I’ve always been leery of anything that requires a subscription. As the article points out, some are inevitable — in our case, Internet access and (land-line) phone service, with fairly basic cable TV on top of that — but we steer clear of anything else that demands ongoing payments. Even so, just those three things costs us $150 a month.
Yeah, I got rid of my EVE Online subscription when I figured out what I could get instead for the price of a $15 a month subscription, in spite of it being a fun “spreadsheets in space” sort of game for me. My smartphone is costing me dearly though, I hope to get rid of my landline soon if I can convince two of my non-cellphone carrying roommates to join the new millenium. (Only to get cable or naked DSL internet on a subscription…)