Just a reminder that pay for play isn't necessarily an oppressive and objectionable situation, so long as it is a free choice of informed players. Jagex, Inc. runs Runescape as a pay for play subscription based game. There is no entry cost at all(!). You can play the free version of the game for as long as you want to and only have to pay if you are convinced that they are selling something worthwhile.
Once subscribed for the pitifully low price of $5.95 per month, you have no obligation. You are paying them to maintain and progress a game with no version numbers. It evolves over time and hardly resembles the game I left two years ago, with an entirely new browser and interface, hundreds of mods added, complete change of economy implemented. So I loaded up my saved game from two years ago. Would such a thing work in SH4? Forget about it! But in Runescape my character loaded up without a hitch and played like I left it yesterday, but with all the accumulated improvements from the past two years he had lain dormant.
Why is Runescape a success? They are oriented completely on the happiness of their paying customers. You are paying for one thing and one thing only: the maintenance of the game for your enjoyment. If you decide you don't like what they've done, you have no obligation. You just stop paying. You want to rejoin two years later? Check it out for free and if and only if you're convinced it's worth it, start paying again! These guys are totally focused on making you happy to pay!
Folks, what we object to in SH5 is oppression, not the online stuff in itself. We have a set of expectations about what a game we purchase on a DVD in a store should deliver and Ubi delivers something else against our will. Ubi, further is not focused on developing and improving the SH5 series, but only in completely replacing the game every year or two years to force us to start over. If you've paid your money, you have no remaining standing to ask for any changes. They have the only thing they want, your $50. Game over!
This is what I call FU marketing. If we're willing to pay for it, we'll get a lot more of it. There are great alternatives. When we quit paying for being abused, those alternatives will materialize.
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