What is the purpose of a sub?

Since when do you need to "fork over $100+" to do basic stuff? If you're not that into SWTOR (or, like some of my friends, your schedule is such that you never feel like you get your money's worth when you get an MMO subscription, as sometimes you barely get any playtime all month) then you're not likely to be the kind of person to spend a ton of cash on virtual clothing. Either way, why not have the option to only have the basics so that you can play through the class story? If you're really not into the MMO thing, will you really miss crafting, end-game, PvP, etc? Prolly not.

I imagine most FtP players will end up spending at least one month's worth of subscription in the little add-ons (hiding head slot, action bars, etc.) If they find that they're spending a ton of time playing SWTOR, maybe they'll sub. If not, then they probably shouldn't.

And remember, not everyone is so OCD that they're willing to spend $100 to make their companions outfit match better or whatever. I've got a friend who will be coming back now that the game is FtP (was in the "crazy schedule" category; he always liked the game). I doubt he'll spend more than $10 in cartel add-ons, but he'll get to finally enjoy the story for the game he bought back at launch.

You don't have to, just purchase it on GTN with credits. That's what I did.

The sub offers unlimited access to FP's, Ops, WZ's and space missions. That for one is more expensive already if you use just the cartel shop. The rest? You may just as well purchase on GTN from players selling.

F2P is there to compel new people to try the game in the hopes that decide to stick around with a sub or at least buy a lot of things on the market. I know some people who tried out F2P, bought some unlocks and play on/off with weekly passes as their schedule allows. This is a win for EA as otherwise they would not have gotten any $ from these people. I also know several subscribers who've spent hundreds of $ on cartel coins to buy those cartel packs. Another big win for EA.

As a subscriber who refuses to buy cartel coins, I think we should get more CC allowances and more items on the shop should be free for us but it's not a big deal.

There is no way to get all of what is offered in the sub with coins. Even if you unlock everything, you will still be gimped in several ways. Here is what I discovered:

• Less deployable crew members for skills.
• No crafting queue
• No lockboxes from quests.
• LEss XP (you can get consumable bonuses but not unlock fully)
• Lower credit cap (no unlock available)
• Limits to QT, no Fleet Pass.
• Limits to Space missions, WZ, OPS, as well as limited loot drops in FPs
• Limited field rezes (which will annoy the crap out of other players if you die under the mob)

That is all that I noticed from checking out "Preferred" status prior to resubbing. There is potentially more. Several of these items are not even mentioned in any FAQs regarding F2P. I find that frustrating. At least be up front about how restricted players will be.

See my response this thread about the irony of EAwares Freemium model.

I will toss this out for those that say that they don't have time to play as they would like to pay $15 for a subscription.

If you ONLY have 1hr a day to play and pay $15 a month, you only pay $0.50 a day to play that hour.

If you bought a coffee is some of the more popular coffee barns you can pay up to $5 for that cup of coffee. That is 10.5 hrs of SWTOR play if you are in the 1hr a day catagory.

The more you play the less per hour cost for playing.

Playing a subscription, even if you don't have that much time to play, in the end is the better value. Oh and you can cut out expensive coffees, soda, etc. and have enought to cover $15 a month.

Just sayin'.

Even games that aren't Free to Play have items that you can't obtain in game, though.

http://us.blizzard.com/store/browse.xml?f=c:5

Whether you want to sub in the game or not is up to the individual, if you're someone who wants to do a lot of warzones and operations, then subbing is by far the best option. If you just want to level casually, it's probably not the best option.

Unlike those other MMOs, this game has been shown to struggle to keep subscribers since it came out but nope, EA/Bioware wanted to be picky and designed a F2P system that is quite terrible, alienating and overall it turns off a lot of potential new players. If nothing is changed then this game will go back to struggling to maintain subscribers and within 2-3 months the F2P hype for this game will have lost steam so you'll be getting even less new players. I'm DEFINITELY not feeling very confident about the long-term prospects which is why I've stopped buying any more coins. It makes me question if I even want to continue supporting a game that will eventually go down because of a company that clearly has learned absolutely nothing the past few months.

A subscription is effectively a bulk discount on feature unlocks plus a coin stipend.

We hope.

Oh don't get me wrong. I have no issues paying to play. I enjoy this game enough to do so. I just wish they would be more up front about what you don't get by not being a sub. One would think unlocking the crew skills would give you them as a sub, but instead you get three crew skills, one less deployable companion than a sub, and no crafting queue. Not the end of the world, but really frustrating when you unlock it and you are still somewhat restricted.

I think there needs to be more tweaking before this system will be ideal. I'll keep subbing because I hate being restricted.