Hmm, troubling indeed - suffice it to say I haven't bothered signing up to games which force a monthly subscription in the past, nor will I in the future. But a sub fee on it's own may not necessarily be a deterrent (something's only worth what people are willing to pay for it).
My major gripe is with the locked out user content... I have two names:
RTCW
MarketGarden
and another two:
ET
ETPro Mod
Finally, having been an admin in my time as well, my other major issue is how would they police the servers? Who will do that as we, the players, would all be mere peons? Do we get a say in who could do so? What happens if you have some megalomaniac numpty on a power trip? Where else could you go?
The beauty about hosted systems is that if you get on with the admin team then great, if not you just go to another server and play there. If you *really* didn't like any of them you could also stump up the cash and host your own. How many different admin teams are there in the world? There's a home for everyone... corporate subscription only systems = one set of rules and no user choice. More clue please
. No... I'm going to go as far as saying FAIL. EPIC FAIL.