Am I the only PvPer who would be OK with people being GIVEN BM gear when they hit 50?

This. This is an ideal way to go. Although, given what BW appears to believe looks cool it may not work as well as we'd like lol.

Posted this in another thread, thought it might help here too:

1) You either want PvP to solely be based on skill or you don't. (Truism)
2) If you want it to be based solely on skill, then you don't want to get gear that helps you in PvP. (Truism)
3) If you want it to be based solely on skill, then you want an even playing field where no player has an advantage other than skill. (Truism)
4) If you don't want PvP based solely on skill you are in the minority. (Fact)
5) Being in the minority does not make you bad, it does not make you wrong, and there is nothing wrong with being in the minority. The minority is nothing more than a statistic, it has no intrinsic good or bad value associated with it other than what value you personally choose to associate with it. (Reasoned Opinion)

That is the end all and be all of this discussion. It comes down to: Do you want A or B? Some people want A, some people want B. The Devs will ultimately cater to the people they believe they will get the most money from, that is typically the majority. In this case, the majority wants a skill based playing field, so that is to what the devs are catering.

I agree that an even playing field would be nice, but there will never be an even playing field due to class imbalance, biochem, and peripheral usage (razer naga?). So therefor just giving us a full BM suit wouldn't solve our problems. Also if they just gave us full BM there would be no reason to play pvp. Us mmo players always have to have a carrot to chase. :P

I would, however, be down for getting a full centurion outfit mailed to you. That way you would at least have the expertise required to compete and you'd still have those carrots to chase.

I agree. I'm actually really happy with the direction pvp is headed in. It is pushing to be much more focused on player skill rather than simply time investment. It should not take several hundreds of hours to grind for gear and that gear should not overpower you in comparison to other players.

I have no issue with giving better players unique rewards as long as it has nothing to do in terms of changing game balance. If you are rank #1 you deserve a full set of darth vader gear or whatever but if a new player devises a brilliant strat and is overall a better player they shouldn't be locked out of beating that person until they grind enough time.

I want to be 50 as soon as I create a character. Why should I have to invest time to level up my character and do all that BS questing and leveling. Getting to 50 takes no skill, it's just a time commitment anyway.

IT'S CALLED PROGRESSION. People who don't want to pve still want some sense of progression. Time invested+skill to be a good pvp'er. Not one or the other. If you really like PVP you will go through the progression to get to the highest level of gear to be able to pvp competitively with others who have done the same. Those that cheated their way there will get blown up by players who are skilled. Saying that pvp'ers should not have a destination/goal to work towards is stupid and selfish. What is the point of PVE progression? Should all PVE'ers get full Rakata or whatever T4 gear comes out just for trying? No. Too bad pvp is like that. Just show up, get gear, still get owned, come to forums and qq.

While I thoroughly enjoy killing in PvP, I very much rather it was all about skill and none about gear. I fully subscribe to the "using gear as a crutch" argument for those that are banging on about "hardcore PvPers needs gear progression".

Seriously if you can't beat a scrub wearing the same set of gear as you have then there happens to be another game that caters to exactly your kind, I'm sure you'd do well or already have done well there, seeing as how hardcore you are.

I PvP for the thrill and excitement. If there are completely no rewards, just a title or a cosmetic change, I'd do it all the same. I don't give two hoots about the "PvP needs incentives" arguments. If you need incentives to PvP then just don't PvP, I rather have all the "hardcore PvPers" out, they are the ones ruining the game in my opinion.

I don't mean this as any kind of threat since I know my measly $15 a month count for nothing, but the day SWTOR makes "l33t g3ar f0r hardc0r3 pvp3rs z0mG z0mG" is the day I am out.

Is gear progression the only way there can be PvP progression, a destination, and a goal, in your opinion?

Would giving away the best gear contribute more to the idea of skill based pvp? Yes. But it's not going to happen, primarily because BW wants to keep the carrot that is gear progression.

Keeping people coming back for more, investing more time, is the primary way to keep subs. By adding new things for people to get periodically, they ensure that people keep coming back. The balancing act though is making it easy enough for everyone to get it (so people don't quit out of frustration) but make it take long enough to get so that the majority of players will never quite have the very best by the time new gear comes out, giving them another carrot to chase.

If gear were standardized in any way, the strength of maintaining the pvp player base would fall on the quality of the pvp system itself, and I'm sure its much cheaper to design and implement upgraded armor sets every few months than to be inventive and creative in giving us a richer pvp experience.

Other complications would arise with the pve crowd. If full BM sets were simply handed out at 50, it would negate the sense of progression for the pve standpoint to a degree, making the tionese obsolete, and the columni marginally on par with the BM for pve purposes.

Nice way to just pull facts out of this air, lmao

Seriously though, there is
A. No end game gear progression and
B. End game gear progression

Something tells me that A would fall in the minority category...I have no idea what you are talking about. There is still gear progression, lol. It has just become easier. You nned to go play a fps or a rts and get it out of your system. MMO's have this thing called progression.

Thats because you're a level 40ish toon and you think you deserve everything.
This is a MMORPG, its all about getting better gear, if we all are having same gear this would be Counter-Strike.
Calling yourself a pvp'er when I bet you are not even close to Champion rank, its lame. Stop filling forums with bulls..t just to attract more replies from people as lame as you, hoping that BIOWARE will notice y'all.
Return to PVE and story completion and hope you get Rakata also when you get to 50...in mail.