Gear from content, not from market!

Well you have a point there I suppose but they are still churning the Cartel stuff out really fast and I still say its wrong for the actual gear to be there in the first place.

Designing gear itself is never the hardest thing to do, simply look at modding communities for games such as Skyrim, DotA2, etc for example. You can churn out new gear in abundance with ease.

However, fitting it into a place ingame, that's usually the harder part. Where would you place it?

- Crafted? And that way gain like hundreds of additionall recipes on all gear slot pieces each month?
- In world drops? So that as you quest on a planet you have even less chance of gathering a full set of the same pieces, but rather end up looking like the traditional MMO clown?
- Specific quest lines? Well, gear pieces may be pumped out rapidly. But entire quest lines will become very, very generic if you want to throw them out in such abundance.
- Flashpoint rewards? With a few sets in you'll have to run hundreds of flashpoints soon to get your luck to just get all pieces of the set you desire.
- Generic tokens (primary PvE and PvP tokens) to be exchanged for them? Could be a thing to do, but it's not like it's in any real way coming from content, it's just another form of going to the mall and picking your daily outfit.

The only reasonable alternative you remain with would be a credit market, very little difference from the principle of the cartel market. As it also wouldn't be gear from content, but rather just from a vendor.

Designing gear itself is never the hardest thing to do, simply look at modding communities for games such as Skyrim, DotA2, etc for example. You can churn out new gear in abundance with ease.

However, fitting it into a place ingame, that's usually the harder part. Where would you place it?

- Crafted? And that way gain like hundreds of additionall recipes on all gear slot pieces each month?
- In world drops? So that as you quest on a planet you have even less chance of gathering a full set of the same pieces, but rather end up looking like the traditional MMO clown?
- Specific quest lines? Well, gear pieces may be pumped out rapidly. But entire quest lines will become very, very generic if you want to throw them out in such abundance.
- Flashpoint rewards? With a few sets in you'll have to run hundreds of flashpoints soon to get your luck to just get all pieces of the set you desire.
- Generic tokens (primary PvE and PvP tokens) to be exchanged for them? Could be a thing to do, but it's not like it's in any real way coming from content, it's just another form of going to the mall and picking your daily outfit.

The only reasonable alternative you remain with would be a credit market, very little difference from the principle of the cartel market. As it also wouldn't be gear from content, but rather just from a vendor.

A long story quest to get Reven's helm would have certainly fitted the ethos SWTOR was sold on better than a random from a gambling pack, don't you think?

This is how they intend to make money now, with the Cashshop.

Personally I'm not expecting much decent looking gear to come through content anymore, just through the Cashshop.

Doesn't every newbie Imperial find the thing lying around in a private collector's vault somewhere on Dromund Kaas?

Even so, I highly doubt all those drops from packs or the GTN are the real deal, they're all just cheap knockoffs. I don't need an epic storyline for what amounts to a halloween mask. :P

It's a pretty simple answer really.
Because in an attempt to save the game, it moved to a hybrid subscriber/free to play model. And an integral part of increasing revenue when utilizing a free to play model is offering aesthetic products (vanity items) in a shop available via micro transactions.

They currently give the entire game away for free, with some non-fundamental restrictions. It makes me cry every time I hear/read someone on these forums demand with an insistence that they are entitled in-game content, as if they are the head of EAware/TOR Development and their word is law. I understand many people (myself included) are subscribers. But even this doesn't entitle us to vanity items intended to bring in enough revenue to keep the game we all enjoy operating. What it does entitle us to is the free to play restrictions being lifted. As far as I'm concerned, we're not even entitled to the bonus CC we get. That's just a bonus, and a rather nice one that allows even us subscribers the ability to save up and purchase vanity items without having to shell out extra money beyond our subscription fee.

And, as long as the Cartel Shop doesn't start offering game changing/enhancing items not also available in-game, I personally have no problem with it's existence. I enjoy TOR and would like to continue enjoying it, so until EAware really screws me over, I will continue to support their financial choices.

Now flame away with more self entitled rationalizations about how I'm an idiot for supporting anything the evil EAware does.