They allow you to join 5 guilds on one character, world is phased specifically to your character, can join cross-faction guilds, "open-world" raids, etc...

Not even close. You're asking the customer to pay $180 a year just to rent a game they don't even get to own. Ontop of that you have cash shot items promotes to get even more money. Now perhaps you can tell me what part of this is fair, since you seem tp have unlimited money and free time to play games. People like me who go to college and work a part-time job have about 10 hours of free time a week. Of this I have perhaps 4 hours to game. TES:O subscription would have me pay a defacto $1 per hour of playing, and if I wanted cash items the ratio would be even higher. Subscription based MMOs are dying for a reason, and that reason is because they are a ridiculous model. I was a eager customer who would have otherwise spent up to $100 on the game, but that's money that is now not possible to spend. TES:O just lost quite a bit of revenue due to the model and it's a win for no one, not the stockholders who want a profit on their investment or the customer who wants a good value for their money. No one wins with sub-based games.

GW2 doesn't keep me interested for more than a month. It was easy and I beat the game in 2 weeks..... literally beat it with the best armor and weapons. Now I spent 60 bucks on that and it was a waste. I spend 60 bucks on COD 4 and played it for a few months..... spend 60 bucks on dragon age and beat that game in a week. Bioshock beat in a 2 weeks. and on and on and on. I spend 180 dollars a year on ESO and don't pay for any other games, (Which I won't if it can keep my attention like WoW did) or I spend far more than 180 a year on games at 60 bucks a pop.

Well it sounds like maybe you are too busy to play an MMO regularly... how is that ESO's fault? Just don't buy it then...

Everyone has something different going on IRL... I just had to pay 400 dollars to get my car back because I left it in a Trader Joe's parking lot for longer than two hours. I could have paid two years of ESO for that. There's no point bringing your personal life into this discussion. The fact is, 15 dollars a month is cheap for the quality of entertainment you get from a good online game. No one is forcing you to play it.

Also, since you seem to think $1 an hour is a lot... tell me what other source of entertainment can you get for that cheap? Walking in the park? Hiking? Even that costs money in gasoline... 15 a month really isn't much.

They also haven't lost any revenue, I don't know where you are getting that idea. Most people want the subscription model and many people are happy with it. http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1471126-happy-with-the-decision/

he or she is just upset that his or her preferred model was not the one that ZOS decided to go with.

See i don't understand this "Us vs. Them" attitude like ESO needs defending, were you worried that if the game would turn out like GW2 if it had the same buisnessmodel?

The major argument for the sub model is that it allows them to churn out content, but Arenanet are maneging just fine without it.

If it's good or not depends on the game design and i'm really not convinced it has [censored] all to do if it's P2P or B2P.

All i've seen as a response is "GW2 is crap" well it dosen't matter if it's crap, it's successful and it's B2P.

Just seems to me people got super dissapointed with that game and find the tried and true P2P reassuring.

What i am getting from you is you are not a fan of the payment model. Easy to fix. Don't play ESO.

It is fair, because this is a free market system. They are free to charge what they like. You are free to not play.

To say it is not fair, is just you saying you don't want to pay that much for the product they are offering you. That is perfectly fine. Don't buy it.

And that's not ZOS's fault that you don't have the income or time to play the game. Maybe you should stick to games that don't require subscriptions till you have more free time or the money to play them.

BTW, I'm a college student, go full time, work part-time, and am on a pretty limited budget. But yet I can find time to play games and make sure to work the subscription into my budget. Just because you can't do it doesn't mean every college kid in the US is just like you.

That is my total point. ESO does not need defending.

People think the game is unfair? Don't buy it.

People think it's worth it? Buy it.

Simple.

You're missing the point entirely and putting words into my mouth that they did not say. I was enthusiastic about buying TES:O and put aside $100, which considering triple AAA titles cost $50, is a lot of money to spend on a game. Yet because of the subscription fee I can't spend my money to buy TES:O, and neither can a lot of people who would have otherwise bought the game.

I'm really happy about these news.

Spending 24 hours on the computer trying to force myself to get the most out of a subscription is not entertainment. Playing when I want to because I own the game however is. TES:O is making a terrible mistake and will loose a lot of money because of this system.

$100 is more than twice the price of a AAA game. How is that "Cheap"?

Firstly, a poll of 160 people on the home of the game is not what one could call a sufficient quality or a suitable location. Secondly, yes they have lost revenue and it's very easily observed. My money that I would have otherwise used to buy the game is not getting spent. That is lost revenue. Thirdly, sub-based MMOs are dying, it's impossible to deny this. WoW, the most popular MMO in history has seen membership decline from 12 million to 7.5 million in the last two years. Star Wars The Old Republic switched to a hybrid of F2P-P2P Model because it provided a lot more revenue than the original subscription based method. Just take the top 5 MMOs of 2012 (WoW, WoT, Rift, KOTOR, GW2) 3 of them required a subscription fee last year. Now it's only one, plus one hybrid. Even TES:O doesn't plan to keep subscriptions.

To be honest for me the warrior gameplay gets really boring after a while. I'ts just click block click block. The most fun for me are the mage and assasin/thief. Will you be able to reanimate corpses, force other creatures or even players to be hostile againts their own. Invisibility? Will you be able to reach the goal without kiling anyone(thief)? As far as i have seen It's heavily combat based. If majority of that is in the game then i'm on board. But those things are hard to balance out in an MMO. Just saying.

The game is a luxury. I'm sorry, you can not afford it. Maybe things will pick up in the future for you.

Uh, how many hours do you think justifies playing this game? Do you think that people need to play 200 hours a month to justify their subscription fee? I don't. Want to know what justifies my fee? If the game is good.

There were times where I could only log in for like 10 hours in a single month of WoW. But I didn't mind that I paid that $15 because I was still enjoying my game.

Maybe you have some high level to justify the cost, and whatever floats your boat. But not everyone needs to spend hundreds of hours per month to think their money was well spent. And it's only YOUR opinion that they made a terrible mistake. You don't like the fact that now you won't be able to play the game because it's not the payment model you wanted. Doesn't mean this game won't be good.

Okay now I can see, you just don't want to pay and that's that. Well all I can say is that even when I was in college and working a crappy job, I could still afford WoW because I wanted it bad enough. I was so hooked on it I often only got 4 hours of sleep, but that was my choice.

You will just have to decide whether or not ESO is worth it when it comes out. I think it will be a very fun game and worth much more than 15 dollars a month.

Everyone is going to be paying the same price. If you feel it will not be fun for you, do not buy it.

OP, I share the same feeling. I am well off, but not well off enough that I would be willing to pay $239.00 CDN for a year of online gaming. I only buy 1-2 games a year, and that only comes to max $120 CDN. I don't have the funds to support a subscription MMO. A B2P MMO, sure, but as I am trying to put myself through university, its next to impossible to have that kind of money to throw around, and if I did, it would be to go towards a better apartment. It is not fair to be excluded from a gaming experience that I have come to know and love just because of my current financial position. I know some of you will say that if I can't afford $14.99 USD a month, I shouldn't be playing, but frankly, that is a very closed minded and untrue statement. I know Zenimax and Bethesda are a business and it is in THEIR interest to make money in the most financially profitable way they can, but that does not warrant barring gamers like me from having access to game when it has been proven before that a hybrid P2P-B2P model can be equally if not more cost effective than a straight P2P model.

We've seen a number of moddern MMO's fail in their pursuit of a P2P model, only those with a truly innovative approach to their game have managed to pull it off, and while I think ESO is innovative in many ways, I am unconvinced it could pull the P2P model off. The one thing I would hate to see even more than TESO actually go P2P at launch, would be to see it fail and resort to F2P. I know many have stated that it will eventually go B2P as the subscription model won't provide the funding ZOS and Bethesda are looking for, but reality is, if the funding isn't there, it will most likely resort to F2P. The one thing that is worse than P2P in my eyes, is a F2P game with tremendous restrictions. Basically, what Bioware/EA did to SW:tOR.

One last thing, I know TESO might not be a part of the ESO series, but it is a cannon element to the lore. Lore I would like to say I had been a part of.

Well, maybe in the future you will be able to afford better things. I'm sorry you will not be joining the rest of us in ESO. Good luck.

The game is in no way a luxury. You can hardly call a game that will be played by millions a luxury. Its your standard MMO price. The only difference here is that you view it as good investment he doesnt.

You just said you wouldn't be WILLING to pay for ESO, then later on you say that Zenimax is BARRING you from experiencing their game? The hell? Playing an MMO is a choice, and if you are not willing to pay 15 dollars a month, then that is your choice. ZOS is not in any way being unfair to you. It costs the same for everyone. There is nothing closed-minded about saying "if you don't want to pay for it, then don't play it". That's just common sense and logic.

The bottom line is, you want the game to be cheaper, and its not.

An online game is the perfect definition of a luxury. Just because many people play it, doesn't change the definition...

Luxury: a service, conducive to sumptuous living, usually a delicacy, elegance, or refinement of living rather than a necessity example: Gold cufflinks were a luxury not allowed for in his budget.

free or habitual indulgence in or enjoyment of comforts and pleasures in addition to those necessary for a reasonable standard of well-being

Look man, people who come here saying that they are dissapointed or are not willing to spend that much on the game are also fans of the series. They are here because they wanted to buy the game in the first place if it were B2P. Maybe if ESO was free to download and still kept the monthly fee, then ZO might have convinced some of the players who were skeptical in the beggining. No the ones who are not sure won't even try since you have to pay 60$ just to see if it's what they like.

Bottom line it is what it is.