It’s been proven time and again that the biggest sources of revenue for an MMO are the retail purchases of the base game, it’s expansions, and the whales who spend generously in the games’ various cash shops.
Only a very small percentage of an MMO’s population maintain a subscription over the long term, and the whales are typically part of that percentage. In other words, these folks will spend regardless of whether a subscription is a part of the game’s financial model. The rest of the game’s population either won’t pay at all, or will pay only until they’ve exhausted the current content.
If you want to support the game the best way to do it is to spread word of mouth. Get friends and family interested and encourage them to check out the cash shop to see if there is anything they like.
If you want a subscription service to provide perks and benefits above and beyond what is available to regular players, it’s best to be upfront about that. Some folks don’t have the time for all that grind and would pay the price for convenience. Others want to pay for exclusivity and the sense of being a prominent supporter of something they already enjoy. Some folks just want any possible advantage they can get over other players and will pay so long as it’s worthwhile.
Personally I’m happy with the way things are. There are plenty of convenience items in the cash shop and buying gems with real dollars to snap them up is already an efficient subscription service. When you’re already at max characters/max level/max rep/max etc all the bonuses from a traditional subscription service are completely wasted. At least this way you’re free to buy only those perks which are useful for you.
I have not seen any sources to back this up, and allot of mmorpgs are free and you get vip so that doesnt make sense anyways when you compare just the few mmorpgs you can actually buy out there, in the older days of mmorpgs you had to be a sub fee but you would get everything and thier was no cash shop there is a reason why eq1 is still going today, those games had the most steady income, they also would release expansions to help but the eq games where so massive it would take forever before you needed those expansions, and in eq2 you would get all previous expansions for free quie often.
Anyways of course a game like guild wars 2 will make money off the actual purchases vs the cash shop, its a buy to play mmorpg, but to say for every mmorpg is just false.
You may want to also consider the fact allot of people play mmorpgs to socialize, they could be stuck at home allot due to money or being parents and no family to watch the kids so you can go out, or the mere fact you dont care for most people locally, its hard to do word of mouth when you dont really talk to many in real life.