Fwiw, this is an example of how changes in design weren't thought through properly (although this issue was brought up to them). Originally, in beta, all bonus series continued immediately after the normal quest chain so the level of that area of Nar Shadaa was similar to the rest. However, some people complained that they didn't like feeling confined to a single planet that long, so BW changed the level of some of the bonus series including this one. And thus you end up with a matrix shard that is needed for several of the lvl 24 relics being stuck in an area w/ 30+ mobs. Although, if you are imperial, getting the yellow off of Ilum is a simple matter.

I realize this probably isn't the reason in most cases, but when I was F2P, I would buy common items that another character needed and list them at about 3-4 times market value in order to transfer money. If they sold before I got around to buying them... hey free credits.

I'll can give you a few reasons: 1) Most times the choices don't actually alter the consequences or rewards all that much. There are some major exceptions of course. And since most the starting companions (vette, mako and to a lesser degree Kaliyo) are light aligned, it makes for faster complete companion affection later on. 2) Often the dark side response is just kill/destroy it. The light side, while creating some awkward story moments at times, has more varied reactons and solutions. 3) Some people just cannot get behind being a incessant jerk all the time, no matter how fitting it is with the faction, but still want to play the class and/or see the story.

They had that in beta too and it caused different but similar issues. Players farming gray content and offloading the coms, stuff like that. Although you can still twink your alts with coms by buying the mods and mailing those.

How is it bad for the game? You make that claim as if it is an obvious conclusion to make but it isn't. In fact, from what I see, more people think that an overly controlled market is bad for the economy and less interesting for the players. I don't really see that it matters whether someone relists an item or not. And its not like players who would use the item for themselves had any less opportunity to buy the item. First come, first served. The only person who loses out in the end is the lister who posted an item at below market value. But that happens regardless of who bought the item and what they use it for.

Personally, I think there should be a F2P section, the new player and technical support should be open to all (with heavy moderation), and preferred should have subscriber access to the forum but that infractions decay at a much slower rate or not at all. Granted, for that last part, I think some changes in the way they moderate is in order, but am not really allowed to say more than that.

I believe the Cathar codex is activated by a little plaque behind the refugee camp lady, not by doing the quest related to her, so that should be achievable by any class.

I am going with the 2 lightsabers mainly because I have always thought the double bladed saber was kind of dumb. It looks cool, but the design loses almost all the advantage that actual long weapons give in combat.

So, we must have seriously watched different movies. I can't think of a single line from that movie that made it into popular use. I realize its not the 80's anymore and you don't have as many "get to the choppa" types of moments these days, but literally nothing stands out to me about the dialog. As for the plot, wow I don't know what to say. I like to sum up my opinion of it with the opening of the film: Kirk daddy needs to use the ship to dsitract Nero from killing all the escape pods, which he so far seems indifferent to, but the auto-pilot is down so he must guide the ship manually. Then, in the midst of this battle that needs his direct control, he has a 5 minute conversation with his wife. After which, he walks over to the piloting station, and inputs coordinates then sits back as the ship 'automatically pilots' itself into Nero's ship. This distracts Nero for approximately a nano second, but thankfully this distraction served to maintain his seeming indifference to the escape pods and he leaves them floating completely vulnerable to execution had he wanted. And it only gets worse from there. Seriously, if you claim that is a good plot, I shudder to think to think of what it takes to be considered bad. Edit: as for the action, I have already acknowledged that Abrams has good pacing, but if you watch the movie again, check out what the action consists of. Kirk getting beat up, Kirk running, Kirk having an epiphany, repeat ad nauseum.

I am still dumbfounded by the number of people that like the Star Trek reboot. Apart from pacing, which Abrams knows how to do well, every other element of that movie was really bad. To me, he is basically Michael Bay before Transformers 2 came out. At least I don't have any reason to anticipate the new Star Wars movie, though.

Personally, I think people vastly overestimate the cost of the VO. A quick google search found me these two sites: http://www.voices.com/rates. http://www.joystiq.com/2009/07/11/star-wars-the-old-republics-voice-acting-process-detailed/ A base rate of $300 for the first hour and $100 for each additional hour seems to be the standard rate, 4 hour hour sessions leads us to average payout of $600 per session. But even at 1000 sessions thats only $600,000. Now sure, some actors probably charge more, but there aren't really that many big names in there. Sure, its awesome that the Emperor is voiced by Pinhead, but somehow I doubt Doug Bradley is charging a premium. And there might be bonuses or extra contractural expenses to make sure certain actors remain available for future productsion. And the article said over 1000, not strictly limited to 1000. But the thing is, even if we inflate that first total, it still doesn't make that large of a dent in the overall cost of the game. Even I was off by an order of magnitude, that still would only account for 6million in a game that cost over 100 million (based on statement that it was the most expensive project they had ever done). And remember, of all the things in this game, the voice-over and the conversation wheel are probably the thing BW as a company had the most experience with and thus could build the most efficiently. No, if you want to look at what made this game cost a bunch of money to build, I suspect its things most people don't even think about; building systems they hadn't developed before. Constantly editing the engine to perfrom the functions they wanted. Things like the "choreographed combat" was a big sticking point before launch and probably cost a lot of time and money to develop, especially if they ran into issues with it. The gear system may not seem like a massive undertaking, but if you were in beta you know that they kept overhauling the design in the months leading up to launch. That means you were effectively paying entire teams to be almost purely dedicated to the gear system for months. How many iterations of companions did they go through before they abandoned using customization kits to determine role? Its always tough from our end to see where the money was spent on a final product. So much of that money gets "lost" to design aspects that never make it to launch.

The situation you post would be better described as hypocrisy not irony, but I understand some people associate them as similar (hypocrisy can serve the purpose of dramatic irony but we aren't discussing a play here). But even that situation is a tough one to justify. First you are conflating them making a change to a flashpoint that disallows one instance of in game shortcuts to them actively complaining about or admonishing short cuts by players altogether. That is a tenuous connection at best. To my knowledge BW has never actively said that shortcuts are bad. Further, you are forced to use a very broad definition of the term shortcut to put the two sides in conflict. Again, this is really reaching. And finally, you can't even realistically say that the bug has anything to do with taking a "shortcut" anyway. But all of that is largely moot because that isn't the claim being presented. Situational irony is about the expected result (intent in this case) and the outcome being at odds. The intent here is to remove a shortcut. The outcome is a flashpoint that cannot be completed due to a bug. That isn't incongruous at all. If anything, one could argue that the current bug enforces their intent too well. How the bug came to be isn't all that relevant in this comparison. Irony would be if, in an attempt to remove the shortcut, a new bug actually allowed you to finish the flashpoint faster and with less fighting. Intent vs outcome. Edit: I will admit, when looked at this way, I see where one could deem it ironic. That wasn't really how it was presented in the OP, however.

Proabaly not, but only because too many people don't understand what irony actually is. Hint: this isn't it.

anecdotal, I guess. I never noticed a significant difference between my adaptive and my normal speeder at level III. But then the character I use mostly is a tank, and my understanding is defensive stats end up factoring into it (even tho they shouldn't, imo). And, fwiw, that includes section X.

I think you are interpreting that wrong. Before: You got knocked off the adaptive speeder based on your current piloting skill level. Now: You get knocked off of adaptive speeder as if set at piloting skill III regardless of actual piloting skill. They basically just added another level of superiority to adaptive speeders over the vendor ones. I can attest to the fact that before this change, I got knocked off my adaptive speeder way less after hitting rank III than I had before.