Firstly I find playing MMORPG works out cheaper for me that playing stand alone games.
I might be paying for a client. However i am strong believer in "you get what you pay for". However normally in that client, you are pay for a disk and playier's reference manual and the most of the time the first month of game time. I do find that it's a little cheap of the programmers where they get people to pay for the game and then pay again for the first month of play.*
However when you look at stand alone games these pays, they are getting shorter and shorter. 15 years ago, I used to pick and expect about 20 hours or so of play before beating it. No days, most stand alone games you will be lucky to have any more that 8 hours of play before beating the final boss. In the mean time, you are still pay top dollar to play this games. However lets be realistic here and say that i do have a life away from by computer. So lets say I finish the game in 2 weeks after purchasing it. After 2 weeks, I am looking for another game to play. Therefore i need to folk out more money.
As for MMORPGs. I might be stuck paying for the client. However if that it the case, I am expecting that manual, disk, the first month paid for and maybe a special limited edition in game item for pre-ordering or what ever. However after that, I am paying a subscription week where i have vast open areas to explore, countless hours of play. And even when you finish about 99% of the quests, the MMORPG developers always have something new to coming out with patches and expansions.
New stand alone game is about $50
US$50 x 26 fornights per year = $1300
MMORPG subscription is about $15 per month
US$15 x 12 months per year = $180.
So if we weigh up the price differences between a me playing an MMORPG for 1 years vs me purchasing a new game every 2 week, it does work out far cheaper. Even if I am paying another $50 for the MMORPG client.
As for my views on the clients. Personally i do feel that the clients and expansions should be for free. Especialy when the devs seems to make more money alone on the subscription than they do on the game. However if I am paying for a expansion, they better have some thing like a new class, a vast reigon to explore and a higher level cap. If I am also paying for client, I really wish that the devs would bring out a 14 trail account before having to fork out real money for a game that I am not sure if I am going to like or not at the end of the month.
For those people that want to complain quality of the free2play MMO clients. I do feel that they have no right to complain about ingame items needing to be paid and not so nice looking graphics. At the end of the day, you do get what you pay for.
* The only expection in my experience has been Phantasy Star Universe and that because there is no serial number to activate your online account. Plus there is the offline story mode too.