This is sooo wrong.  There have been MMO's charging the standard 15$ for 15 years or more.  This is the standard really, the other methods, free to play and microtransaction, are newer.

It does?  How?  How does it fly in the face of MMOs?  And I don't know what the first part of the post means either.  I'm confused by all of it.  Lucasarts/Bioware/EA spent a bunch of money to create a game that charges me money...okay.  They did, and they will make their money over and over, and their customers are happy with that.  They didn't spend that money on a one time purchase?  I think I understand what you are saying, but I still don't get the point.  And what does Skyrim have to do with it?  They spent 5 years and millions on a one time purchasable game?      So?  I bet there will be half a dozen purchasable downloads for Skyrim.  Different type of game, different type of development, and different type of marketing.  Apples and Oranges, I think.  I'm happy with both.

Ok.  Here's a "narrow scope" for you.

Like many other fools, I purchased BF3 when it was released.  I (and much of the community) barely played the game for 2 months because so many things are glitchy/broken and so many other things will never get patched (including keeping up with the anti-cheat protection to name one).  That equals more than $25 / month.  Oh and don't say that I now own the copy though and can play it whenever because without a thriving community it means balls that I have a copy of the game if I can't find anyone to play with (Red Orchestra 2 anyone?!?).

With SWTOR I paid for the initial game (which also includes one month game-time) and have subsequently paid for another 2 additional months on top of that.  Each additional month will cost another $15.  The difference here is that the community will only grow as the game evolves.  The devs (If they are smart RPG/MMO devs and Bioware are certainly experienced in the RPG world) will keep adding content and patching things into the game for those $15 / month whereas a single-purchase game such as BF3 appears to be on a continual (albeit expected) decline.  Even SKyrim will not survive over the long-term without some form of paid-for expansion etc.  So MMO's (done right) simply charge you for additional content and patch-pattern each month.  Show me the problem with that?