User blog comment:Jimeee/Elder Scrolls Online will be subscription based/@comment-17450864-20130903000138

I had a lively discussion the other day with guild mates on guild wars 2 on the concept of subscription based PTP's [pay to play] vs FTP [free to play] (with microtrasactions).

The thing that made the whole thing basically came down to this.

FTP supporters: Tthe concept of mandatory spending on a product updates unacceptable.(basically they fully believe the idea that the product and all its updates are included in buying the product in the first issuing transaction (excluding expansions/expansion updates))

PTP supporters: Will believe the concept that the costs of updating/maintaining MMO's is very high, therefore the updates are expected to be covered by consumers.

Though it does beg the question, what was the initial money spent on the game for? The obvious answer is to cover the costs of developing the game in the first place. But I think the debate is evolving into: Well does it cover more or less than the development? (in context to MMO games).