Online subscription. Fair or not fair?

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VAMatt said:
In the case of anything gaming-related that's paid, I'd say it is completely fair, insofar as you're not forced to pay for it. You can opt to play offline, play on PC, or not play at all.

In the case of subscription based games like MMO's, I'd add that paid subscriptions are the revenue model. So, again, fair. They give you content, you give them money.

In the case of XBL and PS+, I'd say that I personally don't like the "free" games side of it. I think in the last decade of XBL I've seem maybe 2-3 games that I actually wanted to play, and maybe 2-3 more that I was happy to get. That leaves hundreds that are of basically no value to me. I haven't been on PS+ as long, but I've received exactly zero games from that service that I care about. Then, of course, there's the obvious misuse of the word "free". You literally have to pay for the service, which advertises those monthly games as a big part of what you're paying for. So, they're not free in any realistic sense of that word. With all of that said, the services are still fair. You don't have to pay for them if you don't want to. So, basically, they could jack the price up to $1000 per month and it would still be fair, so long as they don't force me to buy it.

I think the point of the thread is clear. Please, try to get the meaning of "fair" figuratively.

Of course any vendor in a capitalist/trading system can charge whatever price they want while on the other hand buyers aren't forced to buy.

Still, like some pointed out: multiplayer games like COD are advertised for PC and consoles and on PC you just need to pay the game price tag and play it, however on consoles, a multiplayer game doesn't work unless you pay the subscription to have access to online resources.

About the "free" subscription games, I agree, they're not free at all.