User blog comment:TheBlueRogue/E3 2013: The Elder Scrolls Online/@comment-5469467-20130607040825/@comment-5469467-20130611012856

That's the thing with subscriptions. Eventually, the amount of money you've paid will meet how much the game is actually valued. After that, you're not getting your money's worth. At least with a one-time payment, you get it out of the way and are allowed to play for as long as you want afterwards.

As for free-to-play, it can work in some cases, but the devs would need to be very careful to make it balanced. Players should only be able to buy cosmetic changes and sidegrades (i.e. something that is different, but not explicitly better in all cases).

Apparently the game Path of Exile does free-to-play quite well. From what I've heard, you get so much for free you actually want to support the developers by buying cosmetic changed. I ought to check it out sometime, as it looks pretty good.