It's about subscribers having content paywalled behind monetized grinds with timers.

 

It's structurally problematic, and we should protest it before EA tunes it aggressively.

 

And yes, monetized grinds are paywalls.

Yeah I still don't see it. There was more than enough time to do it. You're the one who made the choice not to play the game to meet the goals, you can't really blame BW on that...

Also - the next Galactic Season will give people a whole week to do the objectives on their own time, so if you don't reach the goal... you really can't blame BW because you don't play the game enough.

It's about subscribers having content paywalled behind monetized grinds with timers.

 

It's structurally problematic, and we should protest it before EA tunes it aggressively.

 

And yes, monetized grinds are paywalls.

Seriously... stop trying to paint this out as a paywall.

Literally anyone can finish this loooong before the deadline if they just put even the tiniest effort into it.

Log on every day during the season? That's 10 levels right there.

Do a daily every day? That's 462 points right there. More than half way already.

You're painting it out to be worse than it is.

We get it... you want this game to be a subscriber game where no other costs exist.

Sadly, that turned out to not work.

You're on a crusade to try to make BioWare change their monetization method.

Sadly, you don't realize that doing that would literally kill the game. As was proven years ago when they had to go the F2P model just to survive.

But hey... you keep swinging at those windmills... Just stop pretending that you're a knight while doing it.

Yeah I still don't see it. There was more than enough time to do it. You're the one who made the choice not to play the game to meet the goals, you can't really blame BW on that...

 

Also - the next Galactic Season will give people a whole week to do the objectives on their own time, so if you don't reach the goal... you really can't blame BW because you don't play the game enough.

I'll explain:

Subscribers now have content paywalled behind monetized grinds with timers.

That's an unacceptable structure for subscribers who pay not less than $155.88, year over year, for a 'PREMIUM' experience.

It doesn't matter how easy you perceive the grind to be; this structure exists because EA intends to hurt us with it. Monetized grinds have no other purpose.

We should care about structure.

A great way to show that care is to not spend Cartel Coins on GS as its timer ticks down.

I finished my galactic seasons on 3 servers and did it on Star Forge (my main server) over 8 weeks ago. The other 2 servers I finished 2-3 weeks ago and I started on them over a month later than Star Forge. It literally took me no more than 15mins each time I logged in on each of those two servers and I didn’t login more than 4-5 times a week. Sometime I didn’t even do any activities, I just logged in enough to get the login points for the week.

This thread’s topic is complete and utter hyperbole and misinformation. Any subscriber who plays 3-4 times a week more than 15mins at a time can very “easily” finish galactic seasons with little effort if they started at the beginning. Even if they don’t do all the activities each time they login in they will accumulate points from logging in 4 times a week. That’s literally a few minutes to login and log off again.

And anyone who “paid” real money or wasted CC’s right at the beginning was foolish as it was a complete and utter waste of money in my opinion. I really hope Bioware add credit catch ups at the start next time and don’t make them amortise so much as they do now. It would be a fantastic credit sink (to help with inflation) and it would add an incentive for people to use credits if they want to jump ahead or take a break from the game. No one in their right mind should use real money or CC’s next season and if you do, then the jokes on you for being gullible.

I finished my galactic seasons on 3 servers and did it on Star Forge (my main server) over 8 weeks ago. The other 2 servers I finished 2-3 weeks ago and I started on them over a month later than Star Forge. It literally took me no more than 15mins each time I logged in on each of those two servers and I didn’t login more than 4-5 times a week. Sometime I didn’t even do any activities, I just logged in enough to get the login points for the week.

 

This thread’s topic is complete and utter hyperbole and misinformation. Any subscriber who plays 3-4 times a week more than 15mins at a time can very “easily” finish galactic seasons with little effort if they started at the beginning. Even if they don’t do all the activities each time they login in they will accumulate points from logging in 4 times a week. That’s literally a few minutes to login and log off again.

 

And anyone who “paid” real money or wasted CC’s right at the beginning was foolish as it was a complete and utter waste of money in my opinion. I really hope Bioware add credit catch ups at the start next time and don’t make them amortise so much as they do now. It would be a fantastic credit sink (to help with inflation) and it would add an incentive for people to use credits if they want to jump ahead or take a break from the game. No one in their right mind should use real money or CC’s next season and if you do, then the jokes on you for being gullible.

If a grind requires months of consistent effort to beat a timer, it will leave behind a substantial number of people. By design.

That's why there's a cash-out.

If a grind requires months of consistent effort to beat a timer, it will leave behind a substantial number of people. By design.

That's why there's a cash-out.

As Solid Snake once said: "Yeah, so what?"

What if those left behind don't care to catch up?

If they did, wouldn't they invest the minute amount of effort to do so?🤔

If a grind requires months of consistent effort to beat a timer, it will leave behind a substantial number of people. By design.

 

That's why there's a cash-out.

I really don’t get what your drama is about?

Your statement can be applied to anything that takes time. There really is very little grind involved when you have such a large amount of time to complete it.

Plus, the game itself is an MMO, meaning the whole thing is a grind by design. So if grinds in general are a problem for you, I would suggest you are playing the wrong type of game.

I really don’t get what your drama is about?

Your statement can be applied to anything that takes time. There really is very little grind involved when you have such a large amount of time to complete it.

Plus, the game itself is an MMO, meaning the whole thing is a grind by design. So if grinds in general are a problem for you, I would suggest you are playing the wrong type of game.

Grinds are fine. Monetized grinds are not.

Monetized grinds with timers are worse.

Imposing paywalls like that on top of a subscription is a problem. No matter how lightly tuned the grind is, the structure itself is built to eventually hurt us.

It. Has. No. Other. Purpose.

I'll explain:

 

Subscribers now have content paywalled behind monetized grinds with timers.

 

That's an unacceptable structure for subscribers who pay not less than $155.88, year over year, for a 'PREMIUM' experience.

 

It doesn't matter how easy you perceive the grind to be; this structure exists because EA intends to hurt us with it. Monetized grinds have no other purpose.

 

We should care about structure.

 

A great way to show that care is to not spend Cartel Coins on GS as its timer ticks down.

I agree that it is better if players did not spend CC on getting these unnecessary items (*). Better for the players and for the game in the long run, IMO.

The question I have is: Would you still have objections if the CC part of it was removed? What minimal changes to the current system would make it acceptable in your view?

(*) They might be wanted but are certainly not needed.

I agree that it is better if players did not spend CC on getting these unnecessary items (*). Better for the players and for the game in the long run, IMO.

 

The question I have is: Would you still have objections if the CC part of it was removed? What minimal changes to the current system would make it acceptable in your view?

 

(*) They might be wanted but are certainly not needed.

Removing CC cash-outs would be a significant improvement.

I'll be ok with the mechanic when EA isn't financially incentivized to produce (subscribed) player failure.

There's no way they would remove the choice of using CC. That's probably the whole point for them - find a way to make money out of it.

But again, you don't HAVE to use CC. You can just use credits.

But again, you don't HAVE to use CC. You can just use credits.

or play the game, but that would be insane for the devs to require player to actually play to get rewards heh

100-level grinds, paired with a timer and cash-outs, aren't intended to be completed. They're intended to produce cash-outs.

And yet I did it six times (two accounts on three servers to level 100) well before the end of the season. And on the other two servers I got to level 28 on both accounts. Now, full disclosure, I did use credits to unlock level 95 on my alt account on DM. But then, I did also have surgery a few weeks ago and that limited how much I could play for about three weeks. I did not spend a single Cartel Coin on the season, though, and my CC balances on both accounts have swelled as a result.

There's no way they would remove the choice of using CC. That's probably the whole point for them - find a way to make money out of it.

 

But again, you don't HAVE to use CC. You can just use credits.

I bet they remove the option to use credits next season. And I further predict that when they do, all the fine fellows in this thread defending this system will switch gears like "well, when you look at it from their perspective, it makes sense that they would remove that option" and "I know it sucks, but hey, at least they left us the option to use CCs." After all, THEY didn't need to use credits, they just have no life and can afford to play this game like a full-time job.

PS - No, you can't report a post to get it removed just because you disagree with what the person is saying.

I bet they remove the option to use credits next season. And I further predict that when they do, all the fine fellows in this thread defending this system will switch gears like "well, when you look at it from their perspective, it makes sense that they would remove that option" and "I know it sucks, but hey, at least they left us the option to use CCs." After all, THEY didn't need to use credits, they just have no life and can afford to play this game like a full-time job.

The fine fellows in this thread have already called out BioWare for adding the credit unlock as a delayed catch-up option compared to the immediate CC purchase option without clearly communicating that to their customers beforehand. It was pretty obvious that they did this on purpose to lure the uninformed players who don't frequent the forums into the CC trap.

Apart from that, I am willing to take you up on that bet. Asking for millions and billions of credits to unlock a few Season levels is well in their interest as a means to suck out credits from player pockets and entice them to spend real money on the game to fill their pockets again.

The fine fellows in this thread have already called out BioWare for adding the credit unlock as a delayed catch-up option compared to the immediate CC purchase option without clearly communicating that to their customers beforehand. It was pretty obvious that they did this on purpose to lure the uninformed players who don't frequent the forums into the CC trap.

 

Apart from that, I am willing to take you up on that bet. Asking for millions and billions of credits to unlock a few Season levels is well in their interest as a means to suck out credits from player pockets and entice them to spend real money on the game to fill their pockets again.

Excellent. Shall we play for credits or CCs?

Excellent. Shall we play for credits or CCs?

Since I don't see a secure way to transfer CC ingame, credits will be fine.

I'd wager 1 billion credits that the next Season will get the same delayed credit catch-up mechanic as the first Season.

Since I don't see a secure way to transfer CC ingame, credits will be fine.

 

I'd wager 1 billion credits that the next Season will get the same delayed credit catch-up mechanic as the first Season.

I don't have a billion credits, sorry whale . Can send 1M on either SS or SF.

I don't have a billion credits, sorry whale . Can send 1M on either SS or SF.

That's fine.

I'm just going to throw this out there no matter how it sounds. Bioware really needs to raise the cap on how much things can be sold for on the gtn to the what the individual credit cap is. If I am spending 40 usd on a lightsaber and I can only sell if for 1b on the gtn and only get like 940m after tax, why would I purchase cartel coins? At this point the runaway inflation 1b is nothing. When you try to sell it on the trade channel there must be a group who of people who are organized and all the do it yell at you calling you greedy or saying it's only a 1b credit saber. Even though there are non on the gtn.

tldr: Sooner or later people spending real money to purchase a 40 dollar usd lghtsaber are not going to spend their money to get 1b credits anymore. If the cartel market and buying coins is keeping the game afloat I have to imagine people are not buyinf cartel coins now due to the fact 1b credits is nothing.

I know this is a crazy suggestion... How about they put loot on mobs in their content instead of on menus and in stores... You know so that people have incentive to actually play the game... It's not like RPG's are about adventuring and discovering cool environments and treasures I know...but it could just work...

They removed almost all worlddrops, to have better chances for selling something in the store. I would not hope that they reverse this decision.

it's ok if someone want to make money with a game. But it's not okay to make it a goal for pushing this to the max.

Long ago a supposed employee made a post here in the forum, to warn us that they are changing this game into a cash cow. It was deleted asap.

I still enjoy this game but unnecessary changes which are mostly only good for monetization makes it harder to like the actual game.

I'm just going to throw this out there no matter how it sounds. Bioware really needs to raise the cap on how much things can be sold for on the gtn to the what the individual credit cap is. If I am spending 40 usd on a lightsaber and I can only sell if for 1b on the gtn and only get like 940m after tax, why would I purchase cartel coins? At this point the runaway inflation 1b is nothing. When you try to sell it on the trade channel there must be a group who of people who are organized and all the do it yell at you calling you greedy or saying it's only a 1b credit saber. Even though there are non on the gtn.

 

tldr: Sooner or later people spending real money to purchase a 40 dollar usd lghtsaber are not going to spend their money to get 1b credits anymore. If the cartel market and buying coins is keeping the game afloat I have to imagine people are not buyinf cartel coins now due to the fact 1b credits is nothing.

I'm sure they will just raise the credit cap. Because this does not actually solve the problem, but only prolongs it.

I'm sure they will just raise the credit cap. Because this does not actually solve the problem, but only prolongs it.

not that I care to spend squat on a saber or really any cosmetic stuff. but inflation is straight up out of control in this game. raising a cap for whatever reason sounds absurd to me. as a casual sub who doesn't play the market or spend game time gathering mats to sell stacks on the GTN, I found it insane how expensive ordinary mats are. and the price to min-max your toon with augs and amps is crazy high.

I played the game on and off for 8 years. I left just before amps were a thing, and came back for 6.2. holy (* &! I make my own augs, and the time as well as money sink involved in creating purple augs is absolutely insane. god forbid you have to buy a mat or two. holy cow! just insane. we don't all have billions to throw around. 8 years of gathering money (about 50 mil?) disappeared in a heartbeat. it's just insane. I bought a catel bundle for ~5k CC(?) and sold just about everything for somewhere in the vicinity of 500 mil in less than a week. that should've been more money than god, but I've given up gearing more than the 3 toons I have kitted out now. it's just not worth the time or the (virtual) money. what a strange grind they've created.

Here's the thing, though.

It's not really inflation.

If it was inflation, then really uninteresting and ****** things would be expensive as well.

But just yesterday, I had some fun by limiting the GTN search to less than 1.000.000 credits and looking for full sets of CM armours.

And I snagged quite a few full sets for a lot less than 1 million each (most of them were under 300.000 each). And these were not just ancient sets either, there were a few that were pretty new.

Now, if there truly was inflation, then they would have been much more expensive.

However, we're not dealing with inflation.

We're dealing with a wealth gap. We have long-time players (end game grinders) and players who are savvy to the in-game systems of making money (crafters, market speculators, etc) and whales who have billions of credits driving up the price on items that are attractive for one reason or another (Like the newest sets of CM items or materials for mass production etc.).

And then you have new players, returning players or players who just don't do end-game content.

And they don't have billions of credits.

They're the ones who are here talking about inflation.

(To be clear, yes there is some inflation, but that's not the root of the problem in these discussions)

not that I care to spend squat on a saber or really any cosmetic stuff. but inflation is straight up out of control in this game. raising a cap for whatever reason sounds absurd to me. as a casual sub who doesn't play the market or spend game time gathering mats to sell stacks on the GTN, I found it insane how expensive ordinary mats are. and the price to min-max your toon with augs and amps is crazy high.

 

I played the game on and off for 8 years. I left just before amps were a thing, and came back for 6.2. holy (* &! I make my own augs, and the time as well as money sink involved in creating purple augs is absolutely insane. god forbid you have to buy a mat or two. holy cow! just insane. we don't all have billions to throw around. 8 years of gathering money (about 50 mil?) disappeared in a heartbeat. it's just insane. I bought a catel bundle for ~5k CC(?) and sold just about everything for somewhere in the vicinity of 500 mil in less than a week. that should've been more money than god, but I've given up gearing more than the 3 toons I have kitted out now. it's just not worth the time or the (virtual) money. what a strange grind they've created.

Came back for the story and was happy to get the missing rewards in the galactic season. Ignored the expensive augments but tried to make at least one augment for fun. Couldn't make it because Kai Zykken ate all my techies!

I like that the other mats are all obtainable by just playing the game for a reasonable time. And you're doing it right to ignore things which is robbing too much time and money.