SWTOR, EA & The Micro-transaction Economy

[Pacram]

The game industry is heading towards a cross roads, will it's greed get the better of it or will we see a more traditional approach to microtransactions such as in SWTOR. https://www.myexpanse.net/articles/swtor-ea-the-microtransaction-economy

[Lhancelot]

The game industry is heading towards a cross roads, will it's greed get the better of it or will we see a more traditional approach to microtransactions such as in SWTOR. https://www.myexpanse.net/articles/swtor-ea-the-microtransaction-economy

 

I thought microtransactions were tools of greed. Is this a trick question?

[Batwer]

1. It is not a P2W.

2. You do not have to buy anything from the cartel market. There are also good things about the planet dealers. Or you buy from other players. So you do not have to spend any antitrust coins.

3. You do not have to take the boxes from the cartel market, there are many things you can buy directly.

4. We really *****ed here, because people want to make money?

5. :rolleyes::rolleyes:

[kodrac]

Anthem is loaded with Fortnite style microtransactions. Imagine that. Not only are our subs funding it's development (and I'm 100% certain they'll continue to for as long as BW lasts), but on top of that they want you to buy $20 skins while supplies last.

 

(ranty, hilarious and NSFW)

[Ardrossan]

I thought microtransactions were tools of greed. Is this a trick question?

 

I lol'd.

[Totemdancer]

The game industry is heading towards a cross roads, will it's greed get the better of it or will we see a more traditional approach to microtransactions such as in SWTOR. https://www.myexpanse.net/articles/swtor-ea-the-microtransaction-economy

 

Believe it or not, the way the drops use to work from the hyoercrates was 100x better than it is now. Better value and more chance to get something you wanted instead of rubbish you can’t give away on the GTN.

If they hadn’t introduced the ability to buy some items directly from the market, I think the game would have suffered long ago from lack of funds because just about everyone I knew stopped buying the hyoercrates when the started to change them 4 years ago. I use to spend an extra $50 a week back then, I’ve not purchased CC since they changed the packs and I know many others stopped too.

 

You might find it interesting to know that EA has finally caved to Belgium’s demand to remove loot boxes in FIFA.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2019/01/29/ea-surrenders-in-belgian-fifa-ultimate-team-loot-box-fight-raising-potential-red-flags/#6de66b936753

Players in Belgium will no longer be able to buy them because it’s considered gambling. It’s also possible this sort of legislation could spread to other countries, forcing EA to reconsider how it makes money.

[Damask_Rose]

Personally, given the high price tag most items have on the CM, I think SWtOR is a Real Money Transaction economy rather than a Micro-transaction economy.

[Pacram]

I mentioned EA and Belgium in the article, I didn’t know this about the new packs. I’ve barely opened any and had believed the new ones were more popular

[jimmorrisson]

After TOR 5.0 followed by Battlefront 2017, it appears EA is moving away from gear gambling packs. Most of the gear now in the Cartel Store used to be featured inside random packs. I would rather pay direct than take a chance on random packs.

[Totemdancer]

I would rather pay direct than take a chance on random packs.

 

Same, but some of the prices are over the top when you consider the monetary value of some of the items. Ie, $40 for a virtual lightsaber that they then want you to pay more if you want to open it in collections.

Honestly, some people have more money than sense. If people just refused to pay such stupid prices, BioWare would be forced to lower the prices to more reasonable amounts.

 

People with lots of money don’t value $40 as much and those are the whales that BioWare target. But you have to ask yourself, how many do they actually sell? If those $40 items were $10 (still too much IMO), they would probably sell a hell of a lot more and would also decrease the stupidly high inflationary prices on the GTN.

 

Seriously, I think 80% of items are over priced, especially as most people have to pay more to open them in collections. I’ve even noticed that some of the cheaper items cost more to open in the collections than the actual item on the CM.

IMHO, top of the range items should never exceed $10 and the other 99% should never be higher than $1-5 (which is what I would consider a micro transaction). Especially when you consider I can walk into EB games and buy whole games for less than $30 or at the most $89 AU.

 

Micro means small, not $10-$40. I’m probably one of the last remaining few who actually purchased the game when it was released. I paid $89 for it and I’ve paid $15-$19 sub (AUD to USD conversion) every since. Not including CC’s I have purchased over the years (when packs were worth it), that’s somewhere between $1349 and $1685. I doubt there are many “non” whales still in the game who have spent as much. But what makes it worse is since they moved the west coast server, I’ve also had to pay for WTFast so I can get reasonable speeds. That’s another $12-$14 a month.

 

For the amount of money I pay or have paid for this game, the quality of It should be much better and not constantly getting worse, with less content and becoming less fun.

Under the old way we use to pay for AAA titles by paying once ($69-$89 with no subs) and then paying for expansions, I could have purchased 18 full games in that time. Subs were the start of the greed and it’s evolved into micro or not so micro transactions. Not because they reinvest in the games, but because they are trying to please their share holders and not their customers. Just look at swtor. People say they don’t have the funds to develope the game properly, I call BS because they get enough revenue to do so. They (executives) just choose not to and give themselves bigger and bigger bonuses and pay rises and dividends to share holders at the expense of the quality and value of their products.

 

We are also partially to blame for this because we feed the machine. If gamers had pushed back hard when the subscription models first appeared and those games failed because of it, the model would have been abandoned. If we had refused to pay micro transactions when they appeared in games, the game companies would have abondoned them.

F2P games only work because of Micro transactions. If games had none and all expansions were paid for, then we would probably get better quality, otherwise games would totally flop because they’d have nothing to fall back on. But because they know they can fall back on and milk F2P, with lower quality products and micro transactions, they can take more money from developement and slowly run games into the ground.

 

Micro transactions are a plague and have infected the quality of the products (games). It’s nice to have “bling” items, but once appon a time we could earn those in the game as rewards for playing awesome or challenging content. Now we throw money at them and those earnable items are removed from the games because they know people will pay instead. We get less content and less quality rewards because of it.

 

Anyway, that’s my opinion of the system and the way game development has gone since I started playing games 39 years ago.

Edited January 31, 2019 by Totemdancer

[Pacram]

The collections is a part of the market I neglected to look at, do other games do things similar?

[Totemdancer]

The collections is a part of the market I neglected to look at, do other games do things similar?

 

Gw2 has a collections type thing. It works for gear and dyes. Once you own something it is available on all your characters at no extra charge

Edited January 31, 2019 by Totemdancer

[ImmortalLowlife]

Same, but some of the prices are over the top when you consider the monetary value of some of the items. Ie, $40 for a virtual lightsaber that they then want you to pay more if you want to open it in collections.

Honestly, some people have more money than sense. If people just refused to pay such stupid prices, BioWare would be forced to lower the prices to more reasonable amounts.

 

 

People with lots of money don’t value $40 as much and those are the whales that BioWare target. But you have to ask yourself, how many do they actually sell? If those $40 items were $10 (still too much IMO), they would probably sell a hell of a lot more and would also decrease the stupidly high inflationary prices on the GTN.

 

Seriously, I think 80% of items are over priced, especially as most people have to pay more to open them in collections. I’ve even noticed that some of the cheaper items cost more to open in the collections than the actual item on the CM.

IMHO, top of the range items should never exceed $10 and the other 99% should never be higher than $1-5 (which is what I would consider a micro transaction). Especially when you consider I can walk into EB games and buy whole games for less than $30 or at the most $89 AU.

 

Micro means small, not $10-$40. I’m probably one of the last remaining few who actually purchased the game when it was released. I paid $89 for it and I’ve paid $15-$19 sub (AUD to USD conversion) every since. Not including CC’s I have purchased over the years (when packs were worth it), that’s somewhere between $1349 and $1685. I doubt there are many “non” whales still in the game who have spent as much. But what makes it worse is since they moved the west coast server, I’ve also had to pay for WTFast so I can get reasonable speeds. That’s another $12-$14 a month.

 

For the amount of money I pay or have paid for this game, the quality of It should be much better and not constantly getting worse, with less content and becoming less fun.

Under the old way we use to pay for AAA titles by paying once ($69-$89 with no subs) and then paying for expansions, I could have purchased 18 full games in that time. Subs were the start of the greed and it’s evolved into micro or not so micro transactions. Not because they reinvest in the games, but because they are trying to please their share holders and not their customers. Just look at swtor. People say they don’t have the funds to develope the game properly, I call BS because they get enough revenue to do so. They (executives) just choose not to and give themselves bigger and bigger bonuses and pay rises and dividends to share holders at the expense of the quality and value of their products.

 

We are also partially to blame for this because we feed the machine. If gamers had pushed back hard when the subscription models first appeared and those games failed because of it, the model would have been abandoned. If we had refused to pay micro transactions when they appeared in games, the game companies would have abondoned them.

F2P games only work because of Micro transactions. If games had none and all expansions were paid for, then we would probably get better quality, otherwise games would totally flop because they’d have nothing to fall back on. But because they know they can fall back on and milk F2P, with lower quality products and micro transactions, they can take more money from developement and slowly run games into the ground.

 

Micro transactions are a plague and have infected the quality of the products (games). It’s nice to have “bling” items, but once appon a time we could earn those in the game as rewards for playing awesome or challenging content. Now we throw money at them and those earnable items are removed from the games because they know people will pay instead. We get less content and less quality rewards because of it.

 

 

Anyway, that’s my opinion of the system and the way game development has gone since I started playing games 39 years ago.

 

I'm wit cha..I bought the game when it came out, and have been subbed since shortly after launch. I stopped buying CC's years ago tho, and only spend my monthly stipend.

Edited January 31, 2019 by ImmortalLowlife

[Khaleg]

Since microtransactions exist the quality of games and the attitude of studios has declined so much, steadily.

Why make an effort to deliver meaningful content, you know actual quality game content and in an appropriate amount, when there are enough idiots who buy a few cheap produced pixels for absurd amounts of money?!

That's what they are thinking and the reason the quality of games like SWTOR and the amount of content is so low.

Edited January 31, 2019 by Khaleg

[kodrac]

Gw2 has a collections type thing. It works for gear and dyes. Once you own something it is available on all your characters at no extra charge

 

Same with ESO except for dyes.

[EVO-THE-PWNSTAR]

Same, but some of the prices are over the top when you consider the monetary value of some of the items. Ie, $40 for a virtual lightsaber that they then want you to pay more if you want to open it in collections.

Honestly, some people have more money than sense. If people just refused to pay such stupid prices, BioWare would be forced to lower the prices to more reasonable amounts.

 

People with lots of money don’t value $40 as much and those are the whales that BioWare target. But you have to ask yourself, how many do they actually sell? If those $40 items were $10 (still too much IMO), they would probably sell a hell of a lot more and would also decrease the stupidly high inflationary prices on the GTN.

 

Seriously, I think 80% of items are over priced, especially as most people have to pay more to open them in collections. I’ve even noticed that some of the cheaper items cost more to open in the collections than the actual item on the CM.

IMHO, top of the range items should never exceed $10 and the other 99% should never be higher than $1-5 (which is what I would consider a micro transaction). Especially when you consider I can walk into EB games and buy whole games for less than $30 or at the most $89 AU.

 

Micro means small, not $10-$40. I’m probably one of the last remaining few who actually purchased the game when it was released. I paid $89 for it and I’ve paid $15-$19 sub (AUD to USD conversion) every since. Not including CC’s I have purchased over the years (when packs were worth it), that’s somewhere between $1349 and $1685. I doubt there are many “non” whales still in the game who have spent as much. But what makes it worse is since they moved the west coast server, I’ve also had to pay for WTFast so I can get reasonable speeds. That’s another $12-$14 a month.

 

For the amount of money I pay or have paid for this game, the quality of It should be much better and not constantly getting worse, with less content and becoming less fun.

Under the old way we use to pay for AAA titles by paying once ($69-$89 with no subs) and then paying for expansions, I could have purchased 18 full games in that time. Subs were the start of the greed and it’s evolved into micro or not so micro transactions. Not because they reinvest in the games, but because they are trying to please their share holders and not their customers. Just look at swtor. People say they don’t have the funds to develope the game properly, I call BS because they get enough revenue to do so. They (executives) just choose not to and give themselves bigger and bigger bonuses and pay rises and dividends to share holders at the expense of the quality and value of their products.

 

We are also partially to blame for this because we feed the machine. If gamers had pushed back hard when the subscription models first appeared and those games failed because of it, the model would have been abandoned. If we had refused to pay micro transactions when they appeared in games, the game companies would have abondoned them.

F2P games only work because of Micro transactions. If games had none and all expansions were paid for, then we would probably get better quality, otherwise games would totally flop because they’d have nothing to fall back on. But because they know they can fall back on and milk F2P, with lower quality products and micro transactions, they can take more money from developement and slowly run games into the ground.

 

Micro transactions are a plague and have infected the quality of the products (games). It’s nice to have “bling” items, but once appon a time we could earn those in the game as rewards for playing awesome or challenging content. Now we throw money at them and those earnable items are removed from the games because they know people will pay instead. We get less content and less quality rewards because of it.

 

Anyway, that’s my opinion of the system and the way game development has gone since I started playing games 39 years ago.

 

Couldn't agree more. These companies are run by absolute clowns. Look at the state of Anthem already before its even released. People hate it.

[TUXs]

(ranty, hilarious and NSFW)

That was great...very interesting indeed lol.

[DavidAtkinson]

I am 33 old.... and gaming has been one of my free time hobbies since highschool. I had the fortune of playing a lot of great RPG's like Morrowind, Kotor, the Gothic series etc. and I can say that the gaming industry has changed a lot since the end of the ninties and early 2000's.

 

Games back then were pay for example 30 bucks and play the fully finished game... Nowdays ? it's pay 60 dollars and keep paying for cosmetic stuff in the long turn. Also, releasing a half finished product is also popular and release the rest in DLC's to milk the poor gamer's wallet in the long run.

 

It's kinda sad... A lot of AAA games are trash. Most of them are all eye candy graphics, big buns.... and they have ZERO actual content like a semi decent story I can actually enjoy.

 

This is why I am always amazed that small studios like Larian and Obsidian can make such great games with Kickstarter funding. I watched a video about some Obsidian RPG and I was shocked honestly. I was like ppl still make games like this today ?

 

It's a question about what motivation is behind the creation of that game... If it's only greed and milking customers it will show in the final product. If creators put a lot of passion behind it also, it also shows..

 

I don't like this microtransaction based industry and swtor is the only game where I am guilty of spending.... $$ on pixels.. I am a ashamed to admit it.

 

But I love this game because it's star wars and because I loved the original KOTOR games a lot and I loved the Bioware that made those great games back then.

[Totemdancer]

Anthem is loaded with Fortnite style microtransactions. Imagine that. Not only are our subs funding it's development (and I'm 100% certain they'll continue to for as long as BW lasts), but on top of that they want you to buy $20 skins while supplies last.

 

(ranty, hilarious and NSFW)

 

Man, that guy was hilarious and spot on with his assessment of what big companies like EA are doing to games to shaft us for more money.

 

His rant about the reddit post makes me think BioWare leaked the image to start with to see how much push back they’d get with those prices. If people didn’t push back much, you can bet they’d go with those high prices.

 

We should honestly all stop Buying CC for this game or high priced items until BioWare lower the costs of them. Seriously, $40 for a virtual lightsaber is nearly 2.5 months worth of subscription. Or half of what the game actually cost to buy at launch.

Let’s not forget that the prices are in USD, so if you’re overseas and the US dollar is stronger than yours, expect to pay a lot more,

Edited January 31, 2019 by Totemdancer

[Majspuffen]

Games back then were pay for example 30 bucks and play the fully finished game... Nowdays ? it's pay 60 dollars and keep paying for cosmetic stuff in the long turn. Also, releasing a half finished product is also popular and release the rest in DLC's to milk the poor gamer's wallet in the long run.

 

This is why I have so much respect for ArenaNet. Guild Wars 2 was on par with World of Warcraft and Star Wars: The Old Republic, but they did not have a subscription fee and their in game shop was largely cosmetic with some items for convenience. "Buy to Play" truly is the most customer-friendly model. I've paid real money on GW2s in game shop and I've no qualms about it, but I've never paid real money for stuff in either WoW or SWTOR.

 

The Cartel Market reeks of greed. I have to commend BioWare, the chosen theme for their in-game shop feels like such a jab at EA that it makes me wonder if they were conscious about it when they made it. But it isn't just the Cartel Market. Their F2P model is disgusting as well as it impedes your gameplay on so many levels. I've actually managed to unlock most things on my account so that I can play the game F2P relatively unhindered... except, they removed the weekly content passes? I'm restricted to five Warzones a week unless I pay a sub? That's not much.

 

I'd rather spend money on a sub than use the Cartel Market, personally. I don't want to give them any incentive to continue to develop for that cancerous system. When they released 5.10 they took the game in a direction that I can approve of and as such I'm happy to pay the sub. Especially when they give out real content for no extra price outside of the subscription fee. Personally, paying for an expansion pack is something I don't really mind at all.

[Pacram]

I should add a better comments section to the site with the article, I do agree that the cartel market is greedy. I feel though that it’s helped keep the game alive for years, through many rough periods

[Totemdancer]

I should add a better comments section to the site with the article, I do agree that the cartel market is greedy. I feel though that it’s helped keep the game alive for years, through many rough periods

 

There have only been rough periods because EA pull the revenue from swtor and used it to fill their own pockets or make games like Anthem.

 

EA have continued to pull funding from this game since day one of release when it didn’t cover the cost of development in the first week:rolleyes:l

 

EA have unrealistic expectations and have mismanaged this game from day one. They basically demanded BioWare make a WoW Star Wars themed clone and then when it didn’t blow WoW out of the park, they considered it a flop. They wanted a full return on their investment in the first week. But did no advertising or promoting (at least not in Australia). Even before they turned the game into a F2P free for all months later, it had already paid for itself . But that wasn’t fast enough for EA.

 

The idiots (and I’m being polite) who came to that conclusion had zero understanding of how big the SW IP is or that they had a young golden goose that would grow if they just nurtured it and fed it.

But intstead they stopped feeding it and started to squeeze its proverbial throat to see how many little golden eggs they could squeeze out of it till they choked the life out of it.

 

Their 2 other biggest mistakes they made, besides pulling resources from the game, were :

1. Making it F2P and not F2T

2. Not having paid expansions like WoW and other games like Gw2 do.

 

This game was never going to be a WoW killer at the time because WoW was the king of MMOs and still is to this day because they nurtured it and funded it properly for all those years (not so much now since Activision took over),

This is the fundamental problem with the gaming inducstry. We have these big publishing houses like EA, Activions and UbiSoft that are being run by Wall Street lackeys and accountants to maximise returns for share holders and their own personal gain.

 

Before studios like BioWare, Blizzard and others were taken over by these guys, they mostly made awesome games that were original and good because they were personally invested in playing them too. They were making games for gamers by gamers. Now companies like EA see another game that is successful and try to clone them. Look at Anthem, it’s just clone of Destiny because it was so successful.

 

If they can’t clone them and they are an independent studio (like BioWare use to be), they buy them to get the games IP and talent, then strip the studio and games resources to make as much profit as possible, then they let the studio die off. You can look back the history of EA and it’s predatory behaviour and see the slash and burn policy for the last 20 years. They have and are doing the same thing to BioWare.

 

EA and others like them aren’t gaming companies, they are investment companies run by hedge funds. They don’t undertand gamers or the IPs they own. If they did, they wouldn’t do 4/5ths of the crap they do, they don’t even realise they could be making more money than they already do if they understood their customers. All they are interested in is themselves and shareholders quarterly profit and loss statements.

 

Mark my words, Anthem will be considered a flop to them too, even if it would be considered successful by an independent studio. I think BioWare know this too and are using every resources at their disposal (including swtor staff) so that EA don’t strip more from Bioware and it ends up on the EA scrap heaps like so many other studios have,

 

The incompetence at the top of EA is astounding and more so with regards to the Star Wars IP. They honestly have ZERO idea of just how big this game could have been if they had reinvested a lot more of the money they were getting from it back into the game. But instead they fired or striped out most of the talent behind the game, they continued to pull resources from it and wonder why it’s not performing as it should.

 

This game could have been a WoW killer given time and reinvestment. WoW is really old now and very dated looking. It lacks so much of the good stuff this game has, but is still going strong because of reinvesting, paid expansions, no F2P (except trial). They are of course starting to make the same mistakes as swtor because Activision now own them.

Imagine how big this game would be now if they hadn’t done what they’ve done over the years. It’s visually more appealing than WoW, it mostly has better systems (not engine) than WoW, it has voice actors and cut scenes. AND lastly, it’s bloody Star Wars!! and there have been 4 movies since this game was released.

 

The only reason I want Anthem to be successful in EAs eyes is so they don’t close BioWare down and essentially shut swtor. Otherwise my anger at EA would make me wish Anthem makes them bankrupt (I know that would never happen).

 

Something people don’t understand is EA were only interested in BioWare to get the Star Wars IP and get an Exclusive deal with Disney. Swtor was already under development before EA purchased BioWare. And Disney made the mistake of giving the exclusivity to EA.

It makes you wonder if EA would have even purchased BioWare if Disney didn’t buy Lucas out of SW and announce more movies. Imagine if Disney had said at the start there was going to be no exclusive gaming rights. Maybe then EA would have tried harder with making swtor more successful to get more development deals with Disney.

 

I really hope Disney open up the licensing after this exclusive period runs out. Maybe someone will make another SW MMO in my lifetime. I’m getting old now and and will be in my 50s by 2023 and games take years to make.

Edited February 1, 2019 by Totemdancer

[Quraswren]

SNIP....

 

(ranty, hilarious and NSFW)

 

That was awesome and dead on given the situation. I'll be watching more of him.

 

I wouldn't be shocked at all to find out that it was a screen shot released by bioware or ea and not actually leaked so they could get a feel on numbers.

 

Heel vs babyface called it right on the dot.

[Pacram]

Changes have been made to the article, thanks everyone for your input https://www.myexpanse.net/articles/swtor-ea-the-microtransaction-economy

[Totemdancer]

Changes have been made to the article, thanks everyone for your input https://www.myexpanse.net/articles/swtor-ea-the-microtransaction-economy

 

I’ve re-read the article and I honestly can’t belive you think the prices on the CM are reasonable or that other games should follow this formula. $40 for a virtual lightsaber is 2/3rds the price of what the game originally cost or as I pointed out earlier 2.5 months worth of subscription and that’s before the cost of opening in your collections.

That isn’t close to being reasonable.

 

Over the years they have changed those packs drop rate and not been consistent. They also reduced how much stuff you got in them and the quality, usually worse. The value for money started to drop 4 years ago. If you do a search of the forums you will find threads from that time criticising BioWare for the changes.

 

Buying those crates is mostly a waste of money because you can never guarantee to get anything good. What Bioware consider silver, bronze or gold items aren’t always what the players do. I can’t give you an exact example because I stopped buy packs long ago. But there was a time that BioWare would pack a heap of rubbish in some crates and rate that rubbish higher than was reasonable to expect. You could buy a 30x pack of crates and literally get nothing worth while. I’ve still got stuff I can’t even give away on the GTN for 1000 credits.

 

Even now, I’ve been tricked buying an armor set off the CM that I thought would be cool, it wasn’t till I opened it up did I find that all my characters with hair, have it sticking though the helm. It’s not even a little bit or subtle. It’s overtly noticeable straight away. How it even made it into the game is beyond me.

 

I asked for a refund and was told that they don’t give refunds on CM items incorrectly chosen. When I pointed out the clipping, they said it was a known bug, but couldn’t tell me when or if it would be fixed. That was months ago and apparently it had been known about for a long time before that They should either have removed the helm from the set or removed the set for sale, but they didn’t and actually put it on sale. From my point of view that is deceptive behaviour and buyer beware because no refunds will be given for shoddy workmanship,

 

It’s not the only armor set out there that has problems. Half the outs I own clip badly and I’m limited to body sizes, colour or how I want to match things. I’ve over 120 opened outfits, so I’ve got plenty of proof if you want to see pics.

But do you think BioWare will fix them? No they won’t. Some have been like that for 5 years or more. Do you think they will pull them from the CM? No because they are still for sale. Do you think they bother to properly quality check if new outfits have bad clipping? Not they obviously don’t or new outfits wouldn’t keep being added to the CM with these problems.

 

Just recently I saw an outfit on the market that made me do a double take because it used to be a green item you could pick up on your Jedi. Ive got plenty of them across my 60+ Alts. BioWare have reskinned it a tiny bit with a different colour that you could put a dye on the original and get the same colour effect. Not only that but BioWare want 1400 CC for it. That’s $16.10 AU for a green item I could still get from a drop 6 months ago. That is not reasonable and is more than the cost to subscribe. Please explain how the pricing is reasonable? It’s not even close.

 

There is nothing reasonable about the CM pricing when you compare it to the cost of the subscription and what you get for it. Reskinned green items from 6 months ago for $16.20?? Really? How much effort went into that to make it worth $16.10?.

Next thing they be expecting us to pay money to even wear armor (a bit extreme, but I hope you can see my point about it not being reasonable)

 

The Cartel market value has been getting worse as the years progress because some people have more money than brains. I’ll come back to my original example, $40 for a virtual lightsaber Sabre you then need to pay another $5 to open up in collections if you want other Alts to use it,

 

We (those of us who use the CM) are all partly to blame because we feed the machine. Especially new people because they don’t know the real history of the CM or have been desensitised in other games charging too much for things.

I pay my sub every month. I purchased the game when it was released. I’ve paid my dues with over $1500 to BioWare. Why should items that have been available in the game since launch keep being removed and put on the CM for more than I pay for my sub. It’s not even content they have newly created, it’s old content from 7 years ago that I’ve already paid 1000x over.

 

There is no value in the market. The only time I buy stuff now is when they go on sale for half price or more and it’s with saved up CC’s from my sub.

 

I’m sorry if I’ve been overly crital of your document, I can see you care about the game and promoting it. The criticism isn’t personal and it’s as much a critique of BioWare as it is of what you wrote. As a fellow APAC player, I’ve also been burnt by BioWare so many times that I nolonger view anything they do with rose coloured glasses, I may seem synical to a newish and optimistic player like yourself, but it comes from years of experience in this game and I’ve seen it all in 7 years.

 

Anyway, I’m glad you are enjoying the game and are excited enough to go to the effort with your website and guides/documents. Just don’t wear the rose coloured glass too long or you’ll become colour blind