Well Guild Wars 1 is the only precedent for a content-rich MMO with no subscription fee or in-game item store. Sure, you had to pay for the expansions, but the base game was like £30 for seven years and counting of persistent characters and running servers. You could easily have spent a grand on WoW in that time.Dog Pants wrote:Wait, the game is going to cost £50? That's a hard pill to swallow. I won't write it off completely like I do other games, because playing SWTOR would cost that for two months' play, but that's a precedent I don't like.
I wasn't expecting it to be quite that much though, and it may well put me off getting it at launch, even though in the long run it may work out excellent value. Something like £30 for a month's play, then £20 for a lifetime sub would be a model I'd prefer - as it is, it's likely to have to be 2 month's worth of games money, but I'll have to start a month later than everyone else.
I'm sure we're not alone in thinking it's a bit much to pay in one go, which may hurt the game's launch. It should however retain players better after the initial interest, as for that price even people who were just trying it out will want at least a couple of months out of it.
out of 
for first impressions.