it depends on what they want though. if they want more profits from xbox live, charge for it. if they want a chance at getting first place and outselling nintendo and sony, i think they need to make playing games atleast for free

It isn't about the money.

"Cordoning off entire sections of a game from people who paid good money for that product is indefensible"

This sums up what I've tried to convey. Can you address this and not the service itself?

I dont care what is going on in microsoft's pocket. All i care is what comes out of my pocket and what i put in. If they making are making money good for them, but they will not get my business until they give me more... do you understand my point now? 

What MMOs have you been playing? They have been going to free subs for years now. Even all these iOS and Android games with tons of in app purchases do not require them in order to fully enjoy them.

I can't remember paying for anything in order to fully enjoy Guildwars, Diablo 2 or Guildwars 2. Heck, I don't even need to pay to win in the current MMO I am playing on my iPhone which is Final Fantasy Airborne Brigade. Sitting pretty at rank 186 out of tens of thousands with my Brigade sitting at 37th overall. Yeah, the leader has like 3.5M points to my 279k, but I am still getting top ranking prizes that will highly advance my character without spending $100-$200+ like that dude did. S-E is just taking advantage of him and many others who do not give a damn about where their money goes.

I just advance slower than those who pay for a head start. IAPs are just for those who seek instant gratification and the ability to quickly climb leaderboards.

In no way is payment required to fully enjoy a MMO.

I think MS's goal is the same as always has been, Make Money.

MMOs are something completely different
Yes subscriptions don't work anymore except you are called World of Warcraft but that is thanks to the quality of EVERY MMO these days.
ALL of them are garbage - Even WoW is far away from its prime but its still better than anything else outthere.
It has the absolute monopoly in a whole genre while XboxLive and PSN are competing in the same area > Online Services for nearly 90% of the same apps/games.

Blizzard for example would need to overthink their prices if they had any competition.
Star Wars?Dead after 1 month - Had to go F2P cause no one did play it cause there wasn't any relevant endgame content.lol@wasting so much on queststory
Tera?Dead
Aion?Dead
Guild Wars 2?Never went that way cause they know they have no chance with the limited endgame content they offer
FF14 failed and Realm Reborn will too.
Bring a game that has the quality of WoW for more than 1 month they get in trouble but it isn't like that and never will except when Blizzard is bringing their new MMO.Everyone else has to create strategies for their games cause they can't survive in the same segment with WoW.This is why P2Win or F2P are now more common in the MMORPG Sector.

But this isn't the case with PSN and XboxLive
They offer nearly the same but Sony is giving out more gifts.Of course they started to do this cause they had to catch up and get people interested but it worked.
A lot of Apps are far superior on PSN and work without PSN+ unlike on XboxLive where you need Gold for most stuff.
Right now they still have the luck so many people are addicted to CoD and Halo so they can charge that for gaming but as you can see and read everywhere PSN(+) is overtaking XboxLive in every segment now.And finally people start to realize it.
That was the weakest point of Sony like always in this Gen - Marketing and mouth propaganda.PSN(+) is superior to XboxLive for at least 2 years now but it took Sony so long to finally let people know it.A little bit more propaganda and people would listen up and get more interested.

I'm not going to get in an argument about this.  All I'm saying is XBL is a good service and that can't be denied.  Whether you want to buy it or not is your choice.  I've put countless hours into XBLG this generation and I've barely touched other services that use online.  That to me makes it all worth it.  Free is cool but I don't see them going that route, but instead they will continue to add value to it's service.  You are not going to convince people other wise.  They will either agree with you or they won't.  There is not much of a middle ground on this subject.

Are people really using the MMO model to justify Live? Totally different animals, but okay ...

The level of defensiveness I see over Live always catches me by surprise. I, for one, and not saying Microsoft has to change their approach or that anyone else has to stop buying Live. Both can keep what they are doing to their heart's content. All I'm saying is that I will choose something other than Xbox next gen if Live continues in its present form. It's as simple as that.

If we want to get technical, that is a completely different situation.

Xbox Live is the console manufacturer charging an extra fee.  MMO's are the game developer charging an extra fee.

This is very true, very true. The term exploiting has been used many times before, and other companies like Activision have followed in Microsofts footsteps with a yearly subscription for upgrades as well. Huge fans of Activisions and Microsofts FPS titles probably give $160 to them in a given year. This is counting DLC, upgrades and all.