Well, they did go all saying there wouldn't be a subscription... They ended up going that way, even tho there are options.
Its funny how some more
dedicated people on beta forums are explaining it that they never said there would be no subscription. Here it comes so better fasten your seatbelts: they said game "won't require" monthly fees. Well geez of course you can always buy 20 hours of gameplay for almost as much as subscription, see? Also they gave us illusion you could play for free by painting virtual t-shirts and selling them to some *ahem* ... individuals who would blow real money on this in form of points bought from developer. See? No subscription required! How witty of them indeed.
Ok to be more fair. Option for buying hours actually is excellent idea but first of all game would have to be worth paying for as you may suspect in my opinion it isn't, secondly: too little for too much I see absolutely no point in buying hours unless you are some rare case when you get just few hours of playtime in week (to be more precise less than 5) but then why are you even considering online game which is supposed to be community driven when you can log in just once in a long while? What's the point (actually its pretty funny imagining situation in which you explain to your clan mates who the hell are you again
)? Well unless (again) you just happen to have bunch of friends who conveniently have these 3 hours of free time just when you do. Otherwise I see no point. Better grab some RPG with good story or whatever strikes your fancy.
Damn it was going to be such nice casual pick up game, you know play hour or two to relax little bit, talk with people, shoot stuff.