-1. This is one of the worse ideas Ive heard on this board. Im not insulting anyone, Im just saying what I think.
I used to play a game called WW2 On Line. Religiously I played it. I had a bad feeling about it and quit. What happened is they were bragging about getting GreenLit on Steam while also trying to get contributors to put $$ into a special contribution plan. Saying that once they reached their goal of "Hero Subscribers" they would upgrade the game and off we'd go. Well my wife was out of work for awhiles, I had heart problems, and something just didnt feel right and I quit it.
So they go past their stated goal of "contributions". The game was greenlit on Steam in Nov. 2013, and still isnt available on the Steam version. Now they are taking even more contributions under a new name
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/wwii-online-client-update-stretch-goalTo make it all worse unless you are a paying member you cant get on their forum so there is no way to find out the state of this game, "tho Ive heard thru the grapevine its relatively unchanged and has a poor player base. Long time veterans who are thinking of returning are miffed that they cant get a sense of where the game is at and if any old friends are still playing. I think many would return even tho the graphics are even more dated then AH because the game model is very good.
And now you want AH to do the same? There have been times Ive quit AH for up to a year, visited the forum a few times, and the bug returned after hearing some of the stories from the members and the memories they brought back. We have heard from valued ex-players like Betty that the same might happen to, most of all when the new version comes out. Bringing back a player like that should be a top priority but ex'ing them out of the forum would be a terrible mistake and make it that much harder.
I have seen very few ex-players stir up bitter ruckuses here. They might have opinions but I dont read much ignorance from them and instead of trying to get rid of them maybe people should start listening to them more.
Either way allowing "pay only" into the forums would be a terrible mistake. It was for WW2OL and it would be for AH.