Buy them off the GTN in 2 days.

No, wait. If this is story content then it shouldn't be a CM item. I haven't seen it yet, but if it's story, then that's not right to tie it to CM.

I dislike this decision as well OP, but fortunately Dulfy is putting the cutscenes on youtube (or so I heard).

So thanks lwipe.

No, wait. If this is story content then it shouldn't be a CM item. I haven't seen it yet, but if it's story, then that's not right to tie it to CM.

each cube gives u a quest on Nar Shadda with a 1 minute cutscene of the shroud talking about his plans. there are 4 cubes in total.

also looking at it form the view of people buying cartel packs, they are getting multiple useless items. these cubes are purple items. so people paying for packs are basically being cheated out of one purple item everytime they get a encrypted cube.

No, wait. If this is story content then it shouldn't be a CM item. I haven't seen it yet, but if it's story, then that's not right to tie it to CM.

Why? What's wrong about it?

Why? What's wrong about it?

eric has repeatedly mentioned REPEATEDLY that all cartel items will be aesthetic only. now people who are interested in the story are forced to purchase the cartel packs hoping to get a cube.

once again they have done something that flies directly against what they have said in the past.

Why? What's wrong about it?

I like the Cartel Market, in general, but there is a distinct difference to me between vanity items and convience unlocks and putting honest to goodness quests and story on the CM. That's an awful precedent and one that I'm really really not happy about. To be quite frank, it's bullsh*t.

eric has repeatedly mentioned REPEATEDLY that all cartel items will be aesthetic only.

That is aesthetic. It's not something that allows you to gain an advantage in PVP or Operations.

now people who are interested in the story are forced to purchase the cartel packs hoping to get a cube.

Or they can just watch the 4 videos on youtube if they're curious.

I like the Cartel Market, in general, but there is a distinct difference to me between vanity items and convience unlocks and putting honest to goodness quests and story on the CM. That's an awful precedent and one that I'm really really not happy about. To be quite frank, it's bullsh*t.

I get the slippery slop argument, but I don't really consider a cut scene with an NPC talking an honest to goodness quest.

what about the people paying for packs hoping for rare items and getting multiple data cubes. there is at least one thread on the forums about someone saying that they are getting a crap tonne of data cubes for opening crates.

So they're common, even more reason to expect they'll just hit the GTN cheap. There's always been a chance to get crap in the packs, but at least it's somewhat fun and not completely useless crap.

That is aesthetic. It's not something that allows you to gain an advantage in PVP or Operations.

 

Or they can just watch the 4 videos on youtube if they're curious.

 

I get the slippery slop argument, but I don't really consider a cut scene with an NPC talking an honest to goodness quest.

It's not pay to win, it's story content. If it gives you information about the story that you didn't have before then it is story content and THAT is my issue. Story content is supposed to be free to subscribers. To have a quest, even a minor one like this, gated through the CM is bull. It's not a slippery slope, it's crossing a line.

It's not pay to play, it's story content. If it gives you information about the story that you didn't have before then it is story content and THAT is my issue. Story content is supposed to be free to subscribers. To have a quest, even a minor one like this, gated through the CM is bull. It's not a slippery slope, it's crossing a line.

You paid for Makeb, didn't you?

You paid for Makeb, didn't you?

Story content (expansions aside) are supposed to be free to subscribers. Unless they've changed that too. God only effing knows with these people anymore.

there are multiple problems with this you see:

1. story items in Cartel Packs. (yes they will be on youtube, yes they will be GTN but the FACT is that is story content NOT available to subscribers without paying for it)

2. ONE TIME USE use data cubes instead of rare items in cartel packs. a rare items slot is taken up by the data cube.

(you can only use one of them, after that the other in your inventory become unusable)

3. against what was told us where cartel items will only contain vanity items

eric i ask you to come and reply to this: here is what you said in the past

Since this blog I feel we have been more consistent in our messaging that you can expect things like cosmetic and convenience features (like Appearance Designer) are the types of things we usually place on the Cartel Market.

In this post: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=6315554#edit6315554

I don't care if they are relevant or not - there was work put into this cutscenes and I really doubt that it was CM team work. We need to be really vocal about this - I feel like this is another test how far they can go with CM.

So I'm telling you right now BW - you've already gone way too far. Don't push it.

Story content (expansions aside) are supposed to be free to subscribers. Unless they've changed that too. God only effing knows with these people anymore.

Well, supposedly Makeb was originally going to be a free content update.

Honestly, I felt like Makeb was just proof that we will have to pay for any new story content. Maybe I'm wrong, that's just what it seems like. The last free story content update that we got was the HK-51 quest.

I'm not fussed about the cubes because from what it sounds like, I'll probably be able to pic these up in my guild bank after all my pack addict guildies get a ton of spares or cheap off the gtn, and if not that, just watch the scenes on youtube. If there was actual conversations with my character in them, I'd be more upset. Obviously they want to keep putting new and fun things in the packs and not just same old same old, oh hey, another toy that gives me health back when I use it or a ball I can throw at people.

And I'm saying that as someone who fundamentally doesn't like the packs and doesn't really buy them. I know they're popular, though, and bring a lot of money into the game.

Do I want to see stuff that was designed to be in other parts of the game go into packs? Absolutely not. If that WERE the case, then I have a problem with it, but if they conceived the idea from the start this way, then all I can say is, like someone else said, don't push it.

I don't see what the big deal is. IMHO these are aesthetic. They don't improve your gear or stats, they don't advance your story, they don't do anything. They are just a nice little toy basically. You can play with a ball toss or you can watch a video.

You can buy them from Cartel, you can buy them from GTN or you can ignore them. You won't lose anything by not having them. You're subscription pays for access to the game, this isn't that.

And try and remember EA is a business. If they can make money, obviously they will. I don't really see what's wrong with that, it's just capitalism. They aren't here to make our lives better. Your subscription pays for all the current content and hasn't increased since launch. They are really supposed to keep giving us loads of new stuff all the time with no charge?

Well, supposedly Makeb was originally going to be a free content update.

 

Honestly, I felt like Makeb was just proof that we will have to pay for any new story content. Maybe I'm wrong, that's just what it seems like. The last free story content update that we got was the HK-51 quest.

 

I'm not fussed about the cubes because from what it sounds like, I'll probably be able to pic these up in my guild bank after all my pack addict guildies get a ton of spares or cheap off the gtn, and if not that, just watch the scenes on youtube. If there was actual conversations with my character in them, I'd be more upset. Obviously they want to keep putting new and fun things in the packs and not just same old same old, oh hey, another toy that gives me health back when I use it or a ball I can throw at people.

 

And I'm saying that as someone who fundamentally doesn't like the packs and doesn't really buy them. I know they're popular, though, and bring a lot of money into the game.

 

Do I want to see stuff that was designed to be in other parts of the game go into packs? Absolutely not. If that WERE the case, then I have a problem with it, but if they conceived the idea from the start this way, then all I can say is, like someone else said, don't push it.

This is directly tied into a questline in the game, gives more information about it. I know not everyone will be upset about this, but I certainly am not happy about it. As far as I'm concerned, this puts a direct 'lie' stamp on yet more of what they said CM would be. I don't like liars. I really don't. If it's a misunderstanding on their part, they'd better clear it up fast.

I don't care if they are relevant or not - there was work put into this cutscenes and I really doubt that it was CM team work. We need to be really vocal about this - I feel like this is another test how far they can go with CM.

 

So I'm telling you right now BW - you've already gone way too far. Don't push it.

^this

and especially ^this

eric has repeatedly mentioned REPEATEDLY that all cartel items will be aesthetic only. now people who are interested in the story are forced to purchase the cartel packs hoping to get a cube.

 

once again they have done something that flies directly against what they have said in the past.

These cubes ARE aesthetic only. They're not required for advancement, nor do they offer any benefit to your character.

This is directly tied into a questline in the game, gives more information about it. I know not everyone will be upset about this, but I certainly am not happy about it. As far as I'm concerned, this puts a direct 'lie' stamp on yet more of what they said CM would be. I don't like liars. I really don't. If it's a misunderstanding on their part, they'd better clear it up fast.

I don't particularly like it either. Mostly because it's useless fluff in my opinion. But the argument you're making about Bioware promising all story content for free is inaccurate.

The first core rule is that we want to be sure that players can reach level 50 without paying a cent, if so desired. The final design meets this requirement: Free-to-Play players can play levels 1 through 50 and enjoy the vast majority of the classic storyline and side quests during their journey. A member of our Marketing team once observed that Star Wars: The Old Republic is roughly 24 times the size of the original Star Wars™: Knights of the Old Republic™ game. Well, now BioWare is letting players have all that story content for free!

That's the quote from one of the original dev blogs regarding the F2P transition. They never promised that every story-related update going forward would be free. If they had, they couldn't even charge for expansion. They said existing, classic story content from 1.0 would be free, and they even hedged that by saying "the vast majority."

There are plenty of arguments for why this isn't a good addition to cartel packs, but "bioware said all story content ever made would be free" isn't one of them.

And as far as the argument about the CM featuring only aesthetic items? They also said 'mostly,' and it has a good deal of things already that fall outside that definition. Valor boosts especially. I personally think a 'quest' that gives a short cutscene you can find on Youtube and a handful of rewards that have been coming out of packs for months now already is very, very much 'cosmetic.' You don't have to like it, but labeling them liars over it is just a case of imposing your own definitions over their own.