They are already discussing milking the subscribers

This is an ongoing point of interest to every player of every MMO.

Game Owners run their games for profit and they make decisions based on both long term and short term goals. New content is constantly being developed and released that requires a lot of extra effort to design. New content on a large scale frequently requires additional purchase to offset the cost of designing that content. This is not new in any game, including MMOs.

Other decisions made by game owners such as mechanics and what to focus on in smaller updates are more about sustaining the long term health of the game. Developers want happy players because that means they will continue to pay to play the game, and small fixes and updates tell the players that the game is constantly improving, which keeps them around.

The only time new content is released on a large scale for free is when the owners are worried about the long term health of the game, so the short term gains from selling new content is sacrificed to rebuild the long term health of the game. I would actually be a little worried about SWTOR's future if major content is added completely free of charge.

You ask what is the thing that's made me so jaded... it's that I was dropped several times when I was a kid.

If you expect to believe that, then I pity you. I don't hate every aspect of this game, but I have a right to bash it and post my opinions and justifications just like every other person here.

Yes.

If they don't charge any money it's impossible to rip anybody off.

If they do (and do) then it's not about the money, it's about customer respect.

See I knew you'd understand in the end, and with a bit of patience and careful explaining you did!

I see it the opposite of you.

If they release a large amount of content and don't charge, it is because the devs are just trying to keep a sinking ship up for a while longer. If they do charge, it means the ship is up and ready to weather the storm (of whining from these types of posts).

I'm happy to pay to play a game I enjoy. Honestly, I'd be willing to pay up to like 40 bucks a month for the absolute perfect MMO, of course that mmo doesn't exist, so I end up paying just 15 bucks a month for a game I enjoy despite its flaws.

Hmm... I hope people will buy stuff in the store.

If I see someone sporting a nice expensive mount or a snazy omg outfit that costs a horrendous amount of Cartel Coins, well then I will do a *thumbs up* because they are putting money towards new content just like me. Hope that players with deep pockets will buy pretty gear for all their comps so we can get more content in the game. It is a business. Since I will continue my subscription, (I vote with my wallet, if I like something I support it) I will most likely pick up gear I find good looking in the shop and other things for the characters that I play. Have been a sub since day 1 so there should be quite a few Cartel Coins for me to play around with. Anyone that buys stuff in the Cartel Shop are putting money towards my guildies getting a new Op and me getting more story content, which is just fine by me.

I would be sad if the Cartel Shop was the only means of getting nice looking gear, the only way to get new pets and so on. I would be upset if there was endgame gear but they have already said that it won't happen. So all in all, buy the stuff you like, I will get the stuff that I like and let's hope that it is enough of us supporting the game that we will have new fun content in the game.

Sure that's your right. Save your pity though. There are some people who will downright criticize everything and there are people who will approve of everything. I have not seen a single post of positive feedback from you so far. It's all about how this game is doomed and how bad it is yadayadayada

Comparing an expansion in WoW to an expansion in TOR is apples and pears.

One small TOR world with 5 levels worth of content also includes several hours worth of voiced story dialogue.

To put that in context with WoW, Makeb is likely to have more voice acting than the entirety of WoW alone.

You can expect the voice acting costs for Makeb to be at least 60% of the expansion's development cost. That is why it is at least 60% less than any WoW expansion or content cycle.

Simply put, the amount of content in a TOR update doesn't reflect its development cost as obviously as a WoW expansion.

Whether BioWare wish to admit it or not, this is fundamentally why making a fully voiced MMO was easily the biggest mistake they made with SWTOR. It has completely hampered their ability to add regular, or any, content in the nine months of launch and will continue to make (what should be large) content or expansions like Makeb look lacking.

Until they're prepared to accept their mistake and start adding non-voiced content (it isn't like every single quest is voiced already anyway) this is pretty much what you can expect. Nine months of nothing followed by an incredibly small and feeble looking paid expansion.

Tell that to Blizzard. Yes it would be an expansion. A brand new planet and level increase would be an expansion for any game as they are increasing story lines, new gear and mechanics considering you will get more talents and that will have to be balanced as well. There is ALOT of work and programming to do when adding something like that and I don't blame them at all for wanting to be paid for their work. I know I want to be paid for the work I do as well.

I have my reasons why I haven't posted anything more happy like rainbows and Candy Land-esque. I do define myself as a SWTOR Analyst and I"m a hater and lover (whether you believe it or not) of SWTOR. Hater for reasons in my "development timeline" thread and lover for personal preferences.

By the way, thanks for following my posts!

It's absolutely their right to charge for content, but when they've said subscribers will get it for free, it's subscribers right to feel ripped off if it's not.

As things stand it sounds like subscribers won't be directly charged, but we'll have to see.