Hey Dev's How about an actual expansion? Is that in the works ?

God I hope you are wrong about the whole BW trying to make as much money before the product dies thing. I can't say you are wrong but I hope you are. As for the rest I'm willing to compromise on the Makeb "expansion." You make a valid point it could be seen as an expansion (which they called it) Be it a very small lackluster one that subscribers should have only had to pay $5 not $10 for. And yes when I mentioned a true expansion I meant as said in my original post an out of the box $40-$60 expansion with new classes and continuing story since we all know the war picks up. I think it would be very interesting to have an expansion that is the war and maybe has a 3rd and a 4th faction that may not want to see either side victorious or helps for their own agenda

I would say that RotHC was more of a DLC content update versus an actual expansion such as other MMO's put out. But that's just the nature of the new gaming model. Blizzard's giant expansion model is overly expensive for developers that don't have huge publishers that are willing to throw cash at their product. If SWTOR was EA's crown jewel, we would get that kind of treatment, but EA's got so many fingers in so many pies, SWTOR is just another mouth to feed. Nope, we're never going to get the red carpet treatment that Blizzard's fan base gets.

The other reason it'll be hard to get new classes and new individual story content is due to the fact that they front loaded the class experience with so much VO, that they'll never be able to duplicate those kinds of resources for future content. Makeb had very few new VO parts, and instead of building an entire fully fleshed out world, it had mesa instances that allowed them to short cut a lot of their graphical design.

If Makeb tells us anything, it's that BW is having to make due with content on the cheap. It's kind of sad actually, I was hoping that we would get more beautiful worlds like Voss and Hoth.

The fact is nobody knows subscription numbers. It's all speculation based on anecdote and outright guessing. It would be really nice if people stopped putting forward their SWAG numbers as gospel truth. I guess that will never happen.

Secondly, the game took years to develop and is a year and a half old and already you want an "expansion" (for free, of course) that equals the depth of the original game. It's not going to happen. You guys who burned through 50 levels in a couple of weeks and the next 5 in a day are SOL. You are going to have to find a different game to play because nobody is ever going to satisfy your desire for content. Not Bioware nor any other company is going to be able to give you what you want.

What you NEED is a 12 step program to cure you of your addiction so you can go outside, get some fresh air, and interact with real people.

I don't want anything for free. I want something that's worth the cash I shell out. I would have gladly paid $30 for an expansion that was actually an expansion. Not a two week extension to existing content. Also, I don't burn through content. It took me a while to get to end game because i wanted to experience all of the story. But once I got to end game, the game just took a nose dive. It's almost as if EA interrupted BW's development as they were working on end game and pushed them to release the product unfinished.

Even if you roll alts, you'll run out of content far before they release new worlds. Their cadence is off, and they're unable to produce enough content to keep the masses happy. Couple that with the fact that EA presses them into producing more CM items, you get a situation that's untenable.

I didn't miss the fact that BioWare was bought ages ago. I had issues with it then and I still do now. I would have preferred BioWare be bought by Microsoft rather than EA because of EA's business practices. I'm not extolling the virtues of Microsoft by any means, especially considering their Xbox 360 debacle which has now been compounded with their new Xbox one and copy protected nonsence. What I am saying is this, even though Microsoft has a habit of making an offer that smaller companies cant refuse they also allow companies to remain autonomous which is something that EA does not do. EA buys a company and converts them into the EA way of doing things which is offering a host of rushed or generic products at an exorbitant amount of money. You doubt ? What was the verdict of Mass Effect 3?
The only thing that remains autonomous with companies that EA buys are the name which EA milks for all its worth. In this case people have fond memories of BioWare which at one point was known as Microsoft's dirty little secret in the form of KOTR and because of that people will still buy the product despite the fact that it is now EA owned. I also don't blame EA fully for SWTOR. I think the fault lay in both parties. I believe BioWare made the mistake in using too much from WOW in terms of a template rather than drawing from other sources as well and more importantly drawing from themselves. BioWare in making this game should have done what they did best and just been BioWare and went their own way in development rather than simply drawing from one main template.

Now with regards to the other stuff you mentioned such as actors and the like. They did it with Makeb obviously so why not a fully actualized expansion that I wouldn't mind paying $40-60 for? The set up is already there for an expansion. No matter the class it all ends with the war about to break out again. This would be a prime opportunity to elevate this and move away from the WOW' esk one size character fits all when it does not. I also said way back in beta they needed more classes than what was offered but as a start it was decent. Also quick blub going back to EA. Google search EA and the Golden Poo award and read what it says about their business practices

I highly doubt EA would sign off on an investment in a full-blown SWTOR expansion at this point unfortunately. I think they're more likely to continue with these mini expansions, which require little investment and thus produce less risk of losing money. Put yourself in the shoes of an EA executive or board member and ask yourself if you would invest millions of dollars in a franchise that was much less successful than projected, and produces less revenue than other games in the portfolio.

Fact is we do know the subscribers numbers. It doesn't really matter and it is totally off topic of this thread, but we do know them.

At least we didn't pay as much as other MMO expansions, which normally cost as much as a full game. I'd be mad if I paid $50-60 for RotHC. I paid what, $10 I think, and I think I got quite a bit for that price. Still think as an expansion, it should have had new flashpoints. It was really light on group content IMO, but you can get everything you want.

They pop one of these out a year, with flashpoints next time, and I'd be happy.

I would have rather paid 50 bucks for a full blown expansion then 10 bucks for what we got. If they did those 10 dollar ones, like 4 times a year, it wouldn't be too bad but I don't think they will.

Agreed. I would have loved a full blown expansion. It could still happen, LotRO has been free to play for years and is still putting out full size expansions. To top that, last time I logged into it the player base was no where near the size of SWTOR.

If a smaller (I think) company can put out quality expansions for an older and less popular game, why can't EA? I know they like money, and I'd gladly give them some.