[Source]

We know you're awfully loyal to your chosen MAG army (S.V.E.R.4.E.V.E.R., suckas), but haven't you ever wondered how the other half two thirds lives? A new option will give you the ability to do just that -- players can now purchase a second and third character slot for $0.99 a piece. Here's the rub: These paid character slots will only be active for 30 days, at which point they'll need to be reactivated with another $0.99 payment. Don't worry if said renewal slips your mind -- any additional characters' info will be stored on the MAG servers until you decide to reactivate the extra slot.

Judging by the reaction to this announcement on the game's official forums, we're not sure everyone's going to spring for the extra slots. We know we certainly won't, because we wouldn't dare gird our loins with the colors of Raven and Valor, because that would be shameful.

I know I generally don't care about MAG, but this story is pretty lawl-worthy.

This isn't something like FFXI where you buy an extra character slot, it really seems like this is sometihng that should have been there from the start as part of the game.  It isn't even enough of an insult that you have to extra for the extra slot, you have to pay every month for it.

i prolly wont be subbing to this, but many will. seems a bit of a rip to me.

Wasn't it you were suppossed to be loyal to your PMC... people will switch when you are on the losing side...

sillyness

Here's the thing; the majority of the people that actually pay for this are probably MAG diehards that care about how the game plays. They won't switch sides just because they're faction has less contracts. Losing will probably effect what modes they play on though [Valor is terrible with ACQ, reason why Valor queue for ACQ is always so low]

Off-Topic:  However, because Valor is always losing that mode, some clans decided to make a special day a while back for Valor members to play Aqc all on one day. Result? Not only got both contracts  and held it for the entire day, but they pretty much dominated that day. Because of this, Zipper got the idea to make Directives [auto-assigns you a game mode, gives bonus points but not much until now] give 2xEXP and they have plans to have double XP weekends but for specific game modes. So far, Double XP directives has made livened things up nicely for AQC and INT [SAB and DOM never needed any boosts].

This isn't exactly something new to online shooters. Not even on consoles. MGO, you pay 7 or 8 dollars up front for a new slot. No subbing though.

Second, the reason it's not free is because of the whole loyalty thing. When you start up MAG and create a character, you're with that dude until you've fully ranked up. Then you can VET to another Faction and keep your stats and awards. Only other way is to delete your character which means you lose EVERYTHING. Stats, ribbons, medals and any progress you had on any trophies. Like you're popping in the dics for the first time [minus the fact you have the trophies you've already obtained].

This is like a luxury bonus when you consider the original design of the game, not something essential or should have been in place. It's like DLC that you get by pre-order or special addition that gives you advantage over everyone else. I agree with you if what you meant was that this should have been in the store from launch but not if you mean as a free option in the game.

I think this should have been included from the start.

Loyalty or not, if I spent a long time leveling up and finally earned level 60, I think it's horrible that I'm forced to lose all that progress to start building a character in another faction.

Losing all that progress certainly isn't worth a trophy.