It is very sad to me that the successful have become an objective of such derision and hate.

IBTL/D. Nope, not the 'successful'. No one hates Bill Gates or Steve Jobs (well, not a lot, anyway). Guys like this created something and reaped the rewards.

The hated ones are the CEOs who never did anything but push money around, destroyed companies, and economies, and got 100 million dollar golden parachutes. There's a reason to dislike greedy hoarders of wealth who do nothing to deserve their gains except know the right people.

…However, I DO disagree with the OP. I think it’s OK for early adpters to pay for things that will later become available to those ‘less fortunate.’

And there are ways (already outlined) to get what you want.

As long as eventually these items are obtainable by those not either tied permanently to their gaming machines, or Mr. Moneybags who can buy 100 Cartel packs at a time (save 15%!! ???), I’m AOK with an ‘Early Adopter Tax’.

(Edit: I don’t think they should limit the rep to cartel market purchasers, though… that does seem silly to me. Encourage playing the game? Excellent. Encourage spending money to no other purpose? Really? Is that a thing? Methinks there is some confusion. At least PRETEND to put something between us and the moneymaking, Ok? You could at LEAST give us a kiss first…)

/signed

i now feel like a second rate subscriber thanks EAWare

While I understand and support the existence of the Cartel Market, I want to begin by pointing out that its very existence may not be Pay-to-Win, but it is certainly P2W by proxy. How so? Because players who spend real money to acquire Cartel Packs are then able to turn around and sell the rarer items on the GTN. In turn, the profits they earn from such sales enable them to re-invest in elder game upgrades such as armoring, mods, hilts, etc. This gives them a distinct gearing advantage, not to mention the endless flow of credits to make other in-game purchases that less wealthy subscribers or F2P customers cannot do without a serious investment of time. (And I won't even bring up the ludicrous availability of starship upgrades on the CM...) As such, you have created a sort of SWTOR 1%. And we all know how many in the US feel about the 1%.

This doesn't matter anymore since you will not be able to craft the BiS items with 2.0. This doesn't make sense to me to begin with because the economy is part of the game. Whether players make credits through dailies, selling stims, or cartel items. P2W is very easily identified. The developers put BiS gear for people to buy with real money its that simple. You cannot twist the concept of P2W to fit your argument like that and even with that claim items are more common then in previous packs, to where some items aren't so rare and therefor do not sell as high on the GTN. Secondly, how can you consider the starship upgrades P2W? It doesn't affect any other player of the game except the player who has them. There are no leaderboards,m competitions or anything of the sort. So therefor those cannot be considered P2W either. FYI personally even if this was P2W, good gear doesn't make a good player.