MAN, it's been a long time since I was last here. Anyway... There's one teensy problem with your precis here, doc. I am not a lawyer, but I do gamble a lot in Vegas and other places and I've seen some idiots there try to sue casinos. Your definition of a 'hit' is a platinum item. The problem is that if you open a box, you get something. If you roll a slot machine, a hit is a return of ANYTHING, including a 1:1 payout. Legally I am not really sure RICO can ever apply if you are not having hit rates based on get something / get nothing. Logically, the argument itself is its own query: does anything in boxes have any value to anyone if it is not a platinum item? That's going to be the biggest problem argument in any legal case, I'd think. Ethically, you're probably right. Unfortunately, this is also compromised by the fact that you can sell non-plat items on the Exchange and get credits, so there is a level of conversion there. It's a mess. I'd be interested to see what you end up coming up with.

Bungie also did earlier games than Myth, like Marathon that were awesome. That being said, part of the problem is simply market exposure. EA is trying to sell the most games and game quality doesn't always translate to game sales.

So, the argument seems to be that if one does not enjoy 5.0, it is due to their own inadequacy as a gamer. Expecting an MMO to reward group content that actually requires coordination instead of button pressing is old-fashioned. RNG's are somehow now 'evolution', and anyone who dislikes the game is a troll and should quit. Oh, and the game is doing fine. Congrats! You have successfully logic-chopped. Implying the player base needs to learn to play a new game -- one they did NOT ask for and one that does NOT address issues important to the bulk of customers -- is exactly why SWG and WAR went offline.

I'm done, probably for good. Just deleted it from the hard drive last night, to make space for Stellaris. I'm probably going to see what's going on in STO, ESO and TSW, then take a break from gaming altogether. To be fair, the problem is not entirely CXP. It is one reason why I'm unsubbing, but that's more due to the lack of any perceived play value in the system laid out. The larger, more tired problem is the storyline. We once had eight wonderful stories. Then Makeb made it a Pub/imp duality. Then SoR made it one story for everyone, but it was the kind of thing you could get. But KotFE and KofET aren't about my characters. They're really about a bunch of NPC's. None of my non-force users felt ... like this was something they were a part of. It 'feels' right for the JK and SW, and to a lesser degree the JC and even less for the SI. I could make a very weak argument that, yeah, the IA could be seen to have 'made a difference'. But the rest? Their inclusion never fits, and it felt bad. And I somehow doubt, with my character somehow the Grand Emperor of Everything, that the story CAN go anywhere else. Certainly not back into eight class stories. If we did that -- got back to eight class stories, Sith vs. Jedi, Imps vs. Pubs, then I could get fired up enough to want to play even IF CXP system remains crappy. Without that, I honestly was losing interest even before 5.0, but was at least entertained by PVP. I'm happy to see some people are resubbing. I'm amused to see that even people who like the system aren't, due to lack of 'anything to do'. And I'm kind of sad that I'm not the only one who's given up on BW. Just ... don't mess up Andromeda too bad, BW, and I'll resub for six months in gratitude.

This, pretty much, is the core of the problem. People who play the game only for PVP, raiding, crafting, or guild activities are mostly gone. A lot -- twenty seven by last count -- of people I know have either unsubbed or now are gone to preferred. I've unsubbed before, and stayed that way for quite a while before giving the game a chance again...and being disappointed and unsubbing again. Many people -- including myself -- probably won't bother coming back. The people who are being called 'white knights' like what they see. But they fail to see it's alienating literally everyone else. This isn't going to bring most people back, because the focus is clearly on tuning what they have, not realizing that it's made a lot of people give up completely. To be fair, as soon as they moved in this direction I realized my time with the game was over, much like when the NGE hit. I'm not saying it's not fun for some people. But not for me. And watching the livestream I realized that I was no longer the customer they wanted. See, PVP people and raiders and guild people require a constant stream of new and inventive content. That's not what they're going to be doing, apparently. There's some people who admit they aren't ever going to be good enough (regardless of gear) to do NiM, or to be in the top 100 ranked. Neither am I. But I could at least be a good off-tank, or heal people, or hold a point in PVP. The story was interesting but once you've done it ... it's over. There's nothing there. PVP, Ops, flashpoints were what was challenging. Not everyone is the same, and for those who think this is a move in the right direction I wish you well. But for the rest of us, the message from the livestream is clear. This is the way things are. We'll adjust it... but only in ways that still serve the same purpose. PVP is not important. Operations aren't important. Flashpoints aren't important. Tacticals, uprisings, and regrinding story chapters on alts is your future. Congratulations, white knights! You've won the game.

I don't know how to put this calmly. THEY STILL HAVEN'T FIXED STUFF FROM LAUNCH!!! WHY IN GOD'S NAME ARE WE SUPPOSED TO GIVE THEM EVEN MORE TIME! Actually, I was going to wait until January , but YOUR post made me hit the unsubscribe button, good job.

Welp, not surprised. Then again, looks like I didn't lose anything, seing as the command system hasn't given me jack yet, so I'm more resigned than upset. I am curious as to what exactly happened.

There is certainly truth to this. I was pissed about a lot of earlier changes, but willing to put up with it because some things improved. The token system allowed for even casuals to at least be properly geared for SM ops for once, and PVP was finally in a tolerable place. I wasn't very happy about the move away from the real story into KOTFE, but I was willing to endure as long as it was encapsulated in its own little area. 5.0 broke things in that I now have no reason to work my alts. It's not that the system is utterly garbage, but it's not enjoyable. This is a game. I pay BW money in return for enjoyment. If it's not enjoyable, I'm unhappy and say so. If I'm being told my unhappiness isn't important, then there is simply no logical reason for me to continue to pay money. Small changes can and will break people's willingness to put up with things they don't like.

There's two possible schools of thought as to why this was done. Either they plan to pair this thing with some sort of short-form episodic content, so that the 'grind' is not always the same stuff over and over, or they want to extend the lifespan of higher-level (NiM) raid content windows, so that they don't have to make as much ops related content. The puzzling thing is the revamp to PVP, which honestly makes zero sense at all. Having no connection at all between PVP achievement and gearing does certainly open up ranked... but most people who aren't PvP focused are NOT going to enjoy ranked. Some speculation as to the "why" behind this move is an interesting thing to consider.

The poster above is an example of why there are so many negative threads. Instead of looking at the game and realizing there are significant problems, they assume any negativity is due to some ill-define coterie of 'trolls' who are willing to pay money to post bad things about a game. No explanation for why the sub numbers are gone. No explanation for why you can EASILY pick dozens of 'unsub' threads and find that, lo and behold, these players haven't posted since they made that announcement, or shortly thereafter. No explanation as to how it can be the 'same people' when some of the people didn't even start playing until recently. We saw this behavior in SWG after NGE, where white knights were screaming their fool heads off saying it was going to be great. COH white knights said the game was going to crush DCU and CO. Warhammer white knights actually said negative posts were paid for by other games. All three of those MMO's are dead.

Well, according to the white knights, NO ONE is unsubbing... Frankly, when I see posts where people make up flat out lies, state their own assumptions and opinions as facts and then claim others are acting immaturely due to criticism, the utility of taking these people seriously falters.

That's certainly a valid point, and one that often gets ignored because people are angry. Some of the vitriol is pointless. However, the situation is not being improved by those who continue to conflate criticism and dislike with "being a troll". One poster actually had the unmitigated gall to suggest anyone who claimed they haven't had a good experience with CXP was lying, and another one said no one was unsubbing and all complaints were just people trolling. Ultimately, the point is moot. Anger is causing people to act in a rude manner, and the way some people are acting is only goading that anger. My larger concern is that BW isn't going to be looking at the proper metrics. We get a surge of players due to the 'expac', and then supposedly more content in January. By the time the people who've come back get tired and the numbers return to normal, the window to see how many people this 5.0 drove away and to fix things quickly will be over. I've disagreed with a lot of changes over the years. I disagreed with changes to classes, to skills, to the direction the game went in with KOTFE, to XP boosts and many other things. I've let my sub lapse several times and come back to see how things went. This time, however, I really don't see a point in ever coming back.

Riight. Because no one has ever unsubscribed from the game and everyone complaining on the forums you can only post on as a subscriber are handing over money month after month to just cry on a forum. People have been wondering if the white knights for this game don't realize that we've gone from 2 million to under half a million and from 100 servers to 8, or that -- surprise -- having a host of good things (improvements to QOL, story, etc) won't stop a person from quietly unsubscribing if they can't enjoy the game to due one bad thing. But, please, continue to pretend everything is fine. I mean, it's not like they pulled this same stunt in another SW MMO that collapsed after everyone on those forums said everything was fine and anyone being negative was a troll. I've put more people on ignore in the past three days than I have in the past year.

You are aware that there is an influx of players after every major expansion... which quickly dwindles after the content is exhausted? This process will be even faster if lots of people are disappointed. City of Heroes, Warhammer Online, Star Wars Galaxies, Matrix Online, Vanguard. You know what they all had in common? A major change in how the very nature of the game worked, a huge number of players saying it was bad, a bunch of idiotic white knights saying everything was fine and people who didn't like it were trolls, and the games collapsing and being shut down. People are not complaining because they are trolls. They're paying customers unhappy with something that is ruining a game they want to enjoy.

I have a tendency to put people like that on ignore. If a person posting a) is always rude, yet claims anyone acting rude towards him or her is 'immature' b) never can actually provide a reasonable answer to any challenges to their ideas but claims others are 'trolling' c) has a long posting history of never , ever criticizing anything BW has done There is no point engaging in conversation with them.