Just throwing an idea out there...
Anyone else think that it's entirely possible that UO might follow Dungeons & Dragons online's example?
Could the continued release of items for real $$$ be a way for EA/Mythic to dip their toes in the water, to see the potential of making the game subscription free for the most part, with only a small percentage of it subscription based and main revenue coming from the sale of items?
Since Dungeons & Dragons went down this route, it's interesting to see that apparently, revenue has increased, more people are playing the game, whilst subscriptions (those paying monthly) has also increased hugely.
If this is the path UO is heading, which is entirely open to debate, one can't ignore the mostly posative impact it seems to have had with Dungeons & Dragons. Add to that, the huge popularity of other games which are free to play, but also generate revenue from selling items in their game stores.
So, anyone think this is likely? Might it be possible, that the bulk of the prodo shards could become subscription free, paid for by micro-sales of items, whilst a potential classic shard would likely remain subscription based, given anything pre-AoS would mean items are of much lesser importance?
Food for thought...