Compromise: Just Charge $5 For Now. Once 2.0 is Out, Then Charge $12

[Rowyne]

I agree with the OP, and I am confident in stating that FFXIV will definitely lose subs if they start charging $12.99/month at this point.

I've been playing since closed beta. I've watched linkshells fall apart, communities collapse, and friends drift away. My husband has lost interest, and is bitter about the fact that we paid $75 each for our CEs and sunk hundreds of dollars into our computers to upgrade them so we could even play. And we still haven't gotten what we paid for. He has flat out said that he will be cancelling the minute our Crysta runs out because he will not pay to play an unfinished game. This entire experience has been an emotional roller coaster ride. I'm burned out, and I haven't been able to admit until now that I'm just not having fun.

I'm still here to report the news to my linkshell members who aren't playing, and keep our little family going into 2.0. The whole thing is like some kind of twisted labor of love.

It's going to be really hard to convince my husband to let me keep my account active if I have to pay this kind of fee to do it. He might be more open to half that cost.

I certainly appreciate that SE has kept the game going F2P for over a year, now, and that they have sunk a massive amount of money into it. But I also feel that they were given little choice. A part of me has always wondered if they should have just shut it down and sunk 100% of their team's resources into it, without having to maintain game servers and keeping it out from under the microscope. But I think that would have created a greater sense of betrayal and worry from the players that paid for a product they couldn't even use. I cannot feel pity for SE or that I somehow owe them a subscription fee. They chose not to research the current MMO market. They chose to ignore current MMO standards. They chose to ignore the beta testers. They chose to go ahead with the release date. And as a customer, I just don't feel like I should have to pay for those mistakes.

This isn't a finished product, don't make us pay a finished price.