So Bioware is not backing down from the "Grab Bags"

Gonna have to respectfully disagree with you there. There is a reason why quite a few F2P games are implementing gambling boxes into their games. They sell extremely well and for many people, they become a hobby within a hobby, especially if you continue to add more and more items you can get from them. This also seems like a much more reasonable and fair implementation of these boxes than in other games. In games like GW2 and STO, you loot the gambling boxes themselves, and then have to buy a key to open them. I'd say that's quite a bit scummier than simply buying the packs directly from the store.

There is a term that I have heard frequently as of late in conjunction with F2P games, and that term is "Whales". Most people who play F2P games don't spend a single cent in the cash shop, and I suspect that this will remain the case with SWTOR. However, there are people, who have been termed "Whales" by developers that spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars a month on F2P games, buying stuff such as this, and that is what makes up for the majority of the people being able to play for free.

As I have said in other threads, I don't really think comparing these packs to a casino makes much sense. They are, however, very similar to baseball cards or really any other type of trading card. You buy a pack, knowing up front that the individual cards you get are totally random, and if you want to buy an individual card, you can buy it from the secondary market, or in SWTOR's case, the GTN.

In fact, that's one of my favorite things about this update. Having these items become tradeable after the fact actually encourages people to interact and trade with eachother to get the items you want, and judging by the drop rates from the PTS, the majority of items aren't going to be that expensive to buy with credits. Maybe they will be at first, when there is a high demand, but eventually prices will stabilize, and both people that enjoy the game of chance, and people that just want a specific item will be happy with the system.

Who really cares? If people want to waste their money on something RNG based then let them. I won't be, but if it will get the devs some money to keep improving the game then that is all I care about.

Dingdingdingding! We have a winner.

rare items are vendor trash, that's like spending a few bucks of real money to buy a lock box that drops an item you can sell on the gtn for maybe afew k credits? doesn't sound worth it does it?

/Points to the 500 cartel coin a subsciber gets each month. Save them up, spend them on what you want, never have to drop incremental money on the game.

Nah its the thrill that makes casino's work, besides you get items in bags which are worth money. Well to some anyway.

Maybe they should have this option but this could also decrease bag sales because the items will be less unique and f2p'ers might feel screwed over cause they do not have the same cash shop options...which could be considered true since the cash shop is for everyone.

I think its a smart move from BW's side to implement it the way they intend to.

Off topic.

Gambling is only regulated so the the government gets their cut. No moral in there just to get paid. And since they are going to have it filed as income and taxed it is perfectly fine. All they need to follow is to state there is a 30 % chance or whatever for the drop and have that correctly set up in the code and there is nothing immoral about it.

So it's 500 a month?

Do we know how many CC $15 buys?

If they follow the industry standard 1/3 of the sub price will be given away with coins. That would make 500cc worth $500

I'm sorry sir but that is a string bet. Your initial call is the end of the action for this round. To avoid this in the future please announce raise before making any action.