Still don't see what the big deal is here. A few cutscenes which feature no actual playable content and which people can purchase off the GTN fairly cheap for credits? Frankly, the cutscenes themselves aren't even particularly interesting. Charging for story content? Earth to self-appointed community watchdogs....was ROTHC free? They've already charged for additional story content. So charging for additional content has already been done and is on the table for any future content.

Hey everyone,

 

Our plan with the Encrypted Datacubes was simply to see if packs would be another avenue of getting story content in the game. It will always be the Cartel Market teams goal to look for new and interesting things to add into the Cartel Market which are not gameplay impacting (avoiding pay-to-win, etc.). With that being said, we have heard your feedback loud and clear on this and we have no plans to place the Datacubes in the Cartel Market in the future.

 

Thanks!

 

-eric

 

Ah, so really what your saying is that your are looking for ways to charge us extra for story content but this method did not work son you will look for other ways to do so.

You can't rip a player off with anything in the CM.

 

Purchase is at the choice and discretion of the player and the player should review and decide if the purchase has value to them or not. Nobody is forcing anyone to purchase CM content.

 

And believe it or not.. you cannot protect players from themselves where poor judgment is concerned.

 

I do not subscribe to the "helicopter mom" theory about Bioware needing to protect the players from themselves.

 

Now.. if you want to complain that Bioware is "teasing" players with eye candy in the CM... OK... fair point... but again... players cannot be protected from their own impulses to chase the tease.

 

Ha! This was a test to see if they could get away with charging subs extra for story content, ok in this case it was minor but as Eric said they where testing the waters. If no one had objected what would have the next step been? More companion stories via the CM? Then more quests like the seeker droids, leading upto charging individually for every new FP, OP and WZ! This really shows BW's true colours.

Ha! This was a test to see if they could get away with charging subs extra for story content, ok in this case it was minor but as Eric said they where testing the waters. If no one had objected what would have the next step been? More companion stories via the CM? Then more quests like the seeker droids, leading upto charging individually for every new FP, OP and WZ! This really shows BW's true colours.

 

A random item, available in random packs is not a test to charge for story content. Not even you believe that. You just need it to perform your strawman attempt above.

 

Actual story content for sale in the CM directly... THAT would be a test to charge for story content.

 

Datacubes were just a gimmick to eat up a rare item slot in random packs. There is no consensus as to if they were clever gimmicks or just gimmicks. Personally, I see them as novel gimmicks, designed to attract the easily duped to chase them on the faux-pretense that they were epic story arcs in a can. They certainly were novel in the way they got the chimps worked up about faux-bananas though.

Edited June 26, 2013 by Andryah

It's always about supply and demand, that's no secret, and that is how all companies operate.

A random item, available in random packs is not a test to charge for story content.

Hey everyone,

 

Our plan with the Encrypted Datacubes was simply to see if packs would be another avenue of getting story content in the game.

Um...that's exactly what it was. There's obviously a lot of argument over whether this was something of importance -people have different opinions - but by their own admission they were trying to find out if they could put story content on the CM.

I am glad for dev response.

I do understand that this was an experiment, but given how many people (admittedly, including myself) got worried what this might mean (larger story being CM-exclusive (or, even worse, Cartel Pack exclusive)), I am glad you guys decided to drop this idea.

 

To people claiming "you gen get it on GTN" - Yes, but that still needed someone to get it from a randomized Pack

To people claiming "you pay for expansions" - You paid comparatively much less for much larger content. RotHC costs 10 USD, that is 1050 Cartel coins, which is three packs, which is not enough to even get all the cubes, assuming you are extremely lucky and get one unique in each pack (very unlikely, I bought 4 packs, got nada)

Hey everyone,

 

Our plan with the Encrypted Datacubes was simply to see if packs would be another avenue of getting story content in the game. It will always be the Cartel Market teams goal to look for new and interesting things to add into the Cartel Market which are not gameplay impacting (avoiding pay-to-win, etc.). With that being said, we have heard your feedback loud and clear on this and we have no plans to place the Datacubes in the Cartel Market in the future.

 

Thanks!

 

-eric

 

 

Hey everyone,

 

Our plan with the Encrypted Datacubes was simply to see if packs would be another avenue of getting story content in the game. It will always be the Cartel Market teams goal to look for new and interesting things to add into the Cartel Market which are not gameplay impacting (avoiding pay-to-win, etc.). With that being said, we have heard your feedback loud and clear on this and we have no plans to place the Datacubes in the Cartel Market in the future.

 

Thanks!

 

-eric

And you guys doubted me :9

Um...that's exactly what it was. There's obviously a lot of argument over whether this was something of importance -people have different opinions - but by their own admission they were trying to find out if they could put story content on the CM.

 

Exactly. Andryah has her rose tinted glasses on still.

And RotHC wasn't charging for content?

 

Personally, I don't see the problem with having story content show up in the CM. If you don't want it, then you don't buy it. If I want it as a subscriber, I can use my coin stipend to buy it (which is something I can't do for full expansions like RotHC, I'll point out), thus making the purchase cost no additional money for me, since I can't see anything else to spend CC on.

 

Plus, doing it this way for say 250 CC or so for a small series of quests produced on a frequent basis doesn't sound like a bad idea to me.

And RotHC wasn't charging for content?

.

An expansion is different.

And RotHC wasn't charging for content?

 

Personally, I don't see the problem with having story content show up in the CM. If you don't want it, then you don't buy it. If I want it as a subscriber, I can use my coin stipend to buy it (which is something I can't do for full expansions like RotHC, I'll point out), thus making the purchase cost no additional money for me, since I can't see anything else to spend CC on.

 

Plus, doing it this way for say 250 CC or so for a small series of quests produced on a frequent basis doesn't sound like a bad idea to me.

 

This defeats the point of paying for a subscription.

I really don't see what people are so upset about.

 

It's obvious to all of us that the primary source of income for future content development is the Cartel Market.

 

I would not be surprised at all to see story content of various types being released through the Cartel Market, including , but not limited to, access to new planets, flashpoints, operations, etc...

 

The days of subscription funded video games are over. Deal with it.

 

For all of you people demanding you get some thing for free, get over yourselves.

For all of you people demanding you get some thing for free, get over yourselves.

 

$15 a month is not free. Take your entitlement arguments somewhere else.

Hey everyone,

 

Our plan with the Encrypted Datacubes was simply to see if packs would be another avenue of getting story content in the game. It will always be the Cartel Market teams goal to look for new and interesting things to add into the Cartel Market which are not gameplay impacting (avoiding pay-to-win, etc.). With that being said, we have heard your feedback loud and clear on this and we have no plans to place the Datacubes in the Cartel Market in the future.

 

Thanks!

 

-eric

 

Your team continues to amaze me.

"Encrypted Datacubes was simply to see if packs would be another avenue of getting story content in the game"

 

This right here is PROOF that Bioware only wants to milk you to death and not give anything to subscribers anymore...other than utterly useless party jawas and fireworks. !00% proof. Really putting me off this game.

 

For all of you people demanding you get some thing for free, get over yourselves.

 

So, why do we pay 15 bucks a month then? We shouldn't be "entitled" to anything right? Pay for the game, pay for monthly fee...and they still want us to pay for more? When does it end? If you don't see a problem, then you must be rich and love throwing money at greed driven corporations. Hey, go work for the government or wall street. You would fit in just great their. Why don't you get over yourself.

Edited June 26, 2013 by DarthVengeant

I really don't see what people are so upset about.

 

It's obvious to all of us that the primary source of income for future content development is the Cartel Market.

 

I would not be surprised at all to see story content of various types being released through the Cartel Market, including , but not limited to, access to new planets, flashpoints, operations, etc...

 

The days of subscription funded video games are over. Deal with it.

 

For all of you people demanding you get some thing for free, get over yourselves.

 

Not for free, we want something for our $15 a month. If they want to charge for every bit of content, the ditch the sub. If the keep the sub then I don't want to pay extra, expansions not included.

Hey everyone,

 

Our plan with the Encrypted Datacubes was simply to see if packs would be another avenue of getting story content in the game. It will always be the Cartel Market teams goal to look for new and interesting things to add into the Cartel Market which are not gameplay impacting (avoiding pay-to-win, etc.). With that being said, we have heard your feedback loud and clear on this and we have no plans to place the Datacubes in the Cartel Market in the future.

 

Thanks!

 

-eric

 

Wasn't it said before that subs wouldn't have to pay extra for content? Has that gone away, since it was thought a good idea to see if content could be put into CM items?

We well see them on YouTube in days if even that long.

Your team continues to amaze me.

 

Love your sig.

Are there any plans to add a replacement reward for the credit boom, something that level 55 players could actually use? Bound XP boosts are not useful to a level 55 player. Since you guys removed something I would really appreciate it if you could take the time to come up with an appropriate replacement that end game players would find useful.

 

 

Random CM weapon or armor gets my vote. useful at any level.

Hey everyone,

 

Our plan with the Encrypted Datacubes was simply to see if packs would be another avenue of getting story content in the game. It will always be the Cartel Market teams goal to look for new and interesting things to add into the Cartel Market which are not gameplay impacting (avoiding pay-to-win, etc.). With that being said, we have heard your feedback loud and clear on this and we have no plans to place the Datacubes in the Cartel Market in the future.

 

Thanks!

 

-eric

 

I had no problem with this, I'm sorry that the people complaining have won. As you pointed out, the cubes had no impact on game play.

 

Does this mean we won't get the other four cubes in the next pack to be released? I think there had been hints that there would be a reward for getting all 8 too... Is that all gone?

I had no problem with this, I'm sorry that the people complaining have won. As you pointed out, the cubes had no impact on game play.

 

Does this mean we won't get the other four cubes in the next pack to be released? I think there had been hints that there would be a reward for getting all 8 too... Is that all gone?

 

So you want to pay for content on top of your sub?

And RotHC wasn't charging for content?

 

Personally, I don't see the problem with having story content show up in the CM. If you don't want it, then you don't buy it. If I want it as a subscriber, I can use my coin stipend to buy it (which is something I can't do for full expansions like RotHC, I'll point out), thus making the purchase cost no additional money for me, since I can't see anything else to spend CC on.

 

Plus, doing it this way for say 250 CC or so for a small series of quests produced on a frequent basis doesn't sound like a bad idea to me.

 

Expansions are not the same. And plenty of MMOs have added in little story elements between expansions.

 

They said they wouldn't charge subs for additional content, that's what they're doing by putting those into RNG packs. And seeing as how it is a RNG Pack, you're not even paying for the content, you're paying at the chance for content.

 

Oh, but the free coins? Yeah, so I use those free coins for, again, a chance at the content.

 

But I can buy it off the GTN? Yeah, since when did we have to purchase content off the GTN? o.O

 

And really, you want to waste your chance at a rare drop on a bit of a story that once you see it, get to risk seeing it again and again?

 

Content isn't cosmetic either. And not only that, they got rid of the reward that was worth being a rare in it.

 

FAILURE on this on so many levels.