Back to grace

Just a short newsflash: EA Bioware changed their mind again on the grace period. So now there is a 48-hour grace period for people who pre-ordered but for some reason can't get hold of their actual game code on the 20th or before. That is primarily an issue for those who ordered a physical copy of the game by mail. Here in Belgium the game has been for sale already since Monday. Well, at least I got early access for having pre-ordered via Origin, because otherwise I would be miffed that my friends got SWTOR both before and cheaper than me. I paid €54.99 on Origin for the digital copy and still haven't received my code, and my friends already got their physical box from the store for €40.

The reception of the early access in the MMORPG blogosphere is mixed, for obvious reasons: Those who are already in are delighted how smoothly everything is running. Those who aren't in yet are ranting that others are getting all the fun. Personally I think that the gated access is working well for the stability of the servers, and that giving access based on pre-order date is probably still the fairest method you can think of. Those who had the most faith in SWTOR and put their money where their mouth is several months in advance are being rewarded. Seeing how they even paid more for the privilege of pre-ordering, the reward is justified. Those who preferred to wait and see will have to wait a little bit longer. And really, it's just a week difference at maximum, that is not such a huge advantage.