It's just not right when people post false information. What were you thinking?

Play with friends / good people who won't ninja your loot, and will even help you kill stuff until you get the drop you want.

Fair enough. I hope Bioware can come to a more happy medium where people can obtain stuff both from the market and by playing in-game. Right now I'm not very encouraged...

The problem (for me) is that isn't fun. Sure, semantically, it works. But all MMOs boil down to the same thing, keeping you playing and paying. Carrot on a stick. The good MMOs are better at masking that, the bad MMOs people stop playing. Considering doing certain in-game activities for some new cool stuff is fun. Getting a group together, struggling to do some difficult content, mastering it finally -- the rewards have a good adventure attached to them! I can think back on the memorable event of obtaining item X or Y after some in-game achievement. Choosing to grind dailies, or do other sources of the best ways to earn credits over and over just so you can buy new stuff from a market is not really fun to me. There's no anticipation or adventure attached to it. Sure, the end result is the same -- I get an item. But the method really does matter. The first way keeps me playing, the second is meh. The first way masks the carrot on the stick with enough fun, the second way makes me wonder why I'm buying this carrot again?

I think that's the main point of this thread. Good looking items should be accessible both ways. Not just Operations, not just cash shop. I don't think people are suggesting the cool new stuff be locked up so only the elite players can get it. The problem is none of the cool new stuff was released in-game. The last time we got a new color crystal in game was purple-black, yet the packs have released 3 new colors and given access to white again. No love for in-game? Dozens of new pets and mounts released in the packs. Cool lightsaber hilts with effects, weapons with lasers, etc. (nothing like this in-game). Dozens of new armor sets (granted, most of them recolors). The last time a new gear model was released for PvP/PvE sets was ... April? Elite War Hero and Dreadguard are just recolors, sadly. I am perfectly fine with casual players getting cool looking content via a cash shop. I just ALSO want a way to get stuff like that in game via achievements, quests, drops, etc.

My favorite, lowbie flashpoint: Shadow Tank joins with 75% broken gear. Says that's why he's doing FP. He uses taunt, dies, and says "okay, maybe I won't use that ability anymore". Get to the first boss and he's like "can someone else tank, my gear is broken". I told him it was rude to his group queue as a tank if he can't tank. He said he queued as DPS and waited an hour and said screw it and switched to tank. My favorite, hardmode flashpoint: Tank joins HM Lost Island in full recruit gear (the first version). It's his first hardmode, he says.

Yes. Many people would take easy route and just buy the gear they want (which is fine), but those who subscribe and want to play the game to acquire new stuff could also do so. Why subscribe when you still have to pay (via GTN or CM) instead of play to get the cool new stuff?

^ What he said. All MMOs boil down to the same very basic thing. Game creator releases new stuff, you acquire new stuff, you keep playing, you keep paying, game creator makes money. Rinse, repeat. But the reason people keep playing, and the reason people choose one MMO over another (when they're all basically the same formula), is the method in which you acquire new stuff. If you have fun doing it, you keep playing... and paying. The reason so much stuff being released via the Cartel Market is so off putting to a lot of people is because it's changing the way you acquire new things in a way that is not fun for those people. Doing in-game content, flashpoints, operations, warzones, quests, etc. is a way for people to acquire cool new stuff in a fun way (playing the game!) that covers up the fact that it's all just a ploy to keep you playing and paying. Just buying stuff from the Cartel Market or GTN is too blatantly "game creator releases new stuff, you buy new stuff... rinse, repeat". It removes the fun I used to have from acquiring new content by playing the game. The game is F2P with a Cartel Market. That's a fact. So I can live with some stuff being released via the Cartel Market. But the rate at which new stuff is being released only via the Cartel Market is not giving me an enticing reason to keep playing. I will keep playing as long as I'm having fun, but Shopping Simulator is not what I consider fun.

Easier doesn't mean more fun. Granted, his example of 0.05% drop rate is a bit extreme and not fun either. But, I get no satisfaction from getting cool loot by easily buying it from a market (GTN or Cartel). I'd much rather earn cool new loot through playing the game in some manner. That's fun and gives me a reason keep playing the game.

No, no, diversity is good. What you pointed out is also bad. They really need to stop making new PvP/PvE sets just recolors of the same unpopular looking gear. The problem is the way you achieve diversity. If all the new, cool looking armor is easily purchasable, there's no way to show off achievement or work towards something cool looking. I'm fine with some cool sets being easily attainable (like you said, diversity is good), but there should also be a steady flow of achievement based cool gear to give people something to strive for in-game. To keep them playing, and paying. And right now I see a lot of people running around in Revan's gear, which sorta cheapens it. Anyone can just buy it easily.

Part of what keeps me playing is interesting/cool content to work towards. I don't play swtor to play shopping simulator. With adaptive armor, and all this cool armor being purchasable, everyone is starting to look the same, regardless of class or achievement. It used to be that you'd see someone running around with a cool new set of armor and thinking that's the look you want, and you had something fun/cool to work towards over the next weeks/months. Instant gratification gets old fast 'cause it has very shallow worth/achievement.

So, SWTOR wasn't intended to be F2P at the beginning. And they claimed they had lots of future story/content already planned. Makes me wonder what they had originally planned as the way to release those armor sets.

This game went from Pay to Play... ... to Free to Play... ... to "Click 'Buy' in a store" to Play... even for subscribers. I would like to PLAY the game to get new gear sets, color crystals, cool weapons, pets, mounts.... but I can't do that for any of the cool new stuff. Not cool, and not fun.

I'm sad that I can't get Revan's gear, cool lightsaber hilts, new color crystals, new pets, new weapons, new gear sets, etc. by PLAYING swtor (flashpoints, ops, quests, pvp, anything...). Instead I can buy packs or buy from the GTN. How's that remotely fun? A lot of the Market stuff could have been such cool content drops. :(

I created my guild's name within two or so hours of the first wave of early access. Didn't get to keep it after the consolidation. I have yet to see anyone with the duplicate named guild signed on, yet my guild has active people on. So, I'm not sure what criteria they used for Guilds...