So to start

Sure I may not know too much about law, so this could be completely out of the ballpark. Someone who actually knows about international law should check my reasoning.

In this I will assume:

 

1. Bioware is doing this to cut expenses

2. This will only be applicable to ‘subs’

a. Could also possibly apply to anyone who has used the cartel market

3. Only one of these need to be proven, for remedies to be acquired.

So according to Australian Consumer Law goods can be returned if they are:

 

1. That goods are of an acceptable quality

2. That goods will be fit for intended purpose

3. That the goods will satisfy any extra promises made about them (Express warranties)

 

So:

In my opinion if I have come to SWTOR, with 90% of the reason behind it being the ‘promised’ (This will be a big part of my third point) Australian servers, so I could experience what americans experience whilst playing games, not the terror of 200+ ping.

With that said I would presume that if the standard American quality is around 10-40 ping, it would be safe to assume that if our ping were to be over 2000% of that, it no longer fits the phrase ‘goods being of an acceptable quality’.

If the intended purpose was solely so I could play on less than 100 ping, and that it was intended for the duration of my subscription I would be able to do so. It would then also break the second point ‘That goods will be fit for intended purpose’.

So I haven’t been around on SWTOR since launch, but I believe at launch Australian servers were ‘promised’ so then again, it would fail to meet the criteria of ‘That the goods will satisfy any extra promises made about them’.

Also under Australian law if this occurs we can force bioware to rememdy this. They can be in the form of either monetary compensation or specific performance. So instead of seeking the amount you subbed for we could force Bioware to reopen Australian servers.

Now I’m not suggesting that we go file a lawsuit straight up, I am simply reminding Bioware of how unexpectedly there cost cutting exercise could backfire on them. And that however small you may perceive the Australian community it is not without power.

 

I would just like to add that however unpractical it sounds it is possible under australian consumer law. if you want a more in depth look at consumer law:

http://www.fairtrading.qld.gov.au/consumer-guarantees-goods.htm#5_Express_warranties

Not feasible. Even though our Consumer Law protects us against products that aren't fit for purpose, this isn't covered by that. Sim City was, since you purchased the game and EA's service made it literally unplayable, but this doesn't fall under that ballpark. SWTOR is still playable, and their service, while not particularly good, is still good enough to prevent any kind of legal action. Standard response from company would be; You want to play an online game, we are providing the service. It is not our fault that you don't want to play on servers that are not based in your region.

 

Although it's a load of bull and their solution is far from perfect, it's also far from illegal. The service might be flawed, but the product is still fine. You also can't cover it by saying that APAC servers were promised and now they're being taken away, because they're doing that in response to people on APAC servers complaining. They may not have listened to WHAT we were saying, but they noticed we were saying something and just went with it.

you people are really taking this far to seriously dont you think ....

Apparently. We can protest and see if we can get the issue rectified, but there is nothing even close to a problem on legal grounds.

wow this guy must be a complete idiot to think he can sue EA/Bioware for a game that can still be played (albeit to a slightly lesser degree)