I play FFXIV simply BECAUSE it's a subscription game. For $15/mo, it's a damn good one at that.

I've played a lot of MMOs over the years starting from EQ1. One thing I've noticed is that whenever a game switches from a subscription to a Free-to-Play (a.k.a. Pay-to-Win) model, it completely ruins the game EVERY.SINGLE.TIME. without fail.

I refuse to play anything that requires micro-transactions to advance.