User blog comment:Equillibrium/The Math Behind Subscription Fee's./@comment-7153552-20130912210404

As a wall of texter, myself, I read this. Just wanted to point that out, lol. As a long-time MMOer, I don't agree that developers need the subscription to make money. Also, WoW isn't staying afloat on their business model alone, they're currently in the process of adding a cash shop to the game in order to help. In my mind's eye the future of gaming online is player-made content, and I'll be explaining a bit about that in a new blog I'm mulling over at the moment.

Now, in defense of your theory, building a game on Linux is hard since the majority of games don't support linux or Mac. . . ESO is, I realize, but companies like Trion and Cyrptic openly don't support either format. Even though Open GL is cheaper and easier to code, Direct X has the market cornered so that's just what people use. Whereas Guild Wars 2 is supporting both Windows and Mac (the windows client also works well by intent through design with WINE for Play on ac and Play on Linux), whiles maintaing a Buy to Play business model, decent currency exchange rate and no pay to win items in the cash shop. If you're going to make a game you need to run it on Windows, but you don't need the best and latest technology or graphics (e.g.: Neverwinter Online, Minecraft, Firefall).

The biggest expense after launch, and once profit is being made, is the upkeep. By this I mean both in terms of hardware and new content. An expansion every two to two and a half years can help with both, but only if you have enough small content additions throughout the span of each major game-head (separate titles). It's not an easy road to travel or choice to make, deciding what to charge your cutomers.

All-in-all I think the game shows a lot of promise, and I really wanted to play the game. I can't afford to run two copies of it (myself and wife) standard each month. I also can't afford to add a third if/when I figure out how to dual-box on ESO. It's just one of those things I'm very dissapointed about and still  have trouble believing they took this route, not to mention the reasons they're quoting. Time will tell if it's worth it and if it'll work, I wish them the best honestly, I just wished it could have been with me involved.