Once upon a time, Blizzard Entertainment had two public faces. On the Internet, Geoff Frazier, the company’s webmaster, verbally assaulted players on official forums and recounted tales of in-game griefing. In the real world, Bill Roper was flown to press events both in and out of Korea, where he discussed his Renaissance Faire band and the Playstation port of Diablo. Sometimes he assaulted camera crews with axes.

Though I was sold the insant a PR flunky accidently hit ‘Send/Receive,’ informing an eager Internet of the impending (in three years) release of World of Warcraft, it was Bill Roper that convinced me I needed to pay $15 a month to play it. He talked of random world encounters, the movement of characters’ heads and eyes, and befriending enemy NPCs through faction quests. Community managers and French designers were left to paint the larger picture while Roper made sure we all knew how special the game would really be.

Sadly, none of the features Roper hyped are in the final product, or at least bare only a slight resemblance to what was originally promised. Whether related or not, Bill Roper took half of Blizzard North with him and formed Flagship Studios. They would make Diablo 3 if Blizzard wouldn’t.

It’s been two year since Diablo 3/Hellgate: London was first announced. It looks like it’s going to hit it’s tentative summer 2007 release. All hands-on reports indicate the game has come together nicely and is a worthy successor to Diablo’s throne.

Yesterday, Flagship announced Hellgate: London’s online pricing model. The game is less of an MMORPG than Guild Wars, another game developed by Blizzard alumni. Guild Wars has no monthly fee. The spiritual successor to the game that launched Battle.net and today stands as a symbol of free online gaming will have a monthly fee. It’s totally optional, though. And totally retarded.

For $10 a month ($5 less than World of Warcraft!) players can upgrade their accounts to “elite” status. Basic accounts still get the full single player experience as well as online functionality. Elite and non-elite players can play together. However, only elite players can form guilds or become officers within them. Only elite players can purchase player housing. Only elite players have access to the perma-death hardcore mode, AKA the number one reason people still play Diablo 2. Only elite players get access to the most powerful items in the game. It’s a loot porn game and you need to pay to get the best porn. Elite players get access to a 40-item universal stash versus a basic player’s 20-item stash. Elite players can have 12 characters; basic players can have 3 characters. Elite players get priority in server queues.

The game is entirely instance-based. Players’ own computers do most of the work. The game is “multiplayer” but it is not massive in any sense. Battlefield is more of an MMO than Hellgate: London. Bandwidth isn’t as expensive as it used to be. A monthly fee for a single player game will not curb piracy. Regardless of how much, or how quickly, post-release content hits the servers, a monthly fee for a instance-based, dungeon-crawling Rogue-like is unjustified.

Bill Roper has talked about about the cool things Flagship has implemented in Hellgate: London. Random events and quests, faction quests that turn enemies into friendly NPCs. It all sounds very familiar. He’s discussed the ease with which they can implement new content in the game. By literally changing a single variable, they can generate an entirely new quest or event. I’m not entirely sure that’s something I should be paying someone to do.

If this game was titled what it actually was, if the box you buy in Wal-Mart several months from now read “Diablo 3” instead of “Hellgate: London” and if you were logging into Battle.net instead of Ping0 to play it, would you pay $10 to have access to basic, required game functionality? The answer is a universal no.

The fact of the matter is more people still play Diablo 2, seven years after its release, than ever played nearly every MMO (with or without a  monthly fee) at their prime. People wouldn’t pay for clan functionality and access to the best guns in Counter-Strike or for larger unit caps and a king of the hill mode in Command & Conquer. This monthly fee will alienate and divide the playerbase and cripple the game’s longevity.

Sorry, Bill, but I’ll reactivate my WoW account before I pay for one of yours. Or even buy your game at this point. :-(