The question has been brought up several times, "when should SE start charging?" But the answer was anyone's guess at the time. All we knew is that they wouldn't implement charging until they presenting their road map (which they just did on Friday).

But after giving it lots of thought, and reading the arguments both for and against I have to say December might just be the right time.

The real point is, that no matter which side of the argument you are on, if you're going to pay, or if you're going to leave, you're right.

Looking at the release schedule, SE isn't trying to beat Old Republic out the door, they aren't trying to beat Guild Wars 2, they are trying to make the best game possible. Now that being said, they were already going to lose a part of the player base when Star Wars comes out in December. Even if they didn't start charging, players would go over to that game, so that's one part of the population that would be leaving for the time being. The second part, is that the game is currently in a playable state (I've been happy with the content releases), but in terms of 2.0 that is where the game starts again, the re-boot, so to say.

Looking back at the launch of XIV, SE didn't promote the game that much, so what 2.0 means is new marketing, a new look, players who were burned by XIV get to try 2.0 out and won't have to pay for the game. You can expect that users looking for a box copy of the game's 2.0 software will have to pay for it, but all of us now, will get to download it.

So 2.0 is not just important for the game, it is the Phoenix down we have all be hoping for (to some degrees, each of us has our own view of what that is).

Now, that being said, our feedback and thoughts have never been so heard as Square Enix, we have the attention of the development team, and they are listening to what we are saying, this alone is huge. So being that we are able to post our feedback on the forums if we are playing the game, and to play the game we have to pay to play, then to leave feedback we have to be invested in the game as it stands now.

I enjoy being able to play this game for free, and I have already made up my mind to pay in December, so I've got a bias, but by no means do I believe everyone else should pay to play. In the end, I'm playing for the story, for this once time though world that we will soon be saying goodbye too, and for the opportunity to shape the future of 2.0 with my feedback, regardless if it's the right time or not the right time, SE what's you back for 2.0, they want to get another look, and bringing back the free period once 2.0 kicks off will give those players who left something to look forward to.

But that's still two months (give or take) away, so everyone let's play some patch 1.19 and have fun. See you online.