Hi. I'm a preferred player posting on the forums. I started during the first few days of f2p in 2012. Living legend, everything unlocked on my account than i can (gameplay and escrow) I've spent many hundreds on the game, but only subbed when i had to, paying for time is a stupid and now very outdated idea. As a preferred player, seeing all the subs being held in this bubble to keep them paying money for nothing seemed very odd. Anyway, just came to provide some preferred player feedback which you've probably never heard before: - The only problem with nerfing season rewards to 2k cartel coins is, at least in aud, its only a few $ more to buy the reward plus a bonus 400 coins. This kills the cc reward. I get that seasons was probably designed to be subscriber only content, but in terms of getting people to come back to the game and subscribe to it, its non existent to slightly insulting.. - I really want SV to success. Please enable free unrestricted transfers to it for anyone, or subs at least. I don't know how much cloud servers cost, but i can't imagine its earning more than it costs to run, and the economy experiment is finished, i can't see any wins for BS or players unless that server has a population, and the only possible conclusion you can come to is once any residual milking (from people double dipping unlocks and server transfers) is done, its intended to be shut down? Everything else (except for the outdated business model) with the game is amazing for what it is though, its aged incredibly well and still as positive as it was in itsd hey day, Good luck!!!

- Yes it's paid. - Yes SWTOR is the last bioware game bioware made. - Such massive disappointment when a new age bioware fan comes in and just faces a field of restrictions and punishments, some relic from a previous generation of mmo's transformed into player spite. EDIT: What I mean to say is, even with and all positivity SWTOR earns from past and future content, the business model is always there to turn it sour somehow. They could make gold plated diamond encrusted content and it wouldn't matter.

Are you kidding? ESO isn't making enough money to keep them happy? For my play style their content release schedule is too fast. You get bowled over by new content before you can blink. They're boasting their million counts as well, so something is going right. The only proof I can offer is personal experience with both games. ESO feels like you want to throw money at them, all you need is the shopping list and boom no brainer. Meanwhile with SWTOR I'm a veteran at playing blood out of stone simulator, to perfectly match how they feel about me by declaring restrictions and being tight with the store currency. The reason its odd is I like SWTOR better. The quest presentation is great, the rotations are just right, and I really like the style and range of cosmetics here. It feels so dumb to be fighting it instead of enjoying a win / win relationship with this game.. its a tug of war for who keeps the high ground... as there's always some bad blood in the equation of giving them money.* As a tangent, I think SWTOR is too generous in terms of cosmetics. When they went free to play, they should have pulled all all but one or two basic sets per class, and put them into a another tier of cartel outfits.. stupidly cheap like 60/120 cc's each and a 40 or so to unlock. That would have made no brainer purchases, got many more people into preferred (more characters, less very valid quicker rage etc, might have stuck around longer), and more money. There's way too much choice if you're borderline on not caring about cosmetics to go look at the store. *At the most basic level.. the train of thought goes like this -> I buy things I want. -> There's direct CC purchases. -> But I'm still restricted. -> Okay, I'll subscribe. -> Hey wait, the CC grant is so low its a joke. -> 2/3rds of my money just went to bioware smugly making money for zero content in return -> I just got extorted, the *(&*(*s -> Im going to LOSE the value of what I bought in 29 days. -> HELL NO I'LL LIVE WITH IT AND THEY CAN GO F THEMSELVES. -> Original desire for CC purchases totally forgotten. This has happened dozens of times over the years for me.

You guys haven't played ESO have you, because you're saying stuff about it just like the 'never tried it but I read' myths about preferred status for SWTOR. You can upgrade your bank storage for a reasonable (though significant when you start) amounts of in game currency, and there's an add-on you can use to simulate the same functionality as the subscriber crafting bank (when you come back from adventuring, go to the bank and it automatically deposits crafting mats, not one by one by hand). It feels pretty much the same. For ESO, you sub for the crowns and access to DLC. Yeah their store is priced to double dip, just like SWTORS measly 500. Same effect, both companies are shooting for your stipend and a bonus spend every month. I still think the high ground for SWTOR is to improve the sub value, get rid of the restrictions, so people like you guys in other games can't tell the same stories about SWTOR keeping people away. Given bioware Austin is solving all their other offices problems SWTOR won't be getting content enough to run like eso. Making the sub attractive is the best I say.

Or they could just make the subscription valuable. Replace threats of restriction with the same dollar value of cartel coins. If you're into SWTOR enough to pay, you have a use for cartel coins. Yes, I know, there might be a slight need to make new cosmetics at least, but if the pro bioware people don't wake up, you're going to be paying your monthly stipend for eternity for fumes of content. It won't magically get better and some day you'll get your subs worth (even to the most easy measure). As a long time preferred player, avoiding the boogey man is also fools gold.

Are you kidding? I've been preferred ever since.. its not the dollar amount, its the manner in which it is requested. I fully appreciate there's a vocal part of the community that pays to show support, as their own personal gesture of charity, and this is amazing, but not the reality for many people. If you as an alternative look to spend money and ask "what do I get for my money", removal of restrictions generates easily a passionate tirade of insults and rants, and sparking fires to do anything in your own power to avoid paying. Which somehow swtor's system also lets you do in many aspects. Without some very outdated subscription only moral code, or some charitable love for bioware and swtor, how the store / customer relationship works is far from ideal. Meanwhile how many millions of players did eso hit? Disclaimer: This post was made in the spirit of good faith, we care, and blowere care. I understand completely that these decisions are probably locked away and inflexible for whatever reason. Also the original f2p businesses model no way it was EA.. do you guys remember the 2 page long matrix of restrictions AND loopholes? That stuff could only come out of the mind of one of those 20 sided dice pen and paper rpg kind of player, Imo EDIT: From primarily being around in the early days of f2p.. I could never shake the opinion that the business people couldn't let go of the "subscription" revenue stream. Maybe they were never ever intending to invest the post launch development to sustain a content driven game (so needed a setup where people were paying money for no development in return). Maybe the concept of SWTOR was sold to ea based on wow like subscriptions, and in the boardroom were never forgiven for the promise they made of making world of warcraft (and ea were dumb enough at the time to only look at wow and not alternatives when it didn't work out). Also lastly.. the biggest shame for SWTOR wasn't really the business model.. remember between 1-2 years post f2p.. SWTOR was amazing... it was booming.. servers were packed, things were going so well. SWTOR must have been selling tonnes of gamble packs because everything was so freely available on the GTN. A real shame they didn't roll with that, rather than funnelling money out with a "better late than never kinda grudge", what else would explain fizzling like that.. and then completely screwing then game up with the dumbification patch. That to me was the only real shame in SWTOR, because the post f2p peak was glorious! .... Remember when more objective subs were dropping to preferred because of lack of content (I remember the distinct price inflation). But instead of adding content, they removed the passes instead? How spiteful is that? Don't you dare stop giving us money for nothing.

Is that the guy who was responsible for the great dumbification patch of swtor (overpowered companions, no role flashpoints and inflating preferred players out of the game)? For the record, that's what caused me from playing every day for years to quit. Well, I think SWTOR is safe in that regard. No-one is going to try and make a wow clone game again, let alone in the Star Wars universe, so swtor will be safe in that regard.

Here's another sub perk idea: - Double xp on weekends (or some kind of tokens for 24 hours of it on demand). - All the current progression buffs. I guess bioware are stuck with a hard time selling story content because of the connected progression. Maybe sell the heroics going forward? Actually making heroics sub only could be an interesting idea in replacement for getting rid of the restrictions. It was the heroics that caused the damage in the first place. Buffing the sub Id still suggest as the high ground, given skeleton crew production levels. Eso has already chopped off swtors arms and legs yet people are constantly coming back because wow is dead.

While goodwill is always a welcome gesture (and thank you!). I feel compelled to say in practice this change is completely meaningless depending on the goal. For PR improvements for free players, this is great. For enriching the MMO community via gameplay from non this is ineffective. The credits are still effectively uselessly low for the GTN (less sales of gamble packs from whales selling off the spares) and the group play restrictions are unaffected. As an established preferred player myself, the quick bars and med probes are useless (I've already bought the account unlocks). I fully respect Bioware has their own train of thought on the issue that they probably shouldn't be sharing (the business model is still overtly anti player so best keep how you plan on screwing us to yourself) but just so you know if your goals were to enrich the game play this won't mean much. Ps. I want you to win bioware. See ESO. Paying them money is easy and done freely without thinking about it. My instinct of wariness is immediately triggered when shown threats of restriction. This is great suggestion. At one point, I could sympathize with bioware that bullied escrow subs were precious and dear to them (endgame was always to be paid for on a slow context skeleton crew), but given the current state of the game, especially its current strong popularity, holding onto this only paying because of mob intimidation strategy is holding the game back via the bad blood it generates. The cartel market is hugely popular I hear people going on about things in game all the time? Again, see eso. You wouldn't even have to change the pricing at all.. remove restrictions, give people 1500 cartel coins per month to match the best and enjoy the wins. Good luck anyway. EDIT: Don't get me wrong.. eso are just as scummy as anyone else, they just do it nice ways, i.e., by leaving you change instead of demanding the double dip, and making nothing (but crap) affordable with your change unless you double dip. Same effect to your bean counters... exact same walking wallet double dip.. the difference is people hate you and don't hate them. That's the beauty about eso's sub model. Because the subscription is balanced on coins and in game buffs, the same regular stipend payment can be looked at both from coins or gameplay. If you were thinking about unsubbing, you can fall back on 2 things.. well I need the coins.. well I need the sub benefits. Get it?

A returning (again) player here, just a gut feel question for general discussion... What's the feeling and future of SWTOR and Bioware Austin after the tangible issues and likely fallout from Anthems flop? I'm finding myself.. 'compelled' by SWTOR again, and was thinking about spending more money in game, but it would be great to hear the pulse from bioware that all is well and at least stable for the future of the game. Please don't think im dooming or anything.. the in game community seems vibrant and amazing full of people, the game (apart from pet fave issues) is an a great state at the moment. I'm playing more passionately than I want to be I'm also fully aware that SWTOR has been running on a skeleton crew for many years now. I don't at all expect this to change, but what I wouldn't like is for me to spend more in game and have it all just chopped off one day randomly because EA. They've already sent support to a different support centre thats noticeably worse, enough to mention anyway.. and yeah EA. Though.. I have to say relative to other games as a service games I'm following, the quality of what said skeleton team produces is a strong positive surprise. Im also guessing that the uncharted / dark souls Star Wars game coming is also going to flop.. but thats not bioware. Am I safe buying stuff now?? or should I hedge my bets and not scratch the itch?

Happens when you actually offer something in return for peoples money, instead of expecting people to pay you and find their own value for it in some imaginary moral code regarding mmo payments they have.

Did you guys actually have a go last time? I did and got the name i wanted from it. I think the bulk of the abandoned name squatters would have been caught with that first go. To be effective for any second attempt, they would have to change the rules to get high level players who haven't logged in a while.... And for all the "but i watch for my favorite name every single day and i never see it" you gotta face the hard truth.. its probably an active subscriber squatting on your name.

I don't know what that statement came from, but he's got a point there. Preferred players can pretty much only do story content. Endgame is the exclusive domain of subs. Not saying subs don't like story also but if you want to look at it that way the conclusion isn't broken.

Hello. I might have gotten lost here. But i represent one of those players that buys all your spares on the gtn and makes you credit rich. Anyways. The current pack sucks, there was hardly anything from the shoppers side to go for. 2 mounts and i was done. The recolored santa sleigh sucked. The little red taser car was the best. This was probably the worst pack since.. the last pack with only that many items in it. Bioware keeps wanting to eat their cake too. I mean they change the packs around, make them better, cheaper etc, but then they themselves put less effort into the packs as well. That's the state of the world we live in. How to achieve "growth" instead of charging more but by jiggling things around so people don't notice, rehashing past work, and cutting costs... their development cost of the gamble pack would have been heaps less...

I was about to post my first semi complaint suggestion regarding companions, but as typing it up, thought of a solution to my own problem so as to still enjoy these op companions. See what i found was that the op companions, at least set on tank and dps, took the op so far, or did it in the wrong way so you didn't have to play the game anymore.. these things are immortal. It clicked that what i didn't like about that is the awesome middle era wow rotation that this game has no longer gets to shine.. its more whack a mole with one ability based on who your companion isn't attacking. Being practical for dailies, you want things down as quickly as possible so this is a feature.. but for leveling... why not just play with the companion set on heals? They pretty much do no damage as heals (and also achieve the level sync whiners need to be immortal and godlike effect for whatever reason).. and the gameplay is well, at least more interesting than 'wow i got more than 2 abilities in this pull fun!!!'. Also.. i wouldn't have tried this.. but does undeargearing help? i'm running with comms mods every 10-20 mod levels.