No don’t worry, it’s not as bad as it sounds. You can still get fragged like nuts for free!
According to John Carmack, technical director at id, the in-game advertising model didn’t quite work out in Quake Live. Why? It isn’t making enough money. So the bigwigs at id have come up with a new plan: Premium Subscriptions. Wait, they’re making Quake Live an MMO-ish game?
Not quite. Carmack makes it clear that the whole game will never go pay-for play. The Premium Subscription will be used to host your own servers. Having a server, private and all to yourself is something Quake Live lacks at the moment, and I think that a premium subscription would be an excellent way to generate revenue off of that.
Don’t look at me though, it was id’s idea. I used to have an account at Quake Live too, but I eventually quit. There’s just way too many hardcore fraggers out there for a noob like me. 🙁