" Those who had the most faith in SWTOR and put their money where their mouth is several months in advance are being rewarded."

This. I waited until the November beta because I didn't think the game would be that good. There is no reason I should play before somebody bought the game in July without any of the knowledge I had. Risk/reward.
 

People keep saying "they paid more for early access" but I don't see how this is true. Buying on Origin cost more because it was an undiscounted price but buying through Amazon, GAME or Zaavi (UK based retailers) both cost less and got you early access.
 

just preorder a game the first day its up on amazon. you can cancel the order if you arent happy with it and dont have to pay anything for it.

do this with all games... preorder bonus. most of the times you can cancel your order and keep the preorderbonus anyways.
 

I don't really like the way people look at earlier early access as a reward.

It is a practical and fair alternative to queing.

Instead of everyone being able to log in at once to the server and get in game on a first come first served basis due to server queues,
the queue is based on whom redemed there Pre-order codes on a first come first served basis.

Calling it a reward, would be similar as:

Getting home at 5pm tonight and loging in and suggesting since they made it in game after only a 1 hour wait they were rewarded, as opposed to the guy logging in at 7pm having to wait for 1.5hours.

Gettting to the show eariler to get better seats...

Critics and reviewers seeing movies before the rest of us.

Saying people that signed up and got into beta were rewarded for signing up...

I just don't seen any special treatment or recognition. Just a practical result of action taken based on experience and available knowledge. Probably just semantics on my part.

However, believing one deserves reward is a sign of the dark side… ;)
 

I waited a couple of months to order & get my code entered and I got access on the 15th.

The grace addition was clearly a good thing. Although the best news was Amazon, the logical place to purchase physical product, shipped my CE yesterday for delivery today (16th.)

I do like a comment I read that the extra-publisher-profit edition should be a physical pack that is ordered in addition to the digital. It is frustrating when the expensive version is less convenient.
 

I live in Belgium, in which shops was it already available?
 

Media Markt, Carra.
 

"Those who are already in are delighted how smoothly everything is running."

Two hour queues before launch is smooth? It's sad how low the MMO community's expectations are thesedays.
 

There were no queues the first 3 days. The queues only appeared yesterday evening, half a day AFTER this post was published.
 

Personally I think late access is a bonus... the starting areas are less mobbed and some of the bugs are fixed!

It's not as if easly access gained you any resources in a MMORPG, as it would in real life where resources are limited and the first in take their pick.

Could special limited resources, available only at launch, be used to encourage expensive pre-orders of a MMORPG? (Of course, later on we would sell them in-game to everyone else...)
 

I bought the game today in Belgium. It seems i can only play 12/20 even though there was a pre order code + a standard edition code in the box. I even have an active subscription at the moment. This is the first time ever I bought a game and have to wait 3 days to play. Why even release this game then i Belgium on 12/15. Big failure imo. Just let me in!! Gr
 

Sorry forget my post. I'm in. Received email apprx. 2h after I entered my code. Hoora!! No pre-order but i'm in 4 days before release.
 

Ok, I just bought it on origin, didn't want to wait any longer. Plus, all money actually goes to EA/Bioware.

Still, would be great if they adjust their online prices to somewhat match the online orders.