The only problem I really have about paid memberships is that they ask you for this fee for each and every month or year. An example is Club Penguin. 8 dollars a month doesn't sound like much right? Every single month though, will add up to about $90 a year. However, you can pay yearly for $60. I still feel that is ridiculous. There are "way" better games that will last you a year and is cheaper than Club Penguin. Oh, and you only have to pay for them once.
Monthly memberships are daft. I'd much rather have pay2win content, so long as it's within reason. (which, honestly, it usually is)
And Toontown.. eh, they're literally the only company that I understand and agree with them charging monthly, since there really wasn't any other way for them to make money, unlike other games, who could easily have cashshop stuff. My only issue was that they raised the price from $5 a month to $10 a month.
Gaming online nowadays is sad because of multiple reasons:
The only games that survive for a really long time usually are quest-style medieval stuff because they release tons of stuff you can buy that will help you. The really fun games like Toontown are closing because they don't do that. I tried playing a quest-style medieval game for an hour and couldn't do it. It's so boring. I don't understand why most people here and other places recommend stuff like that to people like me. Those type of people are the ones who get lucky and highly skilled at the game, but I feel sorry for them because they're eating garbage that these types of MMOs' give them.
Games like Wizard101 have a large amount of bullies because of how many people play the game. The internet in general gives more access to bullying, but this game and others are horrible because of it. Most gaming staff nowadays don't even do anything about it. I had a friend that said some of the staff were hanging out in a shop and would ban members whenever they came in. The only reason bullying is not as consistent in those kinds of medieval games is because most of the time the people can just kill each other in PVP, or sometimes even without PVP if the game was made that way.
Lots of people that get highly skilled at games don't help the new players. In fact, sometimes, they even make the younger players die on purpose. Their snobby attitudes make them want to separate the community into different sections and therefore divide it as a whole. If you're one of those people, I hope you enjoy your crap on a silver platter. It won't last long.
I've played free-to-play MMOs, only-buy-the-game MMOs, and subscription-based MMOs. I've also played some free private servers.
In my experience, the quality and quantity of gameplay is always best in the subscription games. It makes sense, after all -- I'm paying more in the long run but every minute of play is more enjoyable than the free alternatives. I played Ultima Online for 4 years and I've been playing World of Warcraft for 5-6 years now. There is so much to do in WoW I don't even have time for all of it and the quality of play and activities is excellent so I can't complain about the fee. When I'm playing this I typically don't want to play other games or even have time for other games anyway so spending $15/mo vs. $30-60/mo for a new console game is cheaper in the end, as long as I'm having fun and enjoying myself (and I am!).
MMOs where you only need to buy the game then can play forever are typically very limited in activities. I've played Guild Wars 1 and 2 and Diablo 2 and 3 and while those games are definitely fun, they get boring rather quick compared to subscription MMOs. There just isn't as much content, mostly because the company doesn't have the steady stream of income that a sub-based MMO does.
In my experience, most free to play MMOs are either awful and filled with jerks and trolls or eventually require buying something to stay competitive. I played Mabinogi and constantly felt nickel-and-dimed with that game. I would end up spending more per month than most subscription games, so the "free to play" felt like a sham. Also the game quality wasn't so great because the company can't depend on x amount of money per month and seem to lag on releasing content because of that.
Private servers are usually a trainwreck. I've tried them for Ultima Online, Ragnarok Online, and WoW. The server is usually just hosted in someone's home and is constantly unstable. If the server crashes you might even lose character progress from the last few hours. Really too frustrating for me to bother with. Since it's 100% free these are usually filled with jerks and trolls too.
Overall I'm happy with my subscription MMO. I usually pay for 6 mos - 1 year in advance so I get the best rate per month and while I'm playing this I only buy a few extra console games per year. I buy the console games that are really good and pass on the others, and in the meantime I have a steady stream of gaming content to play on my MMO. Works for me!
I've been on that site for years and I've never seen anyone get bullied. I suck at it and no one has ever yelled at me. Even when I play with Level 60+ people.. :L
