Gamasutra: The Burning of Star Wars - The Old Republic

Exactly. I've read quite a few of these "reviews" and they're very childish in nature. They're nothing more than biased click-bait for the bandwagon of SWTOR, MMORPG and F2P haters. But this one starts off just like the rest but ends with what seems the most perfect conclusion when it comes to this topic.

He points out that Bioware could've planned for the long-term by implementing a more favorable F2P system, to first focus on attracting new and old players and go from there. "Instead, BioWare seems to have tried to find a way to get the most money in the immediate present. I don't know how well it will work. I certainly don't expect it to work well in the long term. There's an expression out there: don't burn your bridges. I guess BioWare wants to invent a new one: If you're going to burn your bridges down, you may as well sell tickets to the show."

I agree with the conclusion 100% and it's undeniable that the current F2P system has a lot of flaws, too many flaws, that need to be start to get fixed RIGHT NOW and it kinda blows my mind that some people here are accepting it. Like he author says, the window of opportunity is closing fast. I believe this window will be open for about 3 months (if nothing is done about F2P, the hype will die down within 3 months). It's IMPERATIVE that this game continues to attract new players month after month while keeping old players happy as long as possible. This game is F2P for a reason and that reason is because it was dying, no player here should blindly accept the F2P system we have because Bioware can do better. Bioware COULD come up with something amazing. It's not impossible to make the come back of the decade. Bioware needs to shift their focus from short-term to long-term.
Not saying giving everything away is the answer but they could come up with something way more reasonable that increases interest and spending in the game. Now's the time to discuss it together with players to come up with the best system possible.

^This ...

But, TUXs (this is a tanget) didn't you know that being a subscriber is now the equivalent to "Pay 2 win"? Yeah I know, that is the current meme du jour about we who subscribe.

Those two things are suggesting that before the f2p switch there was a lot of purpose to crafting, however the market was already equally dead on most servers.

Secondly it suggests prior to the cartel market looting new gear outside of the regular ops and wz upgrades was within the realm of possibilities. Whilst actually very little changed there. Beyond that, the cartel market gear is mainly just looks, not so much stats.

Obviously subjective, however I'd say stats > looks.

No, but we don't why he left or if he was let go. The fact is he should of passed on writing this. Even if he is trying not to be bias people will wonder because he is a former worker bee for EA.

Obviously F2P didn't happen over night, I'm simply of the opinion that they've gimped the crafting game from the moment they realized they were going F2P. Crafting in an MMO is in direct competition to any cash shop.

Falty logic. Perhaps if he had been directly connected with SWTOR and removed for cause. But, as you said we don't know the relation of the author to EA other than he self reports that he used to work for them. If people wonder this, then they are not capable of actually reading what is presented and are guilty of READING INTO what was written. A common faux pas of many on these forums.

I am talking about the gameplay mechanics. The market is a financial mechanic added to the game that should be reviewed in it's own right. However what my original post was discussing, was how all these gaming outlets were re-reviewing the game's core mechanics (Warzones, Flashpoints, Combat, Story, etc and saying it's crap, when those mechanics have arguably gotten better or at least remained static. It's not logical.

Crafting never really had a peak for that matter, so by that logic of them intentionally gimping crafting, F2P was already known from as early as prior to launch.

Personally I don't think it's related, rather just a terrible crafting design instead of intention.

To people wondering why the score changed since release, it is because most peoples perspective of something, even games, changes over time as they experience it. While it might have been cool to do 2 or 3 class stories, after that you really start to notice some things that bug you (or maybe not ).

I pretty much agree with the article. Would have if it was published at release (minus the F2P obviously). Came back for one month and nothing that has been added has impressed me. Heck, pvp actually has LESS stuff to do than it did when I quite lol.

I hope they listen. I suspect the people that actually work on the game (Bioware Austin) want the game to succeed for a long time. I fear that EA is just trying to squeeze as much as it can out of SWTOR and then toss it away. At least this is how it looks to me. I hope I am wrong.