Eh, I prefer subscription MMOs. From what I've heard about the 'major' differences, subscription MMO's seem a lot better than games that constantly nag you to invest more money (breaks immersion) and have updates few, far between and generally low in content value. The immense changes experienced between 1.0 and 1.23 showed the value of a subscription model for me. Of course, I'm going mostly by hearsay but I believe from what I read that there is a good reason for this game having a monthly cost.

I can understand someone with very limited gaming time not being keen on it though.