Slashdot Games editor and GSW columnist Michael Zenke has posted a piece on his own MMOG Nation blog discussing the state of SOE's Station Access subscription, which just went up in price to $29.99 per month, but includes access to each SOE MMO (including the newly launched and pictured Vanguard).

Zenke notes, in particular: "The real loser here is Planetside, which has received a price hike of its own. I thought that the game should have been $5 a month when it launched. Lo these years later, it’s worth nowhere near the $15/month they’re now charging. Above and beyond that, I’d be willing to bet Planetside was that ’second mmog’ played by a number of Station Access users."

He also muses: "This is a dangerous time to be raising services like this. LOTRO’s never-ending membership is probably looking like a good deal right now. You never have to pay a monthly for the game, ever, if you fork over the equivalent of 7 months worth of Station Access." The state of subscription MMO gaming is interesting, to say the least, and I'm hoping the CMP Game Group can look at it in more detail over the next few months.