Actually, if you are speaking of MMOs, the monthly-fee thing is archiac now.  World of Warcraft is probably the only one that can still pull that off because the fanbase is conditioned to do it (and they are rabid - they love their game and their characters).  The better modern-thinking MMOs (Dungeons and Dragons Online and Guild Wars 2) are without an ongoing fee and are not pay-to-win.  There are item shops but it is very feasable to "work at it" and never spend a dime.  In GW2, you can convert in-game currency into "gems" which are used for the online store.

Yes there are still MMOs that are on the subscription model but they are pretty much dying a little every day.

I could get into your idea though if I had the option to "pay it all up front" instead of going with the cloud service and whatnot.  I just don't like the idea of renting software at all.  If you start renting everything you wind up spending more in the long run.  Rent Photoshop, rent this modeler, and so on... buried :)

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