Is the F2P/Preffered system too prohibitive, and if so, what should change?

You can find worst : Bioware sells content in Cartel Market to F2P but... but... without any support in case of trouble.
Is it legal ?

It's very true. It feels like Bioware are blaming everyone else but themselves for the failure of this game after launch. So it's a 2 finger salute!

It is fine the way it is. I have been preferred for half a year when I had some money issues. You can play the game just fine. I think they are quite generous actually, being able to do FP's, WZ's, space missions, pretty much everything.

Yes, you need to sub or pay serious cash to enjoy the game to its fullest but this is entirely logical.

Do not paint such a broad stroke. I am a sub, and I don't believe F2P to be freeloaders. In fact, if I did a side by side comparison of what they had to spend in the CM just to get the same content, I would say they spend more than the subs. While it is possible to enjoy the game without spending a dime on CC, it is not highly probable. But without solid data showing what is spent in micro-transactions vs subs, it is all hypothesis.

TL;DR - Not all subs are short sighted snobs. But much like PvPers, I can see why we are judged by our weakest links.

The forums already incur heavy damage on a daily basis from people who pay to play. I could only imagine the intense amount of moderation which would be required if ANYONE could join. I usually think of the WoW forums, and then MMO-Champ.

At some times during the day general chat is rife with hate for F2P. Somehow I don't think this will convince anyone to subscribe and spend paid time in such lovely, welcoming company.

Fact is that the F2P crowd is very heterogeneous. There are many different reasons why people choose F2P or Preferred. There are the new players who want to check it out before they decide to spend money on it. There are those who have been laid off and can't afford the sub in between employments. There are those working shifts who only get to play a week out of 4 weeks subscription (and despite subscription have weekly limits imposed on everything, so they can't do in one week what others do in 4). And there are probably many more reasons, all personal and individual. In the end, the F2P offer is there, and no one should be berated for taking the offer.

Due to all those different reasons people will react differently to the restrictions. New players may decide to pay to get a richer experience. Since they don't really know what they're missing, they're probably the least likely to be frustrated. Former subs going F2P are much more likely to get frustrated since they notice the restrictions around every corner. But they knew what they got themselves into when they made the decision. By now, we have many unlocks available that can make the preferred status an enjoyable experience. Most of the few restrictions that cannot be removed through unlocks should remain, at least until better (more enticing) subscriber rewards have been implemented.

ETA: One of the things I agree they should have access to in addition to the trade option that I mentioned before, are bug reports and access to the customer service forum for Preferred players. Bugs affect us all, it doesn't matter who ran across them first, the sooner they are reported, the sooner they can be investigated and fixed. Preferred players by definition spent real money on the product and should have an option to get support for it.

Go back to your Magic Castle where either only Utopia or slave to CC exists. The world is a bit more complex, but that would be a very confusing discussion for you.

Damn right I'm high-mounted but I worked for it without asking from others. Dont try to make any connection to brain capacity here because obviously you and many others are the ones worring about some ****** 20CHF per month, not me. So obviously I got more back for my brain capacity. Damn beggars

I recently returned as preferred status and have just been leveling my lowbie, so the credit sound spam didn't bother me. I haven't tried mailing items. Can't you send multiple mails with 1 item each? You can still send stacks, right?

What is driving me NUTS is having to pay to respec. Doesn't BW realize it severely limits our ability to queue for multiple roles for Flashpoints, thus making pops take longer for subs? And you know, I don't even mind the fee so much as the fact that it increases exponentially. A flat fee based on your character level would be perfectly fine. But don't let me respec for 1k credits without telling me it will be 15k credits to spec back.

I also think the warzone limit should be rethought, since that also provides content for subs. Maybe chop the rewards in half after the first five warzones or something? I dunno, maybe that's not as important since there are passes you can buy. (Ops I can understand, and you can still do unlimited FPs, just not roll on the last item)

If you're wondering how I'm typing this, I found a refer-a-friend link that granted me a week's subscription. I used the opportunity to consolidate credits among my toons, delete the ones I didn't want, and buy a couple of unlocks, like the account-wide artifact gear unlock. Also, the refer-a-friend gave each of my toons a bind-on-pickup unlock for an inventory slot, crew skill, and a couple cosmetics (titles and unify colors I think).

We have one person that has indicated that the mail restrictions encouraged them to sub. Anyone else?