The Contraband Slot Machine

[OddballEasyEight]

If it is so easy to do, why isn't everyone doing it ? Well, i know that clicking the button is easy, but still players keep complaining to be gauged by other players.

 

I'm doing it as we speak.

Who's to say others aren't doing it too?

 

Difference is, I'm not gouging players on the GTN, I'm using the mats for crafting.

 

And THEN gouging people (J/K, I'm fairly reasonable in my pricing. I have a profit margin and I stick to that to the great annoyance of some other crafters, judging from the number of "OMG WHY ARE YOU UNDERCUTTING BY SO MUCH!!!" type in-game emails I've gotten)

[EnkiduNineEight]

If the slots remain where they are I am going to be disappointed myself. I was one of the frequent voices that the slots needed to be adjusted. Before finding the threads here (I tend to hide from the various general forums but would frequent the suggestions forums as I have found my enjoyment of a game suffers when I delve into the forums) I was dutifully recording my results and submitting them as a bug and appending said bug with each new stack of tokens.

 

I controlled my slots use, I only have 6.5 stacks of Jawa Junk from my slots play, (and increased my Cartel Market Certs by two stacks and some) but it did feel like I was getting something for nothing. The odds eally were off. From the beginning I knew that, if I were more the self absorbed capitalist sort I should sit here and burn through as much in game currency as I have (and I have just over 100mil across my 20 characters as I've been playing since release and before) and take advantage of it but I'm just not that sort of person. I grabbed enough, I hope, to continue to outfit my up and coming alts and left it at that.

 

If they leave them (winning odds) where they are, they are still by an order of magnitude off just in the other direction.

 

I'm most especially annoyed that they took my .001 suggestion for rate of return for a 'Special' jackput and turned it into .001% because someone doesn't understand math.

 

There is no way a reskinned walker mount that's 90% movement (level 10 speeder) should be 100 times harder to achieve than the Kingpin Rancor.

 

I wanted a 'credit sink' but that's patently ridiculous. If anything, the odds of getting one should be significantly better than the Kingpin Rancor and it should be bound to legacy so it can't be sold, but you could move it to the character you wanted it on. This would convince quite a few more people to yank the level more frequently, making this an effective credit sink, because they would have an actual chance to get a mount from it they could send to anyone in their legacy. Just as they could in the Nightlife Event with the Vectron 'trash' jackpot.

 

We've been provided good information from honest gathering/crafters who can tell you what the average price to gather Grade 11 missions. Doonium tops the list @ $6,000 credits per Doonium harvested. So the most expensive is also the material used in multiple crafting skills.

 

It is very simply to balance your expected results per slot pull so that your sunk cost of using the machine equals an amount that is a multiple of the cost to obtain materials that you will receive from play. If they want you to get 1 jawa junk per stack of tokens played, then the sunk cost of the play should equal (IMO) @ 12,000 credits. You pay a price premium for the speed and convenience.

 

The market would bear this increase of materials available and make Grade 11 materials more accessible was was noted as a desire by the team.

 

Best/cheapest way to achieve them would be gathering.

Fastest way to get them would be slots but they would be at least twice the cost per material.

Excess material gets marketed on the GTN lowering costs but those people who can list for the cheapest are still the trade skillers.

 

I am very disappointed with the .001% drop rate for the speeder. That is ridiculously punitive and, as evidenced by many comments, not nearly enough of an inducement to play the slots which are now seen as a complete waste of time and a punitive money sink.

 

I wanted rates of return lowered. I just wish the dev who made the changes actually understood math OR more likely, they understand math but just made a mistake in haste to get something fixed. It does a lot, for a community and in your interpersonal relationships, to admit when you made a mistake and attempt to make it right. I think the vast majority of all people who have commented on this issue would be significantly mollified and actually switch their opinion to one of being satisfied and happy with the game and the slots even if they were never returned to close to their prior 1.0 version if the community Team was more forthcoming and we knew there was a plan of action to make things better than present, but no where near as destructive as they were prior.

 

I know I _personally_ would be happy if my cost per Jawa Junk ranged up to 18,000 credits 'lost' on the machine per dropped Junk.

 

I think the rate for the certificates could be raised but find 2% was far too generous, .9% or 1% (averaging 1 per stack the majority of the time) might be more fair and considering most of them will be hoarded not too big an influx in the economy. If they are concerned, since certs would be easier to get and more plentiful for everyone, just make all cert purchasable items bind on pickup and allow 'bound' decorations (EG you have the item that unlocks the decoration into your collection in your possession, you have not actually added it to your decoration collection) to be donated to your guild.

 

This removes the potential currency conversion of cartel market certificates, so their 'cost' per drop would work with the cost associated for Jawa Junk.

 

This effectively moves currency from the system (money sinks are good) but also provides a better rate of return for the player so that the rewards portion of their brain is triggered more often, increasing their pleasure from using the slots, and thus encouraging them to participate in a specifically designed money sink.

5 Green Mats per stack of tokens

3 Blues per stack of tokens.

1 Purple per stack of tokens.

Similar drop rates for reputation items.

More 'free spins'

.5% rate to .1% rate for the Speeder (.001 to .005) which is 'bound to legacy' and is an adaptive speeder. Much closer to the Vectron on the high return end than the Rancor.

Token cost set so that after your expected odds, the total 'cost' to you per stack (eg lost currency- original cost - sellbacks of rep items unused) is equal to say 15,000-20,000 credits.

 

Token cost to _increase_ in the future when you release Grade 13 or whatever your next planned materials grade is so that the cost per stack of tokens and your expected returns are in line with the increased costs for gathering the same materials so that a constant ratio exists making it always cheapest to gather materials via missions.

 

You're not going to make the hardcore 'Make slots = 1.0 Slots because EVERYONE ELSE IS GREEDY BUT I AM NOT!' crowd happy. Their numbers are small, don't worry about it. They'll still play they'll just whine about it.

 

You're not going to make the 'MMO's need to be harder than my real job!' crowd happy either. It will be too easy per their experience. They'll likely stick around to and complain.

 

Folks in-between the extremes, no matter where their starting point, would likely come to accept the middle ground approach and appreciate having a fun toy that tickles their pleasure receptors with an increased frequency of 'useful' return from the slots even though they will know it is _costing_ them credits. You'll have likely repaired your relationship with the very vocal (and by extension, some of your most hardcore fans/boosters) community and done a "good thing"™ for the game as a whole.

Edited January 24, 2015 by EnkiduNineEight

[Tolunart]

But thats the point behind your argument. Things should not be rare or hard to get, BW should make them easy to get. Thats as easy as it can go.

 

Because if it's not black, then it must be white. There are never more than two choices.

[Menolley]

Draqksco I disagree with your statement:

 

The only non-lazy mat gatherers out there are the one doing HM FPs and Ops for Exonium, and those farming nodes. Every other method of obtaining mats only requires virtual couch potato effort of clicking a UI.

 

It's an unfair generalization. Are you saying that being disabled and only having one good hand to play with makes me lazy since I am unable to do FPs and Ops for mats?

 

Edited to add:

 

I am not the only disabled player by a long shot either. Check out "Able Gamers Foundation"

Edited January 24, 2015 by Menolley
see edited to add

[Draqsko]

If the slots remain where they are I am going to be disappointed myself. I was one of the frequent voices that the slots needed to be adjusted. Before finding the threads here (I tend to hide from the various general forums but would frequent the suggestions forums as I have found my enjoyment of a game suffers when I delve into the forums) I was dutifully recording my results and submitting them as a bug and appending said bug with each new stack of tokens.

*snip*

 

It was alot more than just your input, so do not blame yourself for this.

 

With that said, this entire post is exactly the point I've been driving at. THERE IS A POINT OF BALANCE with the slot machine and crew skills that DOES NOT involve effectively eliminating either one, and we should seek that point instead of seeking either extreme. You can make them competitive against each other and let the player decide which method they want to use. One is faster but costs alot more, the other is slower but is much cheaper.

[Draqsko]

Draqksco I disagree with your statement:

 

 

 

It's an unfair generalization. Are you saying that being disabled and only having one good hand to play with makes me lazy since I am unable to do FPs and Ops for mats?

 

Edited to add:

 

I am not the only disabled player by a long shot either. Check out "Able Gamers Foundation"

 

Maybe you need a better guild. I've had guildies who are disabled and had no issue taking them through operations or flashpoints, if it means I have to work twice as hard so they can experience that so be it. We both have fun doing it. Isn't that the point of an online game, to have fun with a community of players, not at the expense of other players?

 

Being disabled never means you shouldn't try.

[eartharioch]

Their other argument was that 186 gear was not entry level PVE gear for Ops. That 178 was. Guess they never ran ops cause they are too busy clicking their crew skill boxes to realize the recommend gear level for level 60 Ops is this:

 

Story mode Ravagers: 186

Hard mode Ravagers: 192

Story mode Temple: 186

Hard mode Temple: 198

 

Yep sounds to me like 186 is entry level gear for endgame content.

 

It sounds like *you* don't get what *they* said. The end game starts with HM FPs, which (per Group Finder) use 178 gear. If you don't want to run HM FPs, you can do other things and get the 186 gear you need for the SM OPs. You don't *have* to buy it off the GTN, the Basic Comm and Level 55 NiM vendors will sell you 186 gear if you [can] earn their coin.

Edited January 24, 2015 by eartharioch

[Max_Killjoy]

Maybe you need a better guild. I've had guildies who are disabled and had no issue taking them through operations or flashpoints, if it means I have to work twice as hard so they can experience that so be it. We both have fun doing it. Isn't that the point of an online game, to have fun with a community of players, not at the expense of other players?

 

Being disabled never means you shouldn't try.

 

The point of a game is to have fun.

 

Some people don't really give a damn about the "community" part of it, they'd rather just play in peace, live and let live, and leave others alone in turn.

[EnkiduNineEight]

As an addendum to my immediate prior post:

 

I think they should consider adding some additional drops to the machines, these could be as rare as or even slightly rarer than the rancor. (.0009 OR .09% with the feeling lucky buff for the Rancor). what these would be would be 'Jackpot Crates' which are similar to the 'grand acquisition' packs that have been sold. Where-in the player who hits this jackpot is given a full set of armor, or perhaps a rare speeder, crystal, etc from the pack the machine represents.

 

These don't even need to be bound because their infrequency would be high enough (again, I suggest slightly harder to get than the Rancor) that they would not be a significant addition to the GTN or a players wealth if sold.

 

Looking at the Contraband Packs I would conceivably (So, lets say at odds that are an order of magnitude greater than the Rancor, so instead of .09% use .009%) recommend that they have the potential to drop any of the following:

Red Blade Set

Thana Vesh Set

Restored Triumverate Set

Recovered Hero Set

Each of the three relaxed Sets. (Jumpsuit, Uniform and Vestments)

White-Black Sabre crystals (individually not as a set)

The Cartel Skiffs (Individually)

The Aratech Speeders (individually)

Music Therapy Probe

Portable Relaxation Unit

Revan Statue

Various pets, emotes, moods (perhaps this reward comes with several in the jackpot crate)

Weapons (individual weapon from all the weapons in this pack, can leave some omitted of course)

 

What this does is gives players a chance to get a really neat jackpot (beyond a reskinned vehicle) with significantly difficult odds that encourages them to play the slots. I know that I would certainly take to converting a portion of my credits, every time I earn more, and use them to feed aslot machine because I may be able to fill out my collections.

 

Since a number of items are still omitted,there is still a reason to buy the packs when you put them on sale, the slot machine would not eliminate this need/market for your real world currency Catel Market packs. But a broad enough/rare enough selection is chosen that you pique the players need/greed to have the results.

 

Since there is also a suitably large number of potential rewards, it gives the slot machine a significant life span. More as you release each generation of Slot Machine to make up for another prior (never the current) shipment from the Cartel Market.

 

So not only does this provide an enticing currency sink, tweak the reward/pleasure centers of your players but it does one more thing.

 

It really encourages more player interaction in areas where slot machines can be found.

 

The community is encouraged to make their strongholds/guild halls public if they have these devices. This is a benefit then to players who do not yet have them. The eventual variety of the machines makes for new and interesting social hubs for players. The number of special Jackpot Crates and their widely varying contents encourage player interaction and chatter as they hit their jackpots and open the crates.

 

This gives more ipetus for players to purchase and decorate their Strongholds. Quite frankly my entire purpose formy strong holds was to maximize out the bonus for conquest points and I didn't care at all how I decorated. I just filled hooks until I had the bonus. I would frankly beencouraged by this syste to at least make ONE ofmy strongholds look nice and I would dedicate space within it to my 'casino' and it would be made open to the public.. all thngs I do not do presently because there is no point to it for me (and many others).

 

The slot machines can be an excellent method for you to really increase the fun of the game, make Grade 11 (and future grades) more accessible to players, increase the rate at which currency is 'flushed' from the system higher allowing perhaps for some other 'less fun' money sinks to be scaled back further and overall increasing the 'fun to play' aspect of the game. You increase social hub activity, and you make those social hubs PLAYER driven.

 

So, for your consideration....

Edited January 24, 2015 by EnkiduNineEight

[Draqsko]

It sounds like *you* don't get what *they* said. The end game starts with HM FPs, which (per Group Finder) use 178 gear. If you don't want to run HM FPs, you can do other things and get the 186 gear you need for the SM OPs. You don't *have* to buy it off the GTN, the Basic Comm and Level 55 NiM vendors will sell you 186 gear if you [can] earn their coin.

 

Didn't know you had to do FPs to unlock Ops.. And truthfully, with this release, the HM FPs took better gear than the Ops did with the bugged damage buff silvers got. At least in Ops you only had to deal with champions and golds.

 

But even if your supposition was true, and that is what "they" meant, the fact is they are out of touch with what the rest of the community considers endgame content. Here's a hint, it's not flashpoints, it's operations. If BW dropped this expansion with 12 flashpoints and no operations, the forums would explode with complaints about lack of endgame.

[Draqsko]

The point of a game is to have fun.

 

Some people don't really give a damn about the "community" part of it, they'd rather just play in peace, live and let live, and leave others alone in turn.

 

That's acceptable to, what isn't acceptable is having your fun at the expense of others' enjoyment.

[Max_Killjoy]

That's acceptable to, what isn't acceptable is having your fun at the expense of others' enjoyment.

 

Which is exactly why the gougers needed a taking down a peg or three.

[eartharioch]

Didn't know you had to do FPs to unlock Ops.. And truthfully, with this release, the HM FPs took better gear than the Ops did with the bugged damage buff silvers got. At least in Ops you only had to deal with champions and golds.

 

But even if your supposition was true, and that is what "they" meant, the fact is they are out of touch with what the rest of the community considers endgame content. Here's a hint, it's not flashpoints, it's operations. If BW dropped this expansion with 12 flashpoints and no operations, the forums would explode with complaints about lack of endgame.

 

Hitting level 60 unlocks both HM FPs and OPs. Per the Group Finder notes, you need 178 gear for the HM FPs and 186 gear for the new SM OPs. You can easily get 178 or 186 gear running the new Dailies. You can get *better* 186 gear by running level 55 NiMs, crafting your own, or buying it off the GTN. The choice is yours.

 

Crafted 186 is not required for any part of the game. Anybody can make it, and can sell it for any price. If the guy standing next to you at the GTN is willing to pay more than you, don't blame me for selling it to him. If you are willing to pay me enough to make it for you, I might make another piece and sell it to you if I can't find somebody else who will pay me more.

 

This game has plenty of people who will sell certain things at set prices. They are called vendors. I am not a vendor...if you want what I have, you can pay me what *I* think it's worth or make your own. Like I do.

Edited January 24, 2015 by eartharioch

[Draqsko]

Hitting level 60 unlocks both HM FPs and OPs. Per the Group Finder notes, you need 178 gear for the HM FPs and 186 gear for the new SM OPs. You can easily get 178 or 186 gear running the new Dailies. You can get *better* 186 gear by running level 55 NiMs, crafting your own, or buying it off the GTN. The choice is yours.

 

Crafted 186 is not required for any part of the game. Anybody can make it, and can sell it for any price. If the guy standing next to you at the GTN is willing to pay more than you, don't blame me for selling it to him. If you are willing to pay me enough to make it for you, I might make another piece and sell it to you if I can't find somebody else who will pay me more.

 

This game has plenty of people who will sell certain things at set prices. They are called vendors. I am not a vendor...if you want what I have, you can pay me what *I* think it's worth or make your own. Like I do.

 

Nice attempt at a dodge but no..

 

Endgame in the eyes of the vast majority of the community is raiding in operations. That means entry level gear is 186. Not sure if you seen the enhancements, earpieces, implants on the comm gear but it's vastly inferior to crafted versions. Not to mention the only relics you can obtain that are 186 are crafted ones.

 

Also let's glossy over the fact that 186 is level 58 gear, not level 60...

[LordArtemis]

At this point they need to return the certs to a 2% drop. Not for our benefit, for theirs.

 

Because although it will not benefit us very much IMO, they have nowhere to go but up.

 

There was no need to release the machine and have it drop mats. There was no need to nerf the machine into oblivion because they made a mistake and released a machine that dropped mats.

 

And there is no need to keep the cert drop rate low on a contraband slot machine, with the sole purpose (or at least intended purpose IMO) to allow you to build rep and get access to rep items under embargo.

 

The only thing they could do that would be worse, at this point, is to remove all of the mats that folks acquired from the machine before the nerf and remove the machine from the game.

 

I would not be surprised if that is their next step. After all, they are batting a thousand on the whole "shoot yourself in the foot" thing.

[eartharioch]

Nice attempt at a dodge but no..

 

Endgame in the eyes of the vast majority of the community is raiding in operations. That means entry level gear is 186. Not sure if you seen the enhancements, earpieces, implants on the comm gear but it's vastly inferior to crafted versions. Not to mention the only relics you can obtain that are 186 are crafted ones.

 

Also let's glossy over the fact that 186 is level 58 gear, not level 60...

 

I'm not the one dodging. I have seen the Basic Comm stuff, and I agree that it's crap compared to what any player can craft, and I sure don't have fun running HM Tactical FPs for crap gear. I'm a decent player, but it's hard to put together a NiM group to farm DF/DP, so I put in a few hours (and a lot of credits) into making my own gear. I can't stop you from doing the same thing. What I can do is offer to make some for you, if you make it worth my while. If you don't want to make it worth my while, well, I have the gear, so I can just put it on and run the OP that nobody will run with you because you don't have the gear.

[Draqsko]

I'm not the one dodging. I have seen the Basic Comm stuff, and I agree that it's crap compared to what any player can craft, and I sure don't have fun running HM Tactical FPs for crap gear. I'm a decent player, but it's hard to put together a NiM group to farm DF/DP, so I put in a few hours (and a lot of credits) into making my own gear. I can't stop you from doing the same thing. What I can do is offer to make some for you, if you make it worth my while. If you don't want to make it worth my while, well, I have the gear, so I can just put it on and run the OP that nobody will run with you because you don't have the gear.

 

If you can't see how harmful that attitude is to the longevity of the game.. I was here when the servers were ghost towns. That attitude eventually gets you to the point where you don't do ops because you don't have anyone to do ops with. Try making a little less than 900% profit so that you have other players willing to participate in activities in game with you.

[eartharioch]

If you can't see how harmful that attitude is to the longevity of the game.. I was here when the servers were ghost towns. That attitude eventually gets you to the point where you don't do ops because you don't have anyone to do ops with. Try making a little less than 900% profit so that you have other players willing to participate in activities in game with you.

 

I've been here since launch, fortunately I wasn't on one of the ghost servers, and I'm glad they merged the servers instead of killing the game. But you are mistaken if you think my attitude is a problem. I have plenty of people with whom to run content -- they are called guildies and pugs. I have never refused to make something for somebody if they give me the mats. I don't go around trolling fleet/chat offering this service, but I do list what I can do on my guild's forums. From what I've seen (in my guild, anyway), I'm hardly unique. I will admit that my guild is very selective -- we only accept players who have characters on our server and are interested in running end game content with us.

 

If you don't want to run content with me, or anybody in my guild, and I've never met you in a pug of some kind, and you can't even be bothered to PM me and offer to trade mats for what I can make, you can join the rest of the people wanting to treat the GTN as a vendor and take your place in line. Which is right behind everybody willing to pay more than you are.

[lightSaberAddiCt]

OK cupcake.

 

(And it's not just mats.)

 

Anything that drives out the contrived rarity and drives down prices is good. It's SWTOR not "Space Merchant Sim 2015"... absolutely no regard for the people who play GTN PvP and like to pretend that they're Rockefeller or Morgan.

 

It's a computer game. There is no economy, there are just things that get in the way of getting what a player needs for their character.

 

Nah, the want to be the SWU Gordon Geko. Most of them probably dont know who Rockefeller or Morgan is...

[Heat-Wave]

Hitting level 60 unlocks both HM FPs and OPs. Per the Group Finder notes, you need 178 gear for the HM FPs and 186 gear for the new SM OPs. You can easily get 178 or 186 gear running the new Dailies. You can get *better* 186 gear by running level 55 NiMs, crafting your own, or buying it off the GTN. The choice is yours.

 

Crafted 186 is not required for any part of the game. Anybody can make it, and can sell it for any price. If the guy standing next to you at the GTN is willing to pay more than you, don't blame me for selling it to him. If you are willing to pay me enough to make it for you, I might make another piece and sell it to you if I can't find somebody else who will pay me more.

 

This game has plenty of people who will sell certain things at set prices. They are called vendors. I am not a vendor...if you want what I have, you can pay me what *I* think it's worth or make your own. Like I do.

 

I would love to see a video of a group of 4 people in all 178 gear with no augments complete HM Assualt on Tython. I do not think that is possible actually. It is pretty brutal in full 186 with 186 augments.

 

The new ops are easier.

[Heat-Wave]

I'm not the one dodging. I have seen the Basic Comm stuff, and I agree that it's crap compared to what any player can craft, and I sure don't have fun running HM Tactical FPs for crap gear. I'm a decent player, but it's hard to put together a NiM group to farm DF/DP, so I put in a few hours (and a lot of credits) into making my own gear. I can't stop you from doing the same thing. What I can do is offer to make some for you, if you make it worth my while. If you don't want to make it worth my while, well, I have the gear, so I can just put it on and run the OP that nobody will run with you because you don't have the gear.

 

My Guardian tank is in basic comms gear, head to toe. 186 crafted relics of course, and fully augmented. None of the mods or enhancements are crafted.

 

I have no trouble tanking the new ops. HM Assualt on Tython is another matter, it is brutal. The others aren't a lot better.

 

Balance is just not something BW understands.

[Citruzz]

TL,DR

 

The whole idea of the first introduction of this machines was a absolute disaster. Replacing gathering, crew missions and even trading mats in the GTN. The CC-Traders got tricked as well, because they invested a lot of money to generate certificates / cartel reputation in the game and now, it is available for everyone and you just need a little amount of credits.

 

This is an mmorgp, trading is a part of it, and there is no reason to skip that. A little increase in dropchance of any scrap or certificate from the actual point is unfair and game breaking. This machines should not be an alternative of gathering mats by myself. It is a deco with a funny function, thats all.

 

I'm not a macro user, but even i got enough mats till the middle of the next expansion.

[Lucyfer_Infinity]

With only silence from them for so long i guess its safe to assume that the bait and switch was fully intentional and bioware is not interested in any kind of dialogue with us. I guess all thats left for each one of us is to take any actions we personally deem necessery and remember this lesson for the future.

[Kalarie]

Still waiting on my refund, just saying...

[Andryah]

At this point they need to return the certs to a 2% drop. Not for our benefit, for theirs.

 

/Agreed.

 

It was them, not us, that decided to put mats into the loot table. If they had not done that... then they would not have had to nerf the slots back to the stoneage. Once they realized their mistake, they went in the extreme opposite direction.

 

What I found by combing through LinkedIn is that there has indeed been a lot of musical chairs and seat assignment changes in the management team at Bioware over the last 9 months. The people that led the development and release of RoTHC and GSF (which were generally well accepted by most players) have moved on to other things. Whoever they put in charge of Strongholds and Revan expac projects .... clearly is not up to the task. And I'm sorry, but the Community Support team has lost their way, with no signs of recovery that I can see. I simply do not trust anything they say moving forward.

 

A shame really. They were on a really good roll for a while, but they have lost the recipe (or the cooks are completely clueless). For players, the end result is the same..... game getting worse after each patch.

 

I would not be surprised if that is their next step. After all, they are batting a thousand on the whole "shoot yourself in the foot" thing.

 

When issued two feet, and with it generally accepted that to walk well.. you need two feet.... the last thing you should be doing is taking an assault rifle to your feet.

 

I have thought about it for a few days now, and while I still enjoy the game... I'm going to stop plugging game time cards into my account. Once the sub expires, then I will simply play my other MMOs and give this one the little digital birdie. I will not play it free, I will not play it subbed.

 

Not because I have any emotional attachment to the slots, but rather on principle. I really don't care much about the slot machine one way or the other, but I do care about a lack of integrity.

 

I get that they have to be careful what they communicate and how.. but I'm sorry.. it is not a license to lie to the players. Nor is it a license to wrap every bug in waffles and toss them around the forum as CM-Facts.

 

If they cannot even figure out in advance if something is going to have a negative impact on the game, then things will get progressively worse. Because they clearly are lost, and have no idea where they are.

 

If they cannot figure out how to actually balance something that is so simple to adjust without resorting to draconian measures, then things will get progressively worse. Because they are clearly lost and have no idea where they are or what they are doing.

 

If they can be so dishonest in their communications to players on basic and fundamental inquiries about "is something working as intended or not", then what exactly is the point in playing their game, much less putting money into it? IMO.. no point at all. The silence this week, in the face of widely discussed dissatisfaction with how they have handled this latest debacle ----> extremely telling IMO.

 

So with that understanding... I'm going to perma-log out of the forums and let my game time lapse.

 

I wish the best of luck to those that choose to stay and struggle through the growing ineptitude on the part of Bioware. I will miss discussions with some of you who have been here a long time. Many great discussions and disagreements mixed in with the usual player hyperbole-de-jour.

 

Cheers.

Edited January 24, 2015 by Andryah