So, I decided to look at the GTN to see what unlocks are there that I may want to buy when Preferred status kicks in and every single item is over 1 million credits.

 

Am I the only one that sees the irony in this considering the credit cap for F2P / preferred is 1 mil.

It's always been like this (well, at least it was when I was playing like 3 or 4 years ago). The people selling the items want to get top dollar for their stuff, and they know a lot of people who buy them are subs who will soon be preferred.

 

PVP passes and OPs passes were always like 700k or something like that. So I had to first buy a credit escrow unlock for like 250,000 and then save up to buy the PVP pass.

 

Ah, those were the days.

I used to buy wz passes for 350k.

Oh, for sure. I've never not known those things to be unreasonably priced. Even without a credit cap, they are often sold for way more than they're worth and there are very few to be found.

 

If Bioware wanted to make better money off them, I would think they'd be wise to lower the CC cost, make it only account unlock instead of char/account (the latter of which just confuses things) and then maybe people would be more apt to buy and sell them on the GTN at a price more in the realm of what preferred can afford.

 

Even better would be to eliminate the nickle and diming aspect of it, and just make a bundle you can buy that gives you all of the preferred-centric unlocks. Make it like a B2P option.

I think it has more to do with the coins to credit ratio than anything else.

 

If I'm looking to make credits though cartel market items, though does seem a little crazy as they are about the only thing worth buying, you look at what gets you the best return. If you could only sell an unlock for 1 million credits nothing is really cheap enough and useful enough to make it worth the sale now op passes are out of the market.

 

Is it poor design, sure it could be seen as that. Or maybe it just forces preferred players to think ahead while they are subbed and buy what they think they will need and if they miss something have to sub again to get it.

It just seems so weird that the cheapest unlocks on the GTN are all over the credit cap a preferred player can have.

 

Unless someone can buy it for them or they haven’t already gone preferred, then those items are out of reach of those who need to use them. Which also restricts the amount of people who are likely to buy them.

That’s the irony. They buy to sell to people who can’t buy them at the prices they list

 

I get people want to convert CC to reasonable credits amounts. But there are better items to do that with that cost the same. Why not just buy and sell those? But if you are going to buy unlocks to sell, just realise that the credit limit is 1 mil, not 1.1 mil, 1.2 mil, not 12,000,000 and certainly not 44,000,000.

So, I decided to look at the GTN to see what unlocks are there that I may want to buy when Preferred status kicks in and every single item is over 1 million credits.

 

Am I the only one that sees the irony in this considering the credit cap for F2P / preferred is 1 mil.

 

F2p unlocks was expensive from the begging.

Bioware increased F2p credit cap, because they are going to have an economical system based mostly on credits.

This mean that everything will get even higher price. But for pref players will be the same.

If a vehicle now costs 100.000 it will now costs 1.000.000 (999.999k)

So, I decided to look at the GTN to see what unlocks are there that I may want to buy when Preferred status kicks in and every single item is over 1 million credits.

 

Am I the only one that sees the irony in this considering the credit cap for F2P / preferred is 1 mil.

 

Those unlocks were never posted for F2P in the first place.. They are for subs who cancel their sub and don't want to lose their unlocks afterwards.

Those unlocks were never posted for F2P in the first place.. They are for subs who cancel their sub and don't want to lose their unlocks afterwards.

 

^^^ this basically. Most unlocks are bought for F2P's or bought by people cancelling their subs.

^^^ this basically. Most unlocks are bought for F2P's or bought by people cancelling their subs.

 

Or persistent Preferreds. I played as a Pref for a good 2 years but took care of basic unlocks, species stuff and the occasional pass to play with my guilds at the time. This was back while Oricon was still fresh. Toward 3.0, it became unbearable.

So, I decided to look at the GTN to see what unlocks are there that I may want to buy when Preferred status kicks in and every single item is over 1 million credits.

That's why you would purchase them before you go preferred.

 

I don't know about irony, but it would be kind of ironic to have F2P'ers easily obtain the things that are supposed to encourage them to sub.

Edited August 17, 2019 by JediQuaker

So, I decided to look at the GTN to see what unlocks are there that I may want to buy when Preferred status kicks in and every single item is over 1 million credits.

 

Am I the only one that sees the irony in this considering the credit cap for F2P / preferred is 1 mil.

 

These items are meant to be bought by the user with Cartel Coins. Failing that, they are meant to be bought while subscribed so that Bioware at least gets $15 out of the player before they play for free as long as they desire to.

 

If these things were easily purchased without ever subscribing, then there would be no point in selling them on the cartel market at all. Nobody would buy them for cartel coins if the value on the GTN was only pocket change.

Edited August 17, 2019 by annabethchase

^^^ this basically. Most unlocks are bought for F2P's or bought by people cancelling their subs.

 

Don't buy items for F2P to enable them to play their way without ever subscribing. That's wildly unfair to the developers.

a game that costs money to create and maintain favours paying customers over freeloaders, more news at 9

So, I decided to look at the GTN to see what unlocks are there that I may want to buy when Preferred status kicks in and every single item is over 1 million credits.

 

Am I the only one that sees the irony in this considering the credit cap for F2P / preferred is 1 mil.

 

Because the target buyers are people like you who are letting their subs lapse and are more likely to buy unlocks.

Most people cant maintain a constant sub for this game. Playes need to take a break. However the f2p/pref restrictions are really bad even with new cred cap. This game went freemium except its buisness model is still premium. So irony or not unlocks from GTN will always be targeted towards current subs. But if you are sitting on piles of CC don't bother buying from GTN. The creds to cc ratio is outrageous.

Not at all unsurprising to see prices getting jacked up like that, greed is important when your market is economy based. you must corner the market by setting your own prices and buying others off or eliminate the unwanted elements. It is unfortunate that f2p'ers and pref players are treated like scum, worse than homeless people in this day and age (see the below quote as a perfect example of something rotten).

 

Of course EA has the option in hand to do something about that because the users will never do any such thing as to be fair and reasonable, forget it! You'd have better luck surviving a supernova, becoming ageless, the ability to live in the vacuum of space and swimming in a nebula than you would at people showing some form of respect to each other on the markets like this.

 

(EA won't act because it isn't their business to interfere with the users experience directly, unless it violates rules)

 

a game that costs money to create and maintain favours paying customers over freeloaders, more news at 9

 

Regardless of the tone of your comment, those "freeloaders" as you call them are here for a reason. if EA didn't want these users? it wouldn't take them much to remove that access. However since EA has decided to lift some of the restrictions in place, it clearly means that they continue to want those "freeloaders" to have access to the game and greater access at that with the ability to play some older expansions and a raise in the level cap, but still no access to operations or caps lifted on grouped content outside that.

 

That is what the rest of your news at 9 is saying btw.

People bought warzone passes? Just queue with a sub lol.

People bought warzone passes? Just queue with a sub lol.

 

Used to be before 5.0 that guild members would pool their resources to get passes and put them in the guild bank so other users less fortunate would be able to get one and take part in guild activities. so it wasn't uncommon to buy such passes to make sure everyone who wanted could take part in the fun.

Unless someone can buy it for them or they haven’t already gone preferred, then those items are out of reach of those who need to use them. Which also restricts the amount of people who are likely to buy them. That’s the irony. They buy to sell to people who can’t buy them at the prices they list .

 

There's still the niche market of subs who buy the unlocks for F2P friends or plan to go F2P themselves.

 

The main fault lies with Bioware here. You can't expect a F2P to spend money to buy the unlocks. It's the subs who are willing to spend money who buy the unlocks and the F2P who spend time farming credits to buy from the subs. But for this to work, the F2P need to be able to spend the amount of credits the subs expect based on the CC price.