All in all I liked the article. It highlighted what I think we can all agree are the good things that PGI has accomplished, and discussed many of the things I think we all agree up till now have been at least a little disappointing about the game (levels of dissatisfaction may vary, depending on who you ask).
But I'm going to agree with Heffay on the whole "A premium subscription is mandatory if you don’t want to get drawn in a series of infinite boring battles just to raise some cash." quote. That's not taken out of context. That's what it says, and it's just not true. Mandatory is not a word with a lot of nuance. It means... mandatory.
I'm not saying the game doesn't have a lot wrong with it, but PGI has been pretty cool about keeping it from devolving into a "pay to win/enjoy" game. It's probably the best thing they've done, and is one of the big reasons I can't get on board with the "These guys don't care about the community at all" cry-wagon. To tell potential new players they are going to be playing "a series of infinite boring battles" unless they pay real money is pretty mean. Either they're going to think the game is not f2p and won't bother with it, or they're going to pay money and realize that right now MWO is "a series of infinite boring battles," whether you pay or not. Either way, it's a mis-characterisation.
TL;DR: To tell an audience that without premium time your game experience will be "infinite boring" isn't fair. If the author wanted to say, "I think the game is nothing but a series of infinite boring battles." That would be fine (a little over the top, IMO, but whatever). That's not what he's saying. He's saying the a game is nothing but a series of infinite boring battles
unless you pay real money, which undermines the game's best selling point: It doesn't cost a dime to enjoy the MWO experience (although we all disagree on how worthwhile that experience is, I think we can all agree on that at least.)
PS: The article should read "infinitely boring." One of several glaring grammatical errors in this article. Everyone makes mistakes; not everyone is publishing their words for a living. Brush up on your English or (if it's not your native language) hire a better translator.
Edited by Tycho von Gagern, 09 December 2013 - 08:49 PM.