I'm frankly rather upset that this content is arbitrarily unavailable because I wasn't a subscriber for that entire timeframe. I was a subscriber from March-July this year and recently restarted my subscription to play again. I was also a subscriber before that for many years--I was a founder and in the intervening 5 years have been paying Bioware more months than not. So why on earth is it that, even though I am yet again paying for this game, I am not allowed to play this mission?

This feels like a betrayal after having played this game for so long. I took a break for personal reasons and just for that this whole story mission is completely unavailable? Why? An event is understandable, but this is part of a single-player storyline. It'd be frustrating enough if I had to pay extra like on the Cartel Market to access it after that time, but to make it not available at all? This just seems ridiculous and almost antagonistic. Why am I locked out of this bit of the story because I had a hard semester in college and needed to stop playing for a while? In what other game would that be the case? This makes no sense.

A betrayal? You mean like the people who brazenly came on the forums, boasting that they were just going to unsubscribe all through KotFE, and only sub for the last month to get the full story? And now they come back, begging for all the rewards that were given to the loyal ones who stuck around, because "it's not fair"?

As the saying goes, you can't have your cake and eat it.

Just a fyi, you're not going to get a positive response from folks on this one. Seems like many folks feel that restricted content is done with a purpose and shouldn't be given to folks who did not qualify.

There have been a couple one shot events previously in this game.

This feels like a betrayal....

How exactly were you betrayed as in something that was promised to you, was not given to you? You did not qualify for the reward, so you do not get it, quite simple.

Would you also call it a betrayal, that I am not getting the 100% DvL rewards, simply because I did not make 100% of the achievements.. and I was fully subscribed during that time.

With the logic of "was subscriber before, so I should get it all", you can easily demand to get everything at all times. Same for the 5th aniversary gift.. It is given to all people there were subscribed for THE WHOLE time. I was subsribed as founder and am still subscribed, but I took two breaks in between... And I am not complaining, as I am not qwualified for the reward, simple as that.

(besides, the shroud of memory story is hardly worth a fuzz)

I have all the bonus stuff for KOTET, creating game content that is forever locked away from large parts of the players is a horrible idea and should never be done again and Shroud of Memory should be playable by everyone somehow.

That betrayal bit in the op is very melodramatic and silly.

I have all the bonus stuff for KOTET, creating game content that is forever locked away from large parts of the players is a horrible idea and should never be done again and Shroud of Memory should be playable by everyone somehow.

 

That betrayal bit in the op is very melodramatic and silly.

No it should not, Bioware clearly articulated the terms under which the player base would be able to access the Shroud of memory. It was their choice whether they wanted to be continuously subscribed during that period. The affected players made their choice and the inevitable result of not being able to play the content promised to those who met the standard is the end state.

Bioware will never backtrack on subscriber rewards because it sets a bad precedence if the player base sees that rewards will be available regardless of meeting the standards. The EA finance guys want long term recurring subs, it helps their bottom line and makes their investors happy so nothing that would deter recurring subs like giving subscriber rewards after the fact will ever happen.

I'm frankly rather upset that this content is arbitrarily unavailable because I wasn't a subscriber for that entire timeframe. I was a subscriber from March-July this year and recently restarted my subscription to play again. I was also a subscriber before that for many years--I was a founder and in the intervening 5 years have been paying Bioware more months than not. So why on earth is it that, even though I am yet again paying for this game, I am not allowed to play this mission?

 

This feels like a betrayal after having played this game for so long. I took a break for personal reasons and just for that this whole story mission is completely unavailable? Why? An event is understandable, but this is part of a single-player storyline. It'd be frustrating enough if I had to pay extra like on the Cartel Market to access it after that time, but to make it not available at all? This just seems ridiculous and almost antagonistic. Why am I locked out of this bit of the story because I had a hard semester in college and needed to stop playing for a while? In what other game would that be the case? This makes no sense.

Afraid you are mistaken. You are not entitled to get that content. It was announced ahead of time as a SUBSCRIBER REWARD for subscribing from Date X - date Y. if you failed to be a subscriber for the entire time of that, that is on you, not BW. They did not betray you one bit. They did not lie to you and say you would get access after so many months. They said you had to Subscribe for the entire time between those dates. You OP did not fulfill the requirements to get Shroud of Memory, so you did not get it. That is how it should be. BW should never (and have never so far) changed subscriber rewards to give out at a later date.

Afraid you are mistaken. You are not entitled to get that content. It was announced ahead of time as a SUBSCRIBER REWARD for subscribing from Date X - date Y. if you failed to be a subscriber for the entire time of that, that is on you, not BW. They did not betray you one bit. They did not lie to you and say you would get access after so many months. They said you had to Subscribe for the entire time between those dates. You OP did not fulfill the requirements to get Shroud of Memory, so you did not get it. That is how it should be. BW should never (and have never so far) changed subscriber rewards to give out at a later date.

Agreed but they could give them away for cc and I mean the actual amount.

Like all of the HK-55 rewards should go for about 10000cc (7months worth of paid cc's as you needed to be sub during the rewards program during Jan-July) and to those that have unlocked it with out cc but by subbing on the dates should get 7500-10000cc back and the rewards for free.

I mean that would make people more and less happy which is perfectly balanced.

And the other subcriber unlocks and pre order bonuses cost on how much it's been out (1 time for 1 months worth of cc)

Ether this post will

A. Stop these requests to release exclusive rewards and items to the people who don't have them

Or

B. The exclusive rewards gainers will get a large recompensation for being a loyal customer.

Agreed but they could give them away for cc and I mean the actual amount.

Like all of the HK-55 rewards should go for about 10000cc (7months worth of paid cc's as you needed to be sub during the rewards program during Jan-July) and to those that have unlocked it with out cc but by subbing on the dates should get 7500-10000cc back and the rewards for free.

I mean that would make people more and less happy which is perfectly balanced.

And the other subcriber unlocks and pre order bonuses cost on how much it's been out (1 time for 1 months worth of cc)

Ether this post will

A. Stop these requests to release exclusive rewards and items to the people who don't have them

Or

B. The exclusive rewards gainers will get a large recompensation for being a loyal customer.

As others have pointed out in the many other threads addressing this topic, there are far too many "free" Cartel Coins out there, so if anything like this were to be made available it would need to be for actual money, such as requiring people to subscribe (uninterrupted) for the same amount of time subscribers were initially required to be subscribed in order to be eligible. That would be the only way to make it "fair" in terms of cost.

The whole point of these rewards is to attempt to generate a consistent, steady revenue stream, so anything less than that fails to achieve what the company set out to accomplish by offering such rewards. The bottom line is their bottom line. No company likes the spikes and falls that often surround MMO revenue, picking up for an expansion and then dropping off during the interim content drought. As a result, they will constantly try different approaches to stabilize the revenue stream. Chapters are another example of this. Had they worked, we would have seen more of them. However, since people could just wait and pay a one-time cost to get all of them at the end, the model did not prove successful. If they offer another bonus chapter in the future we'll know the HK bonus chapter hit whatever goal they set. It was the added incentive to try to keep people subscribed continuously during the rollout of the chapters. However, since the chapters are now gone, one can reasonably conclude the bonus chapter was not enough of an incentive to keep enough people subscribed, so it's unlikely we'll get another in the future.

Bioware will never backtrack on subscriber rewards because it sets a bad precedence if the player base sees that rewards will be available regardless of meeting the standards.

the new party jawa says you're wrong

the new party jawa says you're wrong

Though it is limited time only to get it.

I think they should offer it for sale.

The cost should be the equivalent of the price of a subscription for the months required to earn it.

Think of it as a "second chance" to subscribe for all those months.

Your loss if you actually subscribed for some of them.

the new party jawa says you're wrong

The new jawa is NOT the old jawa.

It looks similar but it isn't the old one.

The related achievements were never promised as part of the exclusive reward... only the jawa.

the new party jawa says you're wrong

Actually, the celebration Jawa says he is RIGHT.

It is NOT the Party Jawa, and does not even use the same model.

While it may eventually be able to be used for the Tattoine achievement, it is a different Jawa, NOT the Party Jawa.

The Party Jawa remains an exclusive subscriber reward for those that were subscribed at the appropriate time.

So my best friend who took a break but was on the forums long before the game launch should feel like she was betrayed because she didn't get it.

She doesn't. She knew her choices and she took responsibility for her actions. She knows you don't get awards or gifts when you don't do what you should do.

I had a hard time time also in my final semester of college at the time as I was completing my paralegal degree but I kept my subscription up, even though I didn't play. That was what you could have done. You didn't have to play, you could have paid the sub without playing.

OP, let the special snowflakes have their participation trophies. It's the only thing in this world that makes them special. Don't take that away from them.

But that is what the Op is asking for. A participation trophy even tho they didn't meet the requirements to get Shroud of Memory.

Actually that's not true.

The new jawa is NOT the old jawa.

It looks similar but it isn't the old one.

 

The related achievements were never promised as part of the exclusive reward... only the jawa.

I'm fine with Shroud of Memory being renamed and recolored for everyone that didn't get it the first time, maybe they don't get to keep the companions idk, what I do know is having a whole chapter a growing majority of players cannot access is increasingly bad as that majority grows.

Actually, the celebration Jawa says he is RIGHT.

Your notions remain laughably askew, regardless of subject. Good luck out there.

Here's the thing: It was advertised as having requirements. You don't meet the requirements, you don't get the content. Period.

Personally, while I did qualify for this content, I'm not really a fan of this sort of stuff. Now, this is single player only content with a cool companion to boot, so it's ok in that regard. If it was multiplayer based content though, then it would have been a major problem.

My biggest issue with the reward was the requirement for being continuously subbed between two dates. If your sub lapsed for any reason other than intended, you'd be out of luck and it wouldn't really be your fault especially when you had intended to stay subbed.

Now, I know it would be the person's fault for not keeping up to date with their own sub, but I think that's a little bit too much to ask considering it's merely a game to play as a hobby. People shouldn't need to micromanage their subscription status just so they can insure they get game content.

On that subject, however, why isn't there a way to manage your sub in game? Or even just a menu saying "You have X amount of days remaining in your subscription?" Or, even better, an in game mail when you're about 1 or 2 weeks away from your sub ending.

As much as I am against restricted and one time rewards this is as simple as it gets: NO!

Why?

There are two groups here:

1. The ones that paid the $$$ to qualify for the promotion, they got what was promised, fair and square.

2. The ones that did not pay the $$$ and did not qualify for the promotion.

Now, how do you think group 1 would feel if the promotion prizes were freely made available to group 2?

Why would you, as a customer, who DID NOT meet the PRE-ANNOUNCED conditions of the promotion (group 2) have a bigger say in this, rather than those who HAVE PAID THE PRICE IN $$$ for qualifying for the promotion.

What do you think the size of group 1 would be in the next such promotion like this?

You guessed it, exaclty 0, nada.

Why? Who would want to pay $$$ for stuff if they can get it the easy way later?

So, sorry, but it's as simple as that, you gotta have to put your money where your mouth is.

Now you didn't, so grow up and live with the consequences.

You know, I'm going to broach an unpopular opinion here and say that I don't agree with how BW handled this. Shroud of Memory is a great chapter and ZO-OM is quickly becoming one of my favorite companions. But as time passes, fewer and fewer people will be running this chapter and getting to see it. In fact, the number of people who can run it was a fixed amount the day it came out, and no new people will ever be added. This means that BW went and put resources into a chapter that many players will never get to see, and that feels wasteful to me.

Cosmetic rewards? Fine. Make those sub rewards. But actually playable content should never be gated like this.

Nah, makes good business sense. Make the best content for long term subscriptions, if you want to play the next one, you'll have to stay subbed for a 6 month block.

It's called "incentive".

Now, I know it would be the person's fault for not keeping up to date with their own sub, but I think that's a little bit too much to ask considering it's merely a game to play as a hobby. People shouldn't need to micromanage their subscription status just so they can insure they get game content.

I will go out on a limb and ask, because I am really curious:

If someone REALLY wants that content (provided!), how hard is it to keep up a re-occuring subscription?

I am assuming an adult with a credit card.

Credit cards are valid usually for 3 years, so you have to 'manage' your sub every 3 years.

The game is exactly 5 years old, so if you subbed, you had to 'manage' your sub a maximum of twice (maybe only once).