If you've heard the news about subscriptions being present in the future of Flagship Studios'  Hellgate: London, then you know it was an unexpected blow to many gamers. Expectations of the game being free to play were rampant, so the inclusion of a subscription service seemed anathema to the fanbase.

Luckily, Bill Roper explained the reason behind the subscription service. In a letter on Hellgate: London's website, he mentioned that while the game would remain free, gamers with subscriptions would be getting mini-expansions as the development team makes new areas for gamers to play around with:

Gamers also want choices, and we have so many great ideas for Hellgate: London, and the concept is so extendable, that we know we can keep adding to this game for a long time. We want to continue moving Hellgate: London forward in some really exciting directions, and to support ongoing development we’ve created a subscription service to give players access to new content as we go along. This commitment to our gamers was also a part of our plans for Hellgate: London from the very beginning.

In short, what subscribers are getting is new content – not simply “better” things. Another way of thinking of this would be that we’re delivering smaller expansions over time rather than having players wait a year or more before they finally get something new.