What's stopping you from buying items off the CM?

[DarthWoad]

This is directed towards people who have never or don't buy CM items any more with their real money. What's stopping you?

 

For me, it's the fact the gamble boxes are so dominant. I would love to see more armor sets being one time unlocks and I would certainly pay for one of the KOTOR sets if it were a single purchase.

 

Also it's a shame there aren't any achievements that unlock sets in collections, that would certainly make me play more as a completionist.

[mwilmore]

Personally for me, I hate the CM. I think it detracts from the overall feel of the Star Wars story and puts an arcade game spin on a game that should be about dark vs. light struggles.

 

All of the items you can get in the CM could be parsed through the game and made available via some other delivery vehicle to the player. So yeah...it's just a cheesy game gimmick.

[psandak]

Long story short, same as you...very little on the CM for direct purchase intrigues me enough purchase. That being said, I have made a recent direct purchase off the CM - the Eradicator outfit. It was significantly cut in price and I jumped at it.

 

And just so you are aware, there is financial incentive to lock items in packs rather than making them direct purchase: simply put studies have shown more customers will purchase more "random chance goodie bags" AKA packs than those who would purchase items/sets directly. We are wired to gamble and BW (and MANY other companies) takes advantage of it.

[psandak]

Personally for me, I hate the CM. I think it detracts from the overall feel of the Star Wars story and puts an arcade game spin on a game that should be about dark vs. light struggles.

 

All of the items you can get in the CM could be parsed through the game and made available via some other delivery vehicle to the player. So yeah...it's just a cheesy game gimmick.

 

And then the game would shut down. Just sayin' that the CM allows this game to keep going.

[gabigool]

And then the game would shut down. Just sayin' that the CM allows this game to keep going.

 

Perhaps. Likely, even.

 

However I ask myself why the studio is comfortable with this.

 

It seems to me, a far more lucrative strategy would be to develop meaningful content, designed to encourage interest in gameplay and in-game community-building.

 

Instead of creating artificial incentives, create gameplay that is its own incentive.

 

Personally, I've bought a couple things on the CM when my CC coins pile up. I've bought coins two or three times over the years, and used them to purchase hypercrates to immediate place on the GTN for credits. That's it.

 

I believe a CM-oriented operating plan is a weak idea in this genre of games. Yes, the lights are still on - but I'd aim a bit higher than that. I will never, ever believe an MMO with this IP "needed" a CM to survive. It simply needed good management.

[Alec_Fortescue]

Lack of nice looking direct-purchase items I guess. SWTOR's mtx are way too expensive to pay for chance.

[eriksarcasm]

Perhaps. Likely, even.

 

However I ask myself why the studio is comfortable with this.

 

It seems to me, a far more lucrative strategy would be to develop meaningful content, designed to encourage interest in gameplay and in-game community-building.

 

Instead of creating artificial incentives, create gameplay that is its own incentive.

 

Personally, I've bought a couple things on the CM when my CC coins pile up. I've bought coins two or three times over the years, and used them to purchase hypercrates to immediate place on the GTN for credits. That's it.

 

I believe a CM-oriented operating plan is a weak idea in this genre of games. Yes, the lights are still on - but I'd aim a bit higher than that. I will never, ever believe an MMO with this IP "needed" a CM to survive. It simply needed good management.

 

I don't think there's a game studio anywhere that can possibly create enough new content to keep every single player happy. They tried that this time with 9 new chapters, which most of us blew through in hours or days, and Uprisings, which... aren't good? (Haven't tried one myself but reading some of the feedback that's the impression I get)

 

There's an xkcd comic which, as is usual for xkcd, perfectly explains what I'm trying to say here. Wish I could find it.

 

Point is, there will always be players who blast through anything new a game developer gives them and immediately demand more. We play alot faster than they can develop, regardless of IP

[JennyFlynn]

I'd probably spend more on the CM if some of the unique and genuinely good looking stuff from the boxes was up for direct purchase instead. If some of the older good sets were made available for direct purchase.

 

I have bought a few crates in the past but quickly started feeling they weren't worth it so now I rarely buy anything except perhaps a mount now and then or recently the Nathema set.

[Neshira]

Lack of rl funds to spend on video game microtransactions. I don't begrudge the Cm, I think it's a great thing and if I had enough money to justify spending some there I would. However to me as a parent who doesn't have a ton of disposable income there are just far more important things to be spending my cash on. I already feel selfish for spending money on a game subscription!

[mwilmore]

And then the game would shut down. Just sayin' that the CM allows this game to keep going.

 

I understand the fiscal end of your comment. I'm just voicing my opinion on why I personally don't use it per the OP's question.

 

I personally hate the CM. I think gimmicks like this cheapen the game experience. Look, I know the developers wrestle with how to bring in revenue. It just seems that this is a lazy way of doing it.

[Tsillah]

Well, I am one of those who stopped buying from the CM. This was already happening months before 5.0 came so it has nothing to do with how much I hate RNG in GC.

 

I have learned to hate the RNG in the cartel packs however. At first when I started buying packs it was a bit of fun and I wanted to support the game. My hope was that by investing more in the game, the game would invest more in us.

 

The short version of why I stopped is that they didn't invest more in us.

 

But there is also the Stronghold side of things. I love the player housing, spend hours and hours decorating them. But I hated the lack of availability of decorations because there wasn't enough variation and the drop rates were always too low of them in the cartel packs that had become the main source for decorations. So more and more I felt forced to buy cartel packs to be able to get enough of them. Reality is that they are expensive on the GTN because you sooner need 10 or 20 of certain decorations (think of making a mandalorian themed stronghold for example) and at 500k or 1.5 million a pop, getting 20 of them just is not viable...because that's still just one decoration you needed a bunch of.

 

So yeh, for me one of the biggest reasons to stop buying cartel packs is Strongholds and I easily spent 150 bucks a month for quite a while before I accepted that I'd gone from supporting the game to supporting a habit.

 

Even if I resub to the game, I won't be interested in becoming a whale again. Too much is coming in the game via the CM and not enough via the game itself. It's that imbalance mostly that makes me feel that instead of supporting the game I was just supporting the Cartel Market. Sure it wasn't the smartest thing and I actually knew it, but it simply is addictive and it's not worth the money I spent on it.

 

If they had actually used the money people invest in the CM to improve the game and give us new content, I'd have been cool with spending money on it, but clearly that's not happening. Unsubbing is peanuts by comparison in the end.

[Hebruixe]

I've never touched those awful gamble packs and never will. I've purchased a few of the armor sets from the CM and a bunch of costume unlocks in collections. I don't understand why people spend money on hypercrates...it's such an obvious waste. /shrug Edited December 22, 2016 by Hebruixe

[Soljin]

1) I no longer support the direction of this game and thus have no desire to financially support it.

2) RnG (Real Money) transactions are not acceptable to me.

3) I unsubscribed and uninstalled the game, So there is that...

[devincor]

I don't hate the CM but like some others I refuse to buy cartel packs.

 

I do buy Direct purchase items on occasion if they have some armor set or weapon on sale. I wish they would expand their armor collection to include direct sales of Out of Circulation armor sets.

[devincor]

And just so you are aware, there is financial incentive to lock items in packs rather than making them direct purchase: simply put studies have shown more customers will purchase more "random chance goodie bags" AKA packs than those who would purchase items/sets directly. We are wired to gamble and BW (and MANY other companies) takes advantage of it.

 

While I believe the study happened, I wonder how long the study lasted and did it track what happened to the ones that did not chase the goodie bag carrot endlessly. (How many never did it again or even left the game?) I also wonder if the study was fair in that the items for direct sale were equally desirable as to what was in the random bag. If the item was the same for direct sale and random bagged I seriously doubt the random option would win in sales. I am not one who is wired to gamble;).

[ImmortalLowlife]

Quite frankly, I only buy things that I like and are available for direct purchase. I flat out refuse to buy the gambling packs. I'm not gonna spend hard earned money to MAYBE get something nice.

[Dweessies]

I've used my sub reward coins to buy a few items that looked good enough, and to unlock sets and such in collections. But having worked as an IT manager for a casino (a long while ago, but not in a galaxy far far away) I'm rather uninterested in gambling of any type. Something about coming in every morning and seeing what the hold percentages were ruined all of the 'fun'.

 

hint for those who are slow: The casinos are NOT gambling. They are playing with math to ensure that for every winner there will be multiple losers, and they profit handsomely from every single transaction. The players, over time, will all be long-term losers.

 

#REMOVERNG #MAKEGEARINGCHOICESMATTERAGAIN #UNSUBBED

[Tsillah]

I don't think there's a game studio anywhere that can possibly create enough new content to keep every single player happy. They tried that this time with 9 new chapters, which most of us blew through in hours or days, and Uprisings, which... aren't good? (Haven't tried one myself but reading some of the feedback that's the impression I get)

Well, I don't quite agree with this. Since a lot of people still want class stories for example, their 9 chapter approach couldn't possibly be an attempt to please every single player.

Since the original stories spanned 50 levels, the new stories can never have as much of a playthrough time unless you make big expansions, you know the kind you pay 40-50 bucks for and really add a lot to the game.

 

You kinda have to compare KotET's release to for example SoR's release. Where SoR had new story, new operations, new flash points, new explorable planets to give the main highligts, KotET had new story, zero operations, no flash points but some quick uprisings made with mostly existing locations, and no new explorable planets, you start to see that this is actually the smallest expansion they released to date.

 

Making your expansions smaller and smaller, surely doesn't have anywhere near a chance to keep a lot of existing players happy.

 

There's an xkcd comic which, as is usual for xkcd, perfectly explains what I'm trying to say here. Wish I could find it.

 

Point is, there will always be players who blast through anything new a game developer gives them and immediately demand more. We play alot faster than they can develop, regardless of IP

True as your point is, BWA have consistently lowered the amount of content they released with each expansion. So as the game grows older less and less is added to rejuvenate it. If they had kept up with a similar amount of content, even if it's different types of content, then I would've agreed with you.

 

But I daresay that after all the cash a lot of people have blown on the CM on top of their sub, it's a bit meagre to get nothing more (outside the story) than a few 10 minute uprisings as new content with an expansion release. That really doesn't compare to 2 operations, 2 flash points and 2 explorable planets.

 

There may be more stuff coming but that was also the case in previous expansions, but KotFE was already less content and KotET even less.

[tummiswtor]

1. Recolor items (mostly armors)

2. Weird robes - skirts, metal parts

3. 100% FOCUS ON CM MARKET INSTEAD OF GROUP CONTENT

 

Group content 1 person - CM market 20 people work on this game.

[Ryenke]

What stopped me during the 4 years I was a sub is rng. During those years I did buy a few packs/hypercrates off the GTN and always regretted it - RNG sucks. I'd never pay real money for RNG. There is stuff I have liked that was CM stuff, but I'm not gonna pay for junk - virtual junk at that.

 

I can no longer just take it on faith that Bioware knows what it is doing, so I personally wonder if they lost far more $$ than they gained by the RNG pack method. Certainly they never got money from me except for my sub.

[Docdim]

1) Not interested in cosmetic gear for the most part

2) Not interested in RNG packs

 

I don't even use the granted CC 99% of the time. About all I use it for is the sales on QOL items. And mostly don't do that as they just put the character-based, not account-wide on sale.

 

The only time I ever paid for CC was when both they and Treek were on sale. So, never again. Just no interest.

[gabigool]

I don't think there's a game studio anywhere that can possibly create enough new content to keep every single player happy. They tried that this time with 9 new chapters, which most of us blew through in hours or days, and Uprisings, which... aren't good? (Haven't tried one myself but reading some of the feedback that's the impression I get)

 

There's an xkcd comic which, as is usual for xkcd, perfectly explains what I'm trying to say here. Wish I could find it.

 

Point is, there will always be players who blast through anything new a game developer gives them and immediately demand more. We play alot faster than they can develop, regardless of IP

 

Perhaps this is saying more about the type of content created than the players consuming it.

 

If players quit because they blow through content in a few weeks and expect more, that's on the players.

 

If players quit because they wait around for literally years for MMO content, that' on the studio.

[Transcendent]

don't buy CM items any more with their real money.

 

I'll use free CC every once in a while just to remind myself how much I hate the RNG boxes inside the RNG boxes. Normally it's only a few packs, nothing like the hypercrates I used to purchase with real money. I gave my feedback on the changes, they were ignored, so I no longer purchase using real money.

 

Pretty simple really. Ignore customer, lose customer. Arrogance can only carry them so far.

[Tsetso]

While i was happy with the game i normally threw $100-$150 a month for cartel coins. Since 5.0 info dropped i've logged maybe twice in the game - once to play the story, and once to get shae vizla and master rannos and certainly won't be spending my money on a game i no longer support.

 

Actually thinking about it i spent almost the same amount monthly in blizzard cash shop. And i'm quite happy that everything in there is direct purchase.

Edited December 22, 2016 by Tsetso

[americanaussie]

I am a tree. That's what I got out of 3 packs. A tree. And junk. I have opened more in the past and received courting gifts and other junk. I'd happily buy the item but not junk. Not courting gifts. I bought the festive pack, sold the wampa, and am a happy person but I won't buy junk rng packs with anything but my sub coins and only to sell on gtn.