Pachter: Publishers need to charge for online play

[theRepublic]

KylieDog said:

There are some games I wouldn't mind if they took up a pay-to-play scheme.

Thing with pay to play is if it were to happen the quality of the online service would likely rise, if moderators were to actually monitor games and ban cheats it would be worth it, not only would the cheats be banned but less people would be likely to cheat due to the invested cost.

Support like continued updates (including new 'free' content) and bug fixes would also likely be more more consistant and of better quality than exists currently.

The thing that worries me about this are the consequences on the market as a whole.  That money from the pay to play model comes from somewhere, which is consumers pockets.  Continued updates and bug fixes have to come from somewhere too, which is from the work of developers.

Less money in consumers pockets plus more work for developers in supporting old games equals less new games.

I see this as a way for the big publishers to make it more difficult for the little guy to get a foothold in the market.  It preemptively squashes new games, and creates an established market for your own.  I don't see this as a good thing.  Sure it will be nice if you like the few games that this may benefit, but I think this would cause the industry to stagnate as a whole.