I'm a relatively new Dominion player. I am ready to get my first expansion, probably Intrigue. I will likely be interested in getting another expansion or two before the end of the year. It sounds like the timing of getting expansions is not optimal with the switch from MF. As I understand it, if I buy Intrigue, I will have it until the end of the year on MF. At the end of the year, I'll be given the choice to either keep it permanently offline, or have it online for 1 additional year with no cost to play online for that year. If I choose online, then at the end of the year, I'll need to switch to a tiered subscription model, with prices on the order of $2 or $3 per month. At the time I make the decision between online and offline, I'll have additional information from the forum to help choose, such as the quality of the offline bots (hopefully, they'll include some better players than the bots at MF) and how easy it is to find a desired game online. Is that correct?
In my opinion, one of the things that makes online Dominion most enjoyable is the large number of active players. I can play a game on any day at any time, usually with someone who has a reasonably compatible rating. In addition to being a great game, one of the key reasons why there are hundreds of players at any given time, is there is an option to play for free (base set only). This makes it easy for people to try out the game. If I have a game playing friend who is not familiar with Dominion, there is a good chance they'll try it out, if I recommend the game. We'll end up playing a few enjoyable games through the challenge feature. However, if all players must pay a subscription, my game playing friends almost certainly will not try the game. Similarly I would not have discovered the game if my initial play required a subscription, and would not be looking at getting expansions today. So I'd be strongly in favor of a business model that had some way for people to play for free. This might include only having access to the base set, having advertisements, not having access to special features (examples could include things like subscribers have more control in who to play against, are able to choose custom rules for games, have special game log/stat/review features, have more customizable avatars, can unlock special bots after reaching level of achievement, can unlock special card(s) that do not appear in any boxed sets after reaching level of achievement, special tournaments, etc.), not having access to additional online games, or not having countless other subscription benefits.