I love it when internet glitches, possibly aided by the LHC finally ramping up to full bore, causes posts to come across from parallel universes. Greetings, strange visitor from a world only slightly separate from our own! Just for entertainment's sake, I thought I'd mention a few bits of helpful trivia: In our world, the year is currently 2012, the President of the United States is Barack Obama, the best movie so far this summer is The Avengers, and MMORPG developers have been constantly and continuously dumbing down gameplay, with each new Triple-A MMO being easier, more forgiving, and more focused on rapid action and constant reward than the last. I'm taking, from your post, that in YOUR world, the opposite is true, and people look back on games like EQ as simplified kiddie fare, compared to the complex, time-consuming, and unforgiving games you must be playing. I'm betting in your SWTOR, there's permadeath, it takes 30 or 40 hours just to get past level 10, and there are many quests, etc, with 48 hour spawn times, not to mention 80+ man raids. Given that, I'm sure it's hard for games in your world to attain any kind of mass market popularity (though since SWTOR exists in your world, maybe it means the people in your world prefer more challenging play -- good on ya, alternate-Earth dude!). Over here on my world (I won't demean you by calling it "Earth 1" or "Earth Prime" or anything which implies it's somehow superior to your own reality), that's just not the case. BTW, how many episodes did Firefly last in your world? If it was more than 14, do you think you could stream some over to this world while the connection between our realities is open? If you have no idea what a 'Firefly' is, then, damn, I'm sorry -- you live in some kind of hell dimension. That must suck. Firefly was awesome. Hopefully, this will cross-post across the vibratory barrier and you'll be able to see it.

I take it the VA for Aric is on Psyche?

Little-known fact: In Daggerfall (the second Elder Scrolls game), there were many books you could read on the shelves. One of those books contained a pretty racy (at least hard-R) sex scene between a human woman and a male of whatever the cat-people in Elder Scrolls are called, including the fact they are very cat like, if you know what I mean. See, kids? Reading is educational! And people got upset over "Hot Coffee". Of course, this was before games were rated. The good ol' days.

Yeah, remember when the SWTOR servers were flooded at launch, and when people pointed out WoW had the same launch problems, we got, "Well, sure, but that was in 2004! People have higher standards now! No OTHER company would EVER be so unprofessional as to have a launch THIS messed up! Especially not Blizzard!" Yeah. Yeah. About that. Yeah. (I wrote at the time that opening countless new servers would be a really bad thing for Bioware to do, and of course was told I was "greedy" and "selfish", though I'm not sure exactly how I was making money by waiting in a queue, but, hey, logic on forums? Pshaw! Anyway, as we now see... opening too many servers was, indeed, a Really Bad Idea. It's one of the things that killed WAR. Opening servers because of launch-day rush is like building a dozen new theaters because "The Avengers" is coming out. You're better off with long queues at launch than empty servers later.)

To use the common vernacular: what is this I don't even....

Just wanted to add, I agree with those complaining about force-flagging for PVP. Infection spreading, I think we can accept -- it's part of making the event an event, part of the WORLD, not a quest people can choose to take or not. PVP flagging is more of a meta issue, and on PVE servers, any mechanic that allows you to flag someone against their will is probably a bad idea. If the goal was to drive up PVP as part of the event, then, place some of the event quest sites in PVP areas (as was done with one of the raid monsters). This puts the decision into the players' hands -- if they want specific rewards, they have to deal with the chance of PVP, and they enter those areas willingly with full knowledge of the consequences.

Well, let's try to summarize the flow, shall we? You: Bioware is fiendishly plotting to TRICK people into subscribing by promising nebulous nothing! Me: It's a pretty stupid evil scheme, since no one needs to keep subscribing, and can stop paying until/unless the features are actually implemented. How stupid do you think the customers are, or how stupid do you think Bioware thinks the customers are? You: They ARE that stupid! Look at the post above mine! Me: Yeah, that post was what we like to call "sarcasm". It's rare on the Internet, but it does occur. You: You're just a fanboy who thinks the game is perfect! Me: No, I think it's no worse than every equivalent game. I fully acknowledge the existing bugs, launch issues, and ongoing design flaws. They're within my expected bounds. You: Stop changing the subject! Bioware is evilly trying to trick us with their evil trickery! Do I have that right? I mean, what part of your posts haven't I responded to? You popped in to warn us all of that Bioware was trying to trick us into subscribing by the cunning plan of not actually promising anything or providing a release date; I pointed out this actually provides no reason to keep subscribing (as compared to, say, a fully-developed feature list and a reasonably firm patch date, which would keep people paying if it was in the near future), and Bioware knows it. All proceeded from there. I have to conclude that you, at least, haven't, because, if you had been, you'd know better than to expect much more than you got from this game. The alternative -- that you have been playing as long as I have but still don't know better -- would be needlessly insulting. I give you more credit than that. I am infinitely glad to be of such service. Sadly, my code is done running and now I have to look at the results, so I'll be less prompt about replying.

Heh. Between when I hit "quote" and when it came up, you edited your post. Amusing. Well, you seem to think it's inobvious that promising features not yet designed or released is an attempt to keep people paying attention to the product's development and felt obliged to tell us this... Seems like it to me. It shipped with the same amount of bugs, missing features, and broken designs that most equivalent titles shipped with; it had the same rush of customers in the first week followed by the usual stupid response of opening too many servers and spreading the population to thin; it's had the usual series of emergency patches, bug fixes, and broken patches which cause uproars for the four hours they exist before they're patched again and then forgotten forever; at the 4-5 month mark, they've fixed many issues, produced new content, given us a good sense of their vision for the game (sufficient for anyone to decide if that vision matches their own desires and to quit now if it doesn't). Having been playing MMOs since, depending on how you count them, either UO in 1997, Neverwinter Nights in 1991, or Isle of Kesmai in 1989, I think I've got enough experience to judge, and I see nothing spectacularly wrong with either the game or the release and development process, as compared to actual games that exist and how they've been released and developed, not some platonic ideal of perfection. If you don't think the game is fun as-is... well, then you're not having fun. So be it. I can't tell you what you should think is fun. That's too personal. If you're not having fun, quit. Rejoin later if you think the game might have changed for the better. You're allowed to do that. If you think the game fails to meet the expected standards for a title of its budget and corporate backing, relative to its release date and development status.... then, frankly, your standards are unrealistically high, and you will spend your life being bitter and disappointed, because it's not going to get dramatically better than this with any similar game in near future, and it will likely be worse ofr most of them. There are economic and technological factors that mean that bugs, missing features, and bad design choices will be part and parcel of this genre for many years to come, and if you simply *have* to play a game at release, you'd better learn to deal with it. Or, you could just wait a year or two for the hype to die down (and the first wave of patches to go in), and play it then.

Looking as the post above yours that you reference, I think your sarcasm detector is broken. The person you're referring to is parodying the same attitude you ascribe to the customers, that they're basically drooling morons who don't understand they aren't being "forced" to pay for anything (and/or that this is what Bioware thinks of its customers), and that promising some nebulous future feature without any specific implementation details or a ghost of a release date is enough to get them to keep paying for a game they (presumably) are not currently playing and enjoying. (The poll hardly promises "3D space combat" as a guaranteed thing, and there's absolutely no reason to imagine that BioWare's implementation will mirror that of SWG in any way other than "ships in space", so no one could *actually* be that excited over it. Thus, he is acting out the part of the morons who would be so excited... but said morons do not actually exist, except in the imaginations of people who like to congratulate themselves on being far too clever to be taken in by something that was never intended to take anyone in -- and hasn't. It's a wonderfully circular form of self-referential fantasy. In short, the poster you refer to -- and yourself -- are smugly congratulating yourselves on realizing that Marvelo The Magnificent didn't REALLY saw a lady in half, that it's all a trick... ignoring that Marvelo isn't actually trying to convince anyone he's performing real magic, and that every other person in the audience is as aware as you are that it's not real. ) While, in any sufficiently large population, some morons do exist, they're not numerous enough to base a business plan on. Very, very, very, few people will keep paying for a game they do not *currently* enjoy because someone vaguely promised that there might, in the future, be something or other which they *might* enjoy, when there is no cost to quitting (You don't lose your character, your possessions, etc... unlike, say, SWG, where you could lose your houses and harvesters if you didn't log in every few days to pay rent. Ditto Ultima Online. At least back when I played them, they may have changed since then.) TL;DR: The player base isn't as stupid as you'd like to think they are, and BioWare knows it. PS: To quote one of my favorite TV shows, "There is nothing passive about my aggressive." PPS: For example, I've quit and rejoined COH/V more times than I can recall... it holds my interest for a week or two, then i get tired of the same instances, then I go back when I forget how bored I was, lather, rinse, repeat.

Except, since anyone can unsub and then resub at any time, there's no need to maintain a subscription while waiting for content... and I'm pretty sure the folks at Bioware know how their payment system works. This leads me to three possible conclusions: a)You believe the people at Bioware are morons who don't know that their customers can unsubscribe, follow the progress of the game on a zillion web sites, and then resubscribe if, and only if, there's enough positive buzz from active customers to convince them to do so. b)You believe the players themselves don't realize they can do this, and this are tricked by Bioware, because they don't know they can cancel their subscriptions if they aren't currently having fun in the game and then rejoin if they wish to, later on. (You, of course, are a super-genius who has deduced this flaw in Bioware's evil plan, and you're a generous soul to share it with all of us. Bless you, sir.) c)You are shocked, shocked, at the thought of a company which relies on ongoing subscriptions to make money would be involved in the tricky and underhanded scheme of continually producing new content that people will want to experience and thus maintain their subscriptions. Those cunning fiends, you say, constantly trying to give people value for their money! What evil plot will they hatch next? Which is it?

So, what is your response to the people in this thread who are complaining that they couldn't ignore the event?

Y'know, when I was eight, I went out trick or treating, and one house was giving out Hostess fruit pies. A lot better than the crap most people were handing out. But by the time I'd heard about this from one of my friends, it was too late, and they were out. This was very upsetting to me. BECAUSE I WAS EIGHT. Anyone who is older than eight, and STILL gets upset that someone else got something and they didn't -- when they didn't actually LOSE anything, just failed to GAIN something -- has emotional maturity issues. As I said in another post.... if I'm walking along and find a five dollar bill, and take it, you are not five dollars POORER just because I'm five dollars RICHER. I had way too many work and other life issues, such as my wife needing to go the ER, to play the event more than a handful of days. I enjoyed the time I could spend on it, got the rewards I most wanted, and hope to have more time for the next event. If I had missed the event entirely, would it have made my character WORSE? Would I have lost skills, equipment, quest completions, etc? No. I'd be exactly as I was before. No change in status. Thus, BY DEFINITION, the event as held could ONLY give you things -- give you a new item, give you a new codex entry, whatever. If you could only do part of the event, you got a few things. If you did more of the event, you got more things. Thus: Doing none of the event did not harm you. Doing ANY part of the event gave you SOMETHING, and something is better than nothing -- and you were not "entitled" to anything. So, to everyone complaining they couldn't do EVERYTHING, and that's UNFAIR -- shut up, and grow up. Ideally, in that order.

To me, the most fun thing about the Rakghoul plague was that it WAS a surprise. It wasn't hyped, discussed, dissected, and mapped for two months before appearing. While every event can't be done like that, the more events are *events*. I also like that it was short. This means, due to work and other life pressures, I didn't complete every daily or get every reward/piece of armor/whatever, but I could get the things I wanted most -- the Rakghoul pets -- by choosing how to spend my limited play time. I hope Bioware doesn't give in to the whiners who think that if anyone, anywhere, managed to get something they didn't, they're somehow being cheated/robbed/ripped off. Keeping events short keeps them from being tedious, and it also makes what you do manage to get, even if it's not "Everything", more special. As the game ages, year after year, it's a good thing if there's items, emotes, pets, whatever, that were only in the game briefly... if you happen to get them, cool, if you don't happen to get them, it's still cool when you see something new or different, something you haven't seen before because it was only part of the game for a week or two. For future events, I'd like to see more integration with story -- more voice-overs, and possibly class quests for each class. Quest rewards should be things which are visually unique, but not mechanically superior to other items at their level -- no one should ever feel they "have" to be part of an event to "keep up". There's a lot of people whining they want to be able to totally ignore events, to not have to deal with virus explosions or the like. Ignore them. The consequences for gameplay for those who didn't want to do event quests were trivial and easily mediated. No one was locked out of quests, prevented from travel, etc. Some events should be totally localized -- maybe a habitable comet (hey, SW plays loose with science) is passing through the Alderaan system, and the event consists of quests on its surface, while it's there. Others should impact the galaxy and be noticed by all players.

I would like people to stop complaining about the nature of contracts they signed of their own free will. I think neither of us is going to get what we want.

I don't know if this is something you can work with or not, but when I was on Tattooine doing quests for The Event, I had to slaughter a bunch of Jawas, and I just said, in guild chat, "I'm sure glad Blizz is back on the ship, so he doesn't have to see me do this." It struck me that someone funnier/more creative than myself (i.e, you, but, really, about 95% of the planet) might find something in that concept.