I totally agreee with Kael.
You guys speaking of your feelings, Kael and I giving you facts. Look:
There are bunch of _new_ MMORPGs which released "dead" because of _old_ model of subscription. For example, LotRo, SWTOR, RIFT, Age of Conan, Fallen Earth.. I could continue this list hehe.
All this games was nearly dead right after release because of subscription model. Nowadays you cant sell pig in a poke. When they went to fp2 they obtain a new life.
I played SWTOR and LotRo with p2p model and after they went to f2p. Its huge difference in a good way. MMORPG without people is quite sad place. Subscription models is dead, not Ultima Online. Even World of Warcraft with all its power would go fp2 soon (first step - they introduced game shop recently).
Troop, thingy is that you could just continue pay subscription and have all benefits which you have right now. You don't have to buy something if you pay subscription. F2P is just giving opportunities to play game without subscription. Its alternative, not a obligatory thing which wouldn't change anything in gaming style of player who would prefer old way to pay for the game.