Posted By Eric The Dangerous at
So I love the idea of this game, I would love to buy the high end 245 dollar pack to help push it forward. Here is the issue. You are already trying to put mounts, items, as well as things for decoration such as styles for your coat of arms etc behind pay walls. I can't in good faith support a game like this. I would rather pay 30 dollars a month for a game that has everything in it from the start and is fantastic than a game that even before launch has already pay-walled a good chunk of its game. I am sorry but I will not see you in Elyria unless this is changed.
games and their development need to be funded
it used to take big title companies many years and many millions of dollars to (hopefully) recoup their expenses and turn a profit, and this was done almost always through monthly subscriptions
as somebody who has paid subscriptions for games since 1998 (Ultima Online) i know that for me personally, the games i stuck around in the longest are subscription games - they had a level playing field, were higher quality, more content, tended to keep out a large number of the trolls, delivered new expansions etc
the reality is that is all changing, and has been for some time
back then you typically chose one, possibly two mmo's that you liked and spent your $15/mo subscription on them and played them for years
today's gaming community is far less 'loyal' to a game, and there is a way way larger number of online games to choose from, and the 'attention span' given to a game is usually far shorter
though there were other factors involved as well, even Elder Scrolls Online had to do away with its monthly subscription less than 2 years after launching
so what are the options? - the obvious one is loot boxes and/or pay-to-win items that can only be achieved through the cash shop and are typically bound to character/account
SBS has stated that they won't go down that road, though for me personally the soul packs definitely cross into the grey area of loot boxes (a discussion that has already been hashed out in other threads)
instead they have come up with (to me) a rather interesting and ingenious financial model of where you pay for your soul - based upon your playstyle it will last between 4-10 months and with a cost of $35.00 I basically view it as a variable subscription of between $4.00 to $8.00 a month
i think that's probably the closest you're going to get to a subscription model for a new mmo these days
in the meantime the development is being crowd funded through promotions that will give you items that you will be able to get in game anyhows, and that are subject to being lost, dying, stolen etc
my personal opinion is that you are unlikely to see a new good quality mmo hit the market that has a monthly subscription as its only financial source of income