I just completed the Konami ID registration (took dozens of attempts and struggling with bogus communication errors) and have read all of the Terms of Agreement. Once you've registered, you're required to confirm by email and read another ToA, this time about online payments. I will do my best to break it down categorically. Ranking/Leaderboard Fees: Konami Group mentions period-based fees for an unspecified amount of time. Gaming Service Fees: Registrant to be charged for "unlimited" use of the online gaming service. This distinction could possibly imply that there are also limited timed service options as well. Point Fees to Purchase and Obtain Products: This fee makes sense, seeing as expansions (including new maps, weapons, characters and items) will likely not be free (i.e. Warhawk). Edit: Be not discouraged from playing MGO as these fees might not be intended for MGO but future products from Konami. Read the ToA, discuss it and wait and see.

Well the MGO STARTER PACK is what you get so obviously it isnt the entire thing so you will have to by the parts that isnt apart of the STARTER PACK.

As for fees... its up to Konami on that one, basically almost understand as servers wont be cheap. Especially for the amount of players expected.

In before "I never thought paying for online was that bad" from PS3 fanboys.

 as I former MMO player its not as long as your not paying for the main service ontop of it. This is why FFXI failed on the Xbox and 360.

ssj12 - FFXI sold 200k on the 360. Not entirely bad considering how other JRPGs have sold on the 360.

But I do think nickle and dime-ing everyone is a bad thing. And I know that because I'm a 360 owner :-p

If you have to pay to play online, I won't be playing online. Unless the game has amazing, long lasting multiplayer, and runs on dedicated lag free servers.

I will pay for expansions ala Warhawk though.

And quite honestly, I think it's just Konami covering all their bases, just in case.

That would be complete idiocy on Konami's part. Then again, they're already displaying quite a bit of it with the whole Konami ID debacle.

Starter pack or no my interested in this game just went from intrigued to zip, I will be avoiding the online portion of this game.

I noticed this too when I finished registering my konami id. I swear if I get a bill in the mail I'm taking a dump on it and sending it right back to them.

From the sounds of it, you will have limited free play and unlimited paid play. That's a pretty fair deal. I like the "play for free but buy our junk" scheme that Korean MMOs use a little bit more, but this should still be fair in the end. Plus, it's MG, so it's bound to be good if you like that sort of thing. Really, only the leaderboard part seems unusual/unfair, but then again I have no idea what they are actually going to do with that so maybe it's fine.

Don't assume the worst when we know so little about the game.