2.1 and Subscribers

[Ironskillit]

I just want to make sure I am understanding this correctly. With patch 2.1 comes the ability to change everything except your class/advanced class, however you have to pay cartel coins to do this. So as a subscriber I'm already paying $15 a month for a "premium" service that doesn't even give me access to everything. Edited May 14, 2013 by Ironskillit

[MSchuyler]

Just a suggestion, but why don't you wait until tomorrow and actually investigate this for yourself? THEN you can come back and tell us how tipped off you feel.

[Pietrastor]

Just a suggestion, but why don't you wait until tomorrow and actually investigate this for yourself.

No need to. Developers already confirmed such things as Cathar = 600CC, character rename = 1000CC, legacy rename = 1000CC, species change = 800CC, new hair = 240CC etc

[Ironskillit]

Just a suggestion, but why don't you wait until tomorrow and actually investigate this for yourself? THEN you can come back and tell us how tipped off you feel.

 

Or you could not be such a douche and just read it as the question I wrote. Perhaps if you don't know the answer you could have wrote "I'm not sure, but it goes live tomorrow. You could wait and see," or better yet you could have just not responded at all. Silly me looking to the forums for an answer and not expecting the special kids to answer.

[Ironskillit]

No need to. Developers already confirmed such things as Cathar = 600CC, character rename = 1000CC, legacy rename = 1000CC, species change = 800CC, new hair = 240CC etc

 

That's what I was seeing, but I was hoping that I was just not reading it correctly.

[JediTayledras]

Yep. I was pretty excited about 2.1. Up until i get to the kiosk and realize i have to fork up more cash to use the new content. Nope. Sorry EA you cant have any more of my money. I shake my head at you too bioware. For shame.

[Paitryn]

Why are people upset about this now? They have never decieved you with this. Its been mentioned posted and discussed for over a month. the CM update would require CM coins.

 

If your not going to read the info when its announced past the title, dont complain when it goes live.

[psandak]

Simply put, it is an expensive option. You have the choice of using it or not. If you are really not happy with the way your character(s) looks why did you create that character with that look in the first place?

[Transcendent]

Simply put, it is an expensive option. You have the choice of using it or not. If you are really not happy with the way your character(s) looks why did you create that character with that look in the first place?

 

I'm happy with the way my character(s) look, thankfully. However i'm sure that at some point in the past we were informed that subscribers would be allowed a free name change option (although limited in some form).

 

Charging (read: gouging) subscribers for that option is a bit off.

[Taneri]

I dont understand why subscribers have to pay for anything!! We should have access to everything for free with our subsription!!!!!!

[hiloes]

im with ironskill on this one, at the least the new species shoulda been free to subs... im pissed with this update and as to the whole changing your character look there are new looks like hair and wat not that werent in the game when u created your character so though at the moment it only like a few new hairstyles and skin colors . i dont know it just doesnt really add any incentive to become a sub when u still gotta pay extra for all this new content

[MandFlurry]

I dont understand why subscribers have to pay for anything!! We should have access to everything for free with our subscription!!!!!!

 

^^^This exactly. Ppl that pay monthly shouldn't have to pay anything.

[YuriSensen]

I dont understand why subscribers have to pay for anything!! We should have access to everything for free with our subsription!!!!!!

 

It still makes me wonder what exactly I gained by buying the expansion, outside of a new planet (and the hutt item that lets you visit the skill shop freely). I'm already considering suspending my acc's subscription because of bills that are stacking up for me at the moment. The fact that everything is turning into Maple Story with the whole "You must buy everything even though you gave us your money" spiel, isn't helping.

[AlexDougherty]

I just want to make sure I am understanding this correctly. With patch 2.1 comes the ability to change everything except your class/advanced class, however you have to pay cartel coins to do this. So as a subscriber I'm already paying $15 a month for a "premium" service that doesn't even give me access to everything.

I dont understand why subscribers have to pay for anything!! We should have access to everything for free with our subsription!!!!!!

 

We already get a lot for our subscription, asking for everything is almost automatic these days. Basically our sense of entitlement increases and every single change happens, but EA are not making a huge profit from this game (a profit yes, but the overheads are huge and reduce that profit margin significantly) and are not going to give up a source of income lightly.

 

But if you want to change your class then you have to start again(create another character), otherwise you would have a Jedi doing a trooper story, which is silly.

 

If you want to change your advance class, then create another character, various people are constantly arguing for and against advance class changes, and it's a pointless arguement that I'm not going to recreate.

[Skyrider]

Wow 15$ a month gets you nothing at all in 2.1

Nice job Bioscum, please explain why I should pay you 15$ a month for the joy of paying you even more to enjoy new content.

[ashmeharet]

Actually you receive 550 cp every month. You can waste in anything you want, including 2.1 patch

[Oldsailor]

Wow 15$ a month gets you nothing at all in 2.1

Nice job Bioscum, please explain why I should pay you 15$ a month for the joy of paying you even more to enjoy new content.

 

Actually there was another post that explained that Bioware has two teams working on new stuff. One does Cartel Market stuff and the other does new content. New content was scheduled to be plugged in about every 8 weeks, and they are promising just that in 2.2, scheduled for a June release, and keeping with their new content every 8 weeks schedule.

 

The Cartel Market is an additional revenue stream with mostly "cosmetic" items to entice you to spend more to look good. You don't really need anything from the Cartel Market to play the game. And like the previous poster said, subscribers get 500 Cartel Coins a month to spend any way they want. (Add the security key and add another 100 Cartel Coins a month.) So basically if you have both, and didn't use it on other fluff, you can unlock the Cathar race.

 

That said I for one would like to see the items (or a variation) currently available in the Cartel Market also made as drops in the game. They can be extremely rare drops, but I think that a lot of folks would be satisfied knowing that they could get them without spending more real cash. I used to play WoW and remembering having to grind instances for certain rare drops. Spending countless hours grinding for it. I find that saving my monthly allotment of Cartel Coins to be the same, without the hassle of grinding.

[VigDiath]

Months ago when before customization became a prospect I remember a thread where people were complaining about the lack of varied customization options in this game. Most people expressed that even if they had to pay it would be worth it. Well, the developers obviously heard that and now we have the option to pay to change your appearance.

 

It may not be the best option, but it is an option nonetheless. In the future we may get these options cheaper or free. I personally think it should be free to an extent. Keep in mind, changing your appearance does not affect your game play, it is all cosmetic. Some of these options you should have to pay for. I for one, was one of those who requested that we have the option to pay for how we look. My only complaint is I don't have Togruta. But the option to convert current toons that I have worked on extensively since 2011...well that is a plus because I really do not want to start all over. And that's the only thing I don't like. If you roll a new toon, maybe then a species should be free. Otherwise, pay to change.

[Forrent]

I dont understand why subscribers have to pay for anything!! We should have access to everything for free with our subsription!!!!!!

 

Exactly!! This update gave no incentive for people to become subscribers, with the exception of receiving 50% off of the stuff they released.

[MSchuyler]

Exactly!! This update gave no incentive for people to become subscribers, with the exception of receiving 50% off of the stuff they released.

 

It didn't need to. It's just a minor incremental update. It gave people some stuff they have been clamoring for and that they said they would pay for. So Bioware said OK and did what they were asked to do.

 

And it worked.

 

Have you seen the mob scene on the fleet? People are lining up in droves because they are so excited to spend money on colors, of all things. Colors! It's like claiming you need Twinkies to survive and all Twinkies should be free.

 

Now think back a few months. Remember when there was no F2P? How many Cartel Coins were you given?

 

ZERO.

 

And then suddenly, out of the blue, when F2P came out you were given, absolutely free, 500 Cartel Coins per month to "spend" (cough!) any way you wanted on Cartel Market, stuff that cost real money for F2P players. In essence Bioware rebates $5.00 of your subscription each month. They effectively lowered your subscription rate and gave you $5.00 per month so you could have "fun" in the Cartel Market without spending ANY extra money (money as in real money)

 

Now, you may claim that those CCs are not "worth" it so for you it does NOT mean you got yourself $5.00/month free, and if you believe that then GOOD FOR YOU because you are a discerning player who realizes that most of the CM stuff is fluff and the small amount of stuff that is not can usually be purchased with credits instead.

 

And for the very few things that are NOT (if there are any) use your FREE Cartel Coins to BUY them, those FREE coins that were suddenly handed to you out of the blue that you didn't get before F2P.

 

But Nooooooooo! Instead you declare that "everything should be free!" That may be your point of view, but you know what? That's not how it is. And if you get this upset over a friggin' COLOR, for chrissakes, then perhaps it would be best all around if you found another sandbox to play in.

 

You people remind me of folks on welfare who buy Cheetos with my tax money and then complain they can't by cigarettes with their EBT cards, too.

[Starglitter]

Mmm...

 

Problem is the definition of what a subscriber can expect to receive for the money has evolved over time, in the old days, you paid: You got full service, plain and simple. On the other hand there was no free to play option, ha ha ha ha.

 

Now you have free to play, still free but paid something, and subscriber thus a 3 social class strata.

 

The fact that a company to offer a service must meet payroll and other cost can not be overlooked, and that the company must somehow get the money between all three social types becomes rather obvious.

 

The problem with the dinosaur subscriber such as I , who has been playing these kind of games for over 20 years and have grown to feel that if I pay I get what i pay for which was all the game has to offer is to an extent a very valid feeling.

 

Now the problem with the economic architecture is that there is no true subscriber category, in fact they are treated as a partial subscriber and thus they get some content free and other they have to pay like the other two social classes, and this is where folks lik eme gets rubbed wrong.

 

If SWTOR would tell me, if you want truly unlimited access, no holds barred, it will cost you $15 a month, and if you want compromise access buy at the store you pay $10 a month, would make sense to me and would end the issue of feeling like a subscriber and being mostly treated as a free to play. I suspect if they would raise the rate for Full Subscribers by $5, some of us would pay it, and get all the bells and whistles and be actually happy and they would end up with more money than otherwise.

 

Sue

[Forrent]

Mmm...

 

Problem is the definition of what a subscriber can expect to receive for the money has evolved over time, in the old days, you paid: You got full service, plain and simple. On the other hand there was no free to play option, ha ha ha ha.

 

Now you have free to play, still free but paid something, and subscriber thus a 3 social class strata.

 

The fact that a company to offer a service must meet payroll and other cost can not be overlooked, and that the company must somehow get the money between all three social types becomes rather obvious.

 

The problem with the dinosaur subscriber such as I , who has been playing these kind of games for over 20 years and have grown to feel that if I pay I get what i pay for which was all the game has to offer is to an extent a very valid feeling.

 

Now the problem with the economic architecture is that there is no true subscriber category, in fact they are treated as a partial subscriber and thus they get some content free and other they have to pay like the other two social classes, and this is where folks lik eme gets rubbed wrong.

 

If SWTOR would tell me, if you want truly unlimited access, no holds barred, it will cost you $15 a month, and if you want compromise access buy at the store you pay $10 a month, would make sense to me and would end the issue of feeling like a subscriber and being mostly treated as a free to play. I suspect if they would raise the rate for Full Subscribers by $5, some of us would pay it, and get all the bells and whistles and be actually happy and they would end up with more money than otherwise.

 

Sue

 

Well said!!!

 

Like EQII... these small updates would be free. Then they would release a pack, and you could buy it for extra content (maybe like $5 or so), and then you have your expansions like any other game.

[Ironskillit]

Not sure about anyone else, but I cancelled my sub over this patch. No point in paying $15 a month when they are going to charge me a second time for new content in patches.

[MeisterBabylon]

I'd Picard Facepalm if I could.

 

I pay 20 bucks to change my species in that other mmo, along with a few million other things thrown in causing the price to be ridiculously inflated. Needless to say, I don't change species often.

 

Its cheaper in this game. Yeah, so species in this game has less impact on the game because there are no racial abilities. Needless to say, I also don't see a point in change species.

 

I'm more annoyed that I can't buy a new hairdo without needing cartel coins, but then again, I like my current hair, and it doesn't impact the game, so... not so much worth unsubbing for.

 

The day they require CC for a piece of gear or buff to PVE or PVP, then I'll rage with you guys. Otherwise, I think its fair to charge CC for cosmetics. It's not competitive when comparing against F2P games with free costumes and swaps like STO and CO, but it's within reason.

[Juithtin]

I understand why Bioware/EA have made it so that you have to pay to change your name/appearance. I mean, you had the chance to alter it however you liked when you started the game. The problem I have however, is that us subs have to pay to unlock the new styles/colours - I understand F2P'ers having to pay to unlock them, but really, subs have to pay as well just to unlock them? Ideally, the styles/colours should be free to subs with a grace period so we can change our hair style/colour without having to pay, then add a 'fee' after x amount of time.