User blog comment:Alduin1996/letters I have sent to Zenimax Studios regarding ESO/@comment-6941549-20130910213332

Dear Zenimax Online:

I am writing to you in regard to the proposed plan to charge a monthly fee for the Elder Scrolls Online. As a loyal Elder Scrolls Player, I personally think that this is the wrong way to go about running the next instalment of such a great franchise. As a former business student, however, I understand the need to make profit and cover overhead. Even with that I think making people pay to play the game will put off both casual gamers and hard-core fans of the series, alike.

In this day and age, where many people are out of work and people are struggling to put food on the table, even thinking about charging £15/$15 (corresponding currency) per month shows an air of being out of touch with your customer base.

I understand that as a company you have to make a sizable profit, but what feels like ripping of your customers is not the way to win any popularity contests. I think the question becomes is $/£15 required alongside the newly announced micro transactions (cash shop)? I, and a large portion of the community, seem to think it isn't.

Understanding the need for steady income, and your desire to gain the loyalty of the Elder Scrolls community from the Bethesda instalments, a decent compromise would be $/£5 per month. The cash shop should have items that people want to buy for various reasons - that is, mostly cosmetic items like dye packs and newly skinned mounts. If the items are worthy of the role players or the people that just need to be different or even the average person who's tired of looking at the same thing all the time, then you'll make your money off the cash shop with great ease.

Without exploring the details too deeply, and in an effort to keep this as short as possible, the community is crying out to you. A lot of players were hoping for a Buy to Play business model, some expect you to change the model within the year; others are just leaving the game behind altogether. Elder Scrolls Online has great potential and it's the only MMO currently promising to be, and do more, more than everyone else. It's a different style of MMORPG, finally, and it has the chance to bring TES to the masses in a new way never before seen. As a Forum Moderator on a large Wikia site for The Elder Scrolls (http://elderscrolls.wikia.com) I can assure you that the community at large is not happy. I feel I speak for a large portion of them, as well as the staff at said site, when I beg of you to consider a happy middle ground.

Signed // A concerned community