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

Yea, I have to say, though certainly subs get quite a few perks, they still have to pay for most of the perks that F2P and Preferred can and do purchase.

I do not feel that subs get a free ride by any stretch. But I would concede that subs have to pay FAR LESS to make the game playable than F2P/Preferred players do, at least what I call playable.

I just went back and double-checked. It's actually $210 (close enough to not matter):

• $60 Veteran Founder's Pack
• $120 Overlord Phoenix Pack
• $30 Mech Credits (hard-currency) for my brother

I can even post a screenshot. Here, have some proof! (though it doesn't show the $30 of MC for my brother, it does show both the Founder's badge and the Phoenix badge. Some quick googling should easily verify the prices of those packages if you're still skeptical)

For that to work they'd have to remove the credit cap for Freeps and Preferred, which is never going to happen for obvious reasons.

...Bad analogy is bad.

Name one perk that Subs must pay for that Freeps and Preferred must also pay for. Extra character slots doesn't count. Neither does anything purchasable via credits below 200k/350k.

Actually no it's a very good analogy. If you BUY your house, then when the stucco needs repaired that's out of pocket. If you rent, then unless you damaged the stucco, any repairs are on the owner. Making subs pay for everything on top of their sub? Yeah, nobody would sub and in fact I think most subs would jump on the "EA is the worst company in the world" bandwagon.

As for the "must purchase" thing, we pay $15 a month, we get the unlocks as long as we do. We very much are paying for it.

no, they won't. if you buy your subscription block, before your old one expires? you consistently stay subscriber and subscribers have to credit limits (or at least they are so high as to be a non issue) you are not supposed to wait until after your current subscription runs out you renew it the same way as you would right now, you just have another option as to how - AND it curbs credit selling even more, as selling subscription blocks could replace buying credits for people who may still do so.

Well, when you place those qualifiers on the question naturally the answer is nothing....in fact all three are not required to pay anything at all.....all three can simply not play the game.

How about you simply make the point you were going to make. Or ask me what I meant. We can discuss the finer points, but it doesn't have to be "you're wrong, i'm right" sort of thing IMO.

Fine, it's an okay analogy, but it really depends on your contract with the owner.

Also, almost every other F2P MMO out there makes subscribers (aka Premium accounts) pay for everything that isn't also unlocked to Freeps and Preferred by default, so.... Literally the only thing you're confirming here is that SWtoR's restrictions are indeed too harsh. If subscribers would start a riot over not being able to access a lot of basic features, why don't the Freeps and Preferred? Oh, right, they can't even post on the bloody forums!

Yeah, that wasn't a valid answer in the slightest. The question was: "what must Subs pay for to access IN ADDITION TO SUBSCRIBING (that part was implied but clearly it needs to be stated) that Freeps and Preferred must also pay for to access?" Zero points, do not pass "Go", do not collect $100, etc., etc.

This implies you have subscribed for at least one month previously, and are able to make 1 million credits at the very least per month, because that's roughly how much $15 translated into last time I saw an Artifact unlock on the GTN. So to put a level number on that, you'd have to be at level 45-50 to sustain that amount of credit generation, and then inflation would occur because there's no good credit sinks (that I have found). EVE handles this problem through permanent ship destruction. SWtoR has no such solution that would be acceptable by any means.

Exactly. There is nothing that subscribers must buy to unlock, aside from character slots which are largely (but not entirely) irrelevant to the game. Unless you like having lots of alts at once. Then it's an issue.

My point was that this statement:
is false. Once you subscribe, you get all the "perks". Every single one. Hell, a lot of them aren't even "perks", they're arbitrary restrictions put in place to force Freeps and Preferred to pay. Is playing an unlimited number of Warzones a "perk"? No, that's basic PvP. Is an unlimited number of Flashpoints a "perk"? No, that's basic raiding (the same argument could be made for Ops as well).

My nephew and his friend are only 12 and so are F2P (partly because they play loads of other games too, so hardly log in). Obviously they LOVE to be boosted along by my 55's, but it would be nice if I could trade to them gear I make for them.

Only one way would be fine, they can't sell or trade for profit, but people could choose to give them gifts....

IMHO the other restrictions do not lessen the playablitily of the game and are a lack of perks, so I think it's fine.

repair costs, augment costs, the cost of moving around the mods, they are adding gambling in a few days that is a pure credit sink, etc etc. not to mention- its going to sell for a bit higher then mil, I think, not that its difficult to make at lvl 50 + and that is the whole point - its not something you would be forced to do, its something that will be another option for people

are you claiming that subscription is free? because subscribers are paying a minimum of $13 a month for that continuous access. the whole thing is choice. do you want to pay a lumpsum to get unlocks and then have, ostensibly no monthly fee, and be able to play as sporadically or as regularly as you wish. or do you just want to be a set monthly fee and get all access. think of it as a phone plan. you could go for prepaid and pay on per call/text basis, or just buy a monthly unlimited plan and not worry about having to refill your minutes in the middle of the month.

I thought that Preferred could trade and all that takes is a one time $5 purchase. (FWIW I use a Visa or Amex gift card for places I don't want to have my real CC's on file).

I stopped right there. Let's not confuse "cannot afford" with "choose not to pay". The vast, super-majority of people with access to a computer and internet connection capable of playing this game can afford 50 cents a day. Even a 12 year old can find a way to make $15 a month. The 1% of 1% who do own a computer and have access to an Internet connection, yet truly can find no way to scrounge $15 a month, and who waste more than a couple hours a week playing this game have their priorities seriously out of order.