This is an angry rant, Swtor “Digital Expansion”

I am not going to make friends today. I was supposed to talk about me finishing RE4 but the recent Swtor news demand that I write. Usually I try not to rant on games I’m not playing anymore because I don’t want to ruin it for people who still love that game but today I’m breaking my own rule. Why? Because BioEA keeps making things worst for Swtor and it’s making me angry. I still care about this game and I still want to see it succeed and it pisses me off when I see them make decisions like charge subscribers for new content.

I’ve already talked about how I feel Swtor cash shop to be restrictive to the point of making the game unplayable at endgame. Pay to be able to raid, pay so you can equip items, pay for quests rewards, pay pay pay… Before one could argue that if you subscribed then all was fine. You had access to everything and you didn’t have to bother with all the restrictions. The cash shop then became more about fancy options and not an absolute necessity. Although I still think that Swtor system is bad for business long-term because it’s too restrictive, there was an argument to be made about subscription solving all your problems.

And then today I learn that Makeb is going to cost money to subscribers… While it’s called a “Digital Expansion” to try to bring it in line with the expansions of other games let’s not be dumb here. It’s one planet, one raid, one pvp zone and probably some space stuff. Unless Makeb turns out to be a gigantic multizone place, it shouldn’t be considered an expansion. It’s a DLC addon, simple as that. Now if Swtor was F2P I could understand them charging for DLC but all the other games with subs give away their DLC for free… not Swtor…

And I firmly believe that Swtor should give it away to their subscribers. Swtor has been riddled with issues since the start and subscribers deserve something for all their troubles. Not being gouged out for even more money. The explanation is rather simple. They know the game is having trouble and they want to suck every penny out of their customers as fast as they can. I think the history of the game points to this too.

1. Swtor cost a lot to make and they didn’t get the subscriptions they were needing. So it not unreasonable to think that they need to cover their costs.
2. This interview in late July, promised new content on a frequent basis and also that subscribers would never have to pay for new content. Quote from the interview: One of the chief things Jeff and Matt expect folks to spend money on if they’re not subscribed (subscribers will always receive every bit of new content, regardless of CC)
3. Said new content is more often than not Cash shop stuff. Most of the life day additions are Market items and the trend seems to be holding for Makeb. Another example would be the recent space combat additions.

So, if we go with the premise that the game cost a lot of money and that it’s doing badly, thus not covering its costs, it doesn’t take much of a leap to think that EA wants to get its money back as soon as possible and I so far, every action they make seems aimed at making more money out of the cash shop.

So here’s why I’m so angry. They have one of the best IP in the world and they know they are going to have people playing only because the name Star Wars is attached. But so far, it’s been one disappointing update after another and  BioEA seems more interested in finding ways to ask for money rather than making the game better. It’s ugly brand exploitation, not the first time Star Wars as suffered under it, and I hope that EA gets burned bad for this.

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