why is the SWTOR community so against "pay to win"

But is pay2win better? Several reasons have been posted on this thread why it would be worse for at least some players. Who is to say whether the good sides outweigh the bad?

If you can come up with a reason why pay2win is objectively better than the current model, I'm interested to hear it.

And yes, the gaming industry does evolve. But that doesn't mean every game has to be the same. Not every animal is a fish. And making drastic changes to an existing game is always a risk as well; if it angers enough of its old player base, they'll write negative reviews of it, making it more difficult to get new players.

No doubt.

But my question was, "What problem is being solved by encouraging developers to adopt a "Pay to Win" approach?"

This is an important question. If the P2W approach were better, than by comparison, what we have now would be worse. Such a condition could be described as "what's the problem with the current approach"?

How it is fun will differ from person to person, naturally, but in theory, the more options we give to gamers to play a game in the manner that is the most fun, then we would have more gamers having more fun more of the time in the games they are playing, and hence want to keep playing longer and paying for more games and more stuff in those games.

If we take the current examples of people suddenly not playing Operations because they can get the rewards elsewhere, then that would seem to me to be a problem with the design of the OperationOperations. Going under the assumption that we are playing to have fun and enjoy content, then we would still be playing Operations as they are regardless of the rewards because playing that content is fun and enjoyable. If that is not the case, then we can take a look at what people are playing over and over again, because the content is fun and enjoyable, analyze the reasons why, and adapt those mechanics to make Operations as fun and as enjoyable as that other content.

To use pissing people off as an excuse not to try to do something, well we might as well just put the entire gaming industry to rest right now because every game would be a WoW clone in that case.

If pay to win were a thing, people like me would have all the goodies.

I'm not trying to brag here, but if I spend a thousand dollars a month on my games, I won't miss it. As it is, I spend considerably less, as there's not very much I care to even attempt to own.

I'm immune to gambling allure. I'm immune to that compulsion many seem to have - addiction maybe? - to keep doing things they're nor actively enjoying.

Additionally, I'm quite entirely immune to all of the adorable competetive kerfuffle. My e-peen cannot be threatened.

I play these games for storyline, and because the games themselves are sometimes pretty fun.

I rather enjoy dungeons. The demands of raiding are too much cream in the tea for my tastes, as I tend to like my group content to not be a giant choreographical production.

I'd be on Broadway if I wanted to be doing seven different dance routines with eleventy-four other people. As it is, my jerb provides me with all of those things I could ever want.

People like me work a lot and literally do not have the availability of spare time to do all the little time waste tediums mmo devs love to cram all over without making sacrifices I, for one, would sooner burn the whole game down than make.

I'd throw this entire game and everyone on it right under a bus before I'll ever tell my spouse 'But I need to raid this Saturday, my guilds needs meeeee!', as but one example.

So no. Pay to win would probably be bad.

The people that are terrible at RL would bawl endlessly. Their $15 a month and/or occasional little expenditures add up.

If you like Ops, then why would you stop doing Ops regardless of where the rewards can be obtained?

Because very few people actually enjoy raiding for its own sake.

Many will talk themselves up like they're practically enlightened philosophers and unsung heroes forming the very heart and soul of everything good and true in the gaming community.

The truth? They're just people that have the time, interest, and access to others with time and interest to all do the hokey pokey repeatedly.

Why? If you asked, most would have very many reasons. Most would be lying.

They want to be better than you. Anyone that is 'you', really. If they can imagine for even fleeting instants that someone stopping for the seconds as they ran past did do to admire them and their pat lewtz, their lives are complete.

They want your envy and your scorn. They want to be as gods amongst mere mortals, and they'll so at almost nothing to remain able to feel like they're better. If the game changes in ways that 'devalue' their 'achievements' (dilute their perceived greatness), fits shall be thrown. Tantrums.

Most would paint 'I'm a complete tool' on their characters foreheads if it let them somehow feel like their e-peens grew a millimeters for it.

Some will tell very homecooked-meal-and-best-friends stories about how they're not like that at all. Tales and yarns about the comradery, the friendship and stop the feels of accomplishment of finaly succeeding after a long struggle with their bosom buddies. Some odd those tales might even be true, though even for whom they'd true, they're nor likely to be enough on their own to keep them doing such things.

Take the phat lewtz out of the equation and you'll soon see who was lying like it's pathological about such things.

Almost everyone's a total liar about why they want better things for themselves. Some cry in one breath about how X, Y and Z have been made too easy, but there they'll typically be, capitalizing on the things they try to make themselves seem above.

Everyone wants it easy. Feeling challenged is far more important to most than actually being challenged. Most that spout endlessly about challenge can be counted on to probably be lying. If they look up anyone's online guides, they're not in it for challenge. If they get enraged over repeatedly wiping while learning an encounter, they're not in it for the challenge.

They're in our for the gear.

Some don't want it to be easy for anybody except themselves, because then just anybody can have nice things, be 'special', etc - the crying about this and that being devalued has no origin except dismay over feeling like other people can more easily get the things you have too, so they make you less special now.

They're in it for whatever will let them feel like, if only in pretendy-funtime land, they're big dogs. They're the superstars. They're the pro athletes all the mere mortals can only look upon in envy, despair and awe...or so they desperately hope.

Not everyone is in it for gear. Some few really are in it for the comradery, the challenge, the laughs and the overcoming-things-with-friends elements.

Most? They'll prefer you to shut up and not suck. If you're not helping them up the next step of feeling awesomer than the scrubs, you're a scrub and in their way, should learn your place and go back to hello kitty online.

The unimportant self-importance is strong in this one.
I guess you just show up here to blow your horn to make yourself feel better about all the things you already have.
Keep on keepin' on.

Projection at its finest.