is a Social guild that is a bit of a jack of all trades. We like to keep our numbers high, 350+ unique accounts and 490(round about members). As an asst guild master, I generally remove 20+ inactives each day and replace them with new recruits. In the course of a year I easily recruit over 6000 ppl to the guild. That is 6000 new characters that I have welcomed into our ranks. Having been at this now for 2yrs in my current roll I can tell you, that I show favoritism to those who have been around for a while. I am likely to give them cartel items that I don't want, rather than sell them on GTN. I'm likely to loan them credits. I'm more willing to drop what I'm doing and head off to wherever they are when they need help with a quest. Yes that is favoritism. I uesd to treat all guildies equally. Then I realized it wasn't worth it. Its not worth giving a cartel item to a new member that may decide to leave the guild or the game in a week. Its not worth investing my time, energy and game enjoyment into people who aren't committed to the guild. Now as far as making "space" for the new folks. Well our guild was born when SWTOR went live. You have folks that have been playing together or nearly 4yrs now. Approaching that in game is like approaching any established group of friends in any social setting, you simply can't expect immediate absolute acceptance. There is going to be a "get to know you" period. However, also bear in mind, that some guilds are not social guilds. They don't care about you, don't want to know you, they are simply there for the game. They may be a progression guild, where your acceptance is based on your peformance in OPs. They may be a conquest guild, where your acceptance is based on you having a full four strongholds, fully unlocked and completed and you making at least your minimum conquest goal and probably much more. If you join a conquest guild, expect that the folks that put up higher numbers of conquest points are going to be treated better, that's just the way it going to be. You join a progression guild, those that perform better in ops will be treated better. You join a social guild, more social people are going to be treated better. Its your job to figure out if whatever sort of guild experience is for you or not. If its not move on. If it is, then make yourself at home and praticipate.

Totally LOL'd on this one. And for the fun of it found the officion metric of BW/EA

I'll try to do better in the future.

No, no, no. NO!!! You just don't understand. Its not possible for an expansion that does not cater to my personal niche to be based on things like profits, earnings and nearly 4yrs of analyzing their target audience. Nooooo!!! It has be, simply has to be, based on a very skewed metric that they got during the few weeks fo the 12x XP event. Granted EA has only been talking about this in their stockholder conference calls for the last 18months, and you know, despite their amazing profit margains, and soaring stock prices(up 97% in the last 52 weeks), the company is OBVIOUSLY barely holding on, and so it needs to dupe those rare and few subscribers(that somehow manage to bring in 139million) into continuing to sub as long as possible(or until the movie comes out) so as to get be able to fund this expansion, which is after all based on an obviously skewed metric. [Note: The above was heavily spiced with sarcasm]

Transcript of EA shareholders conference call. Its also been touted in places like this: http://www.swtorstrategies.com/2014/10/swtor-revenues-climb-over-100-million-for-2014.html

Community manager has promised us information on two occasions. Has gone back on those those promises, without either an acknowledgement or an apology. TBF, if he had acknowledged at least, and apologized(best case scenario), I would agree that backlash ect would be totally uncalled for. I understand that there can be unforeseen delays, but those need to be acknowledged. Don't promise us a constant weekly stream of information, not deliver, and not acknowledge at least that you were incapable of living up to your original expectations.

No. I'm saying that the investor's reports specifically noted that SWTOR, and SOR in particular, brough EA a 15% net profit increase. Whatever else they released during those quarters and how well it did or not is also there, but really isn't my concern nor is it relevant to the convo. What is relevant is that EA in a report to their investors, which can be found freely online, specifically cited SOR as bringing them an unexpected 15% profit increase. They also cited what was well received and what was not and told their investors the direction they would be taking in the future and why. How or why BW/EA determined that the financial success of SOR was down to story and not other things, we probably will never exactly know. That they did, and that 12x XP wasn't a part of that(as it wasn't in game then) is a verifiable fact. I mean, I guess EA could be lying to their investors and committing several SEC violations... But I doubt it. BTW During first quarter SWTOR netted 139 million for EA, they had a total net profit of 442million, that amounts for 32% of EAs total profits.

Because they promised us this information back in June. Then ignored that promise and said we would get it at Gamescon. Now they are saying, "in good time soon", which is a spoof off of Cat's in the Cradle. So first I am frustrated that they consistently gone back on their promises to us the subscriber base without so much as an acknowledgement let alone an apology. Secondly, I'm worried that the ending will be the same as the song they are spoofing... Never.

Proof? What is your source? I'm going from EA investor reports. I'm not sure how you can claim that 12x lead to their massive profit increase when 12x was not in effect for any of the the 3 quarters that I cited. So you can continue to make this claim but you have yet to back it up with any factual or verifiable information.

Fact: 12x XP ended before the start of Shadow of Revan, and was not brought back until the summer. 15% net profit increase was from 4Q, 1Q and 2Q. 12x XP had nothing to do with either the profit increase from SOR or the customer feedback regarding what they liked and didn't like. You can keep making things up if you like and calling them facts, but what you are saying cannot be found in any credible source of information. It is starting to seem like you simply don't want people to be happy with the new expansion and are willing to say whatever you need in order to get your majority of unhappy subscribers. You also seem to think that relying on datamined information to inform you of how the game is going to be when it goes live is a good thing. However, one thing that the Gamescon Q&A should have told you is that a lot of things, very fundamental things, are still in flux. So the datamined information is at best a guess.

Fact: EA saw a 15% net profit increase after the launch of Shadow of Revan(google it if you want verification), which is huge for a corporation. Fact: Most of the positive feedback was based around the story aspects(which weren't that great IMO). Fact: Most of the negative feedback was based around the ops. You can even watch Milas from <Zorz> complain about the ops be overtuned at the cantina event where he was flown out by BW and given a trophy for TOS HM world first. People were also upset that the other 7 ops were made completely irrelevant. So if you really want to speculate what is going on inside the BW board room from a business perspective, I think it looked a lot more like this: Wow!!! Who woulda guessed that this was the direction that the fanbase wanted to head in. We know we promised them more regular ops and said we had a few in the works, but let's table all that stuff and start working on a new story driven model. Oh look we also got a lot of negative feedback about previous ops being irrelevant and endgame being limited to primarily 2 ops and PvP, and obviously we screwed the pooch on the 2 new ops and the Yavin hidden boss, to the point where the folks who whack things with lightsabres are feeling pretty useless. That is bad because this is game focused around folks who whack things with lightsabres. So why don't we make those former ops relevant again? We'll either buff them or level sync them or something. That will solve one of our issues while taking the pressure off until we can figure out how to do ops right. Now yes some subs are threatening to quit. In my perception fewer than threatened to quit over Shadow of Revan, so given its huge success I think BW is willing to make the gamble. Granted if the forever prophesied and never realized mass exodus of subs occurs they will probably rethink things or shutter the game... but I don't see it happening.

For me the problem starts here: Back in June we were promised regular content updates regarding things like ops, crafting, comps, and class changes. We were promised some major reveals at Gamescon. We have been met with virtual silence. It is completely out of order to make promises to gamerbase and then when for whatever reason unable to follow through, pretend that it never happened. There needs, at the minimum to be some form of acknowledgement and apology. Now I want to know what's going to happen with comps, but realize that would be a spoiler and so have no need(or desire) to find out ahead of time. I want to know what is going to happen with crafting, but in truth it doesn't matter so much as there will be com gear and crafted gear, and I can usually stay on top of those things. I need to know how ops are going to work. Is there going to be a bolster or a level sync? Will that work for al ops or only those in Group Finder? Same with FPs. We were given a rather vague blogpost, and since then in Q&A the Devs have seemed increasingly uncertain how that will work. First that is disconcerting. Second as part of the leadership team of a very large and active guild that Ops 5-6 nights a week, FPs the same I need to know how that is going to work. I need to know if we are going to be able to put ops on the calender for Oct 20th-27th, or if we are going to need to be worried about leveling and trying to figure out the new GF rotation. I also need to know about class changes. My guild always has a large number of leveling and new players, and we do our best to help them learn the game and their class. I don't want to have to tell them, "hang on, we're trying to figure it all out, give us a week before you ask your questions." Neither of those things is game spoiling. They are simply very basic mechanics that BW/EA promised us we would already be getting updates on, and have failed to follow through. The sooner they can put that information in our hand the better, the longer they delay the more the frustration is going to build, as much from their own broken promises as anything.

Well the other week when <Its a Game FFS> and <The Usual Suspects> were each racking up a million conquest points an hour, I farmed the hell out of those chests and made far more than 10k/chest by selling the mats at their newly inflated prices. Yes I know that this is technically war profiteering, but hey... I'm just a Jedi trying to get by in the galaxy.

Security chests only drop mats these days. Bot problem(and legitimate credit farmer issue) solved.