I've heard of some limited time offers with this sort of system that worked rather well. Makes me sad that I missed them all considering how much I spent on those games afterwards XD Maybe they should make this a limited time thing too. Say it's only available in the first month or something, for those who really want to take a gamble from the very start, and then offer no longer buyable lifetime subs as competition prizes in the future. That's how Jagex does it and they've been doing it for a long time without any detrimental effects that I'm aware of. Really wish I'd bought one all those years ago...

SE, please let me buy a FFXIV:ARR lifetime sub! I'd be happy to pay up to $500 for it! More if necessary but please keep it reasonable...