Let me ask you this. How long have you been on these forums? Where you here when the cartel market hit and the forums were extremely negative towards the game moving in that direction? If you were you'd understand that there's a large disconnect there from perception to reality.

And the numbers are being run right now by Bioware based on, you guessed it, in game data. If that isn't consistent with what they expect to see changes will be made to their model. Changes would NEVER have been made based on forum posts alone because of all the things EA is accused of one thing that is truth is that they are extremely business savvy. So the complaints boil down to two things. I have to pay real money to change my appearance, and you put the dye in cartel like packs. I don't see either of those issues being a problem long term. Cartel packs have already been accepted by the player base. They might moan about it but they buy them in droves and the conference call is proof of that. Paying real money to change your appearance isn't going to remain a hot topic issue. The next patch will be released and the pitchforks and torches will be on that instead.

This is where you need to change your thinking. In this model, it's not true. Development will happen for everyone regardless of if you are a subscriber or not. You are paying for access as a subscriber on an individual level. We aren't special as subscribers but we get perks to make it easier to pay the $15 per month. Those are part of the subscription themselves. Regardless, content patch in 4 weeks. If you decide to unsub... the content will still be available to you.

It's funny though, these forums will never give you an accurate view of what the state of the game is. That is because the micro transactions take place in game from the people that play it. Log on and go to your fleet. See for yourself how many people are using these new features. That's the test that matters. Not the forum criers. Not the random people that post on internet sites. The people that already play your game and are logged in. And really if you feel you are being abused for cosmetic changes that have nothing to do with gameplay we can't have a rational conversation anyway.

I'd love to agree with you once. But you are pretty much never logically correct and it makes me sad. If you want to know if Bioware cares about you as a subscriber- as a person- then the question is flawed. If your value is derived from ANYTHING other than the express service provided you are not actually judging the service, you are valuing yourself. It's simple. For $15 a month you can have this: subscription access. For nothing per month you can have this: a preferred account. Bioware cares enough about you to give you choices There's a difference between value of a service and feeling 'valued' as a customer. The first (value of a service) is a business transaction that is based solely on the relationship of payment for service. It's judged based on the terms. I give you x for y. There isn't anything beyond that. The second (feeling 'valued' as a customer) is an imaginary place in your mind based on your mood at the time where you try to take a faceless company and humanize it. Then you try to determine if you imaginary image of Bioware 'cares' about you. That is a fallacy. They offer a service they think is fair. You decide if you think it is or not. If you use anything other than the terms of what they offer to make the decision then you aren't actually judging the value of the sub. You are judging your own self worth and that's not what they are offering.

It's an emotional question. It's a stupid question. You pay for access. If that isn't worth it to you, you can still access it with restrictions. There's no caring involved on either side.

Last time I'll say this. You pay for access. Period. It's a business relationship. The content patches come out and everyone can use them with restrictions. You have no restrictions because you pay for access. Content patches are not part of your subscription, they come with the game itself which is free to play. You are paying for unlimited, unrestricted access to the core game. Being a subscriber doesn't entitle you to anything more than that. If you go back to free 2 play the game isn't going to stop development for you.

No it's really not. You meant it literally, you can't backtrack now. You want to feel like they should bend over backwards for you. It's not that kind of relationship. They give you x for y. That's it. It's not a relationship with a financial adviser. There's no face time. You pay for access, period.

Here's the thing you have to keep in mind. The market has changed. Subscribers are no longer the key to your business. There are perks for subscribing as a player. As a business you subscribing is not the be all end all anymore as additional revenue streams are important. Now to be perfectly honest if you spend a lot in the cartel and don't subscribe that's pretty illogical. But that's your option.

Wow. Just wow. Social acceptability has really changed.

Would you feel more valued if you got a massage with your subscription? You get the subscription to access the features. You accept this or you don't. It's not an emotional thing.

That's life. Be glad that while inflation has happened to everything else in the world an MMO subscription is still the same $15 per month is was in 2000.

It's a flawed question. You give them the subscription, they give you a list of features. Feeling 'valued' is in your head. Your perception on this is your own issue. You are getting what you paid to get.

I know that's the reason and you stated it better than I could. I personally would LOVE to be able to buy the dyes I want outright. Who wouldn't? But I understand that it doesn't make business sense. My logical side overcomes my own sense of entitlement and I accept this.

That's exactly it. I play the actual game whenever I want with no restrictions or issues. That's what I give my $15 per month for. I give them additional money as well for cartel items because they are appealing to me. If you feel you aren't valued and get by as a preferred account then by all means do so. They owe us nothing beyond what we already get. I expect nothing more because I get everything they promised already.

I get it. You are unhappy. You feel like this is making a difference and you are sticking it to EA. Somehow posting all of this is your way to get back at the man for not inviting you to the decision making meeting for this product. We are not special. Our individual opinion isn't going to matter here. This is a product that feedback is taken in macro economics not individuals. As long as people in game buy the packs- and they are- it's no different than the cartel market packs. Where are the happy people? They are in game spending their money on the packs. I already bought mine. The revolution is over Mr. Lebowski the angry forum users lost!

Based on the account number thing I'm ancient. I actually registered for this site within the 1st hour of it going live. I remember being on the bioware forums before where people were actually trying to argue that this wasn't going to be a SW MMO. Nothing could convince them otherwise. I'm willing to bet a lot of them now are the ones that constantly talk about how it's all doom and gloom here.

I have to ask you though, how do we measure success? Do we do it in game where the transactions are being made, people are using (happily I might add) the kiosk and feedback is mostly positive? Or should we look at the feedback from the same people that were opposed to the cartel market, the RNG of the cartel packs, and are dead set against this business model? People can be as upset on the forums as they like. The only thing that will matter here is the bottom line to Bioware. Those metrics are in game, not here. There's no victory (for the me against them attitude) no matter how upset you are.

Most of us paid Bioware shills lost interest in the forum war long ago and moved on to other things TUX. I happened to check the dev tracker and felt the fire to post again. I'm sure it will pass there are other things to do while avoiding work at work.

I wasn't lied to either. But I really enjoy emotional unstable people getting unhinged when something isn't what they expected based on nothing other than their own thoughts on how it should be happens. The results are reviews like that and forums posts that we've seen.

They tried this with SWG for a time. It didn't work very well and it certainly didn't sell.

Anybody want a peanut?

That might be the most logical and mature thing that has ever been posted here.

That's really the only thing we can't do. I made Count Dooku as close as I could but there's no aging textures for our characters that don't look like darkside ruined them.

My Thana clone with recolored armor: http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/4443/thana.png