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Not subscription, but the first service I thought "wtf is this money-making model?" was Plants vs Zombies 2. The game wasn't that good. And, oh, my most recent guilty pleasure is Monopoly Go; it's entertainingly boring?
Apart from that, I've tried to keep subscriptions that I really like or use constantly:
I used to pay for software subscriptions. I had a subscription to Substance 3D software and then they sold their company to Adobe ๐คฎ so now I ๐ดโโ ๏ธ
also stopped paying for Spotify after the Rogan deal. I still use the free version for the "discover weekly" playlists, and I can't tolerate ads so I use an app called Mutify which mutes the ads as soon as they start playing which is a godsend
never paid for any streaming subscriptions and never will, VPN+piracy+Plex is an objectively better experience. no ads, no content removal, no paying $$$ to rich psychopathic ghouls
The first subscription I turned off is my gym membership 10 years ago. That was the first time I realized I was paying for air. With a few hundred dollars spread over years, I've amassed a pretty stellar home gym with machines and weights. Granted, the trade off is space.
In the digital age, really nothing. The wife has Netflix but nothing on that service does shit for me. I get a screen of Max from a close friend and in return she has access to my Plex, and I let her make requests when I go sailing the seas. Max has some ok stuff.
Anyhow, I do everything not to have a subscription to anything, minus my VPN. I also still buy blurays. Conversely, I haven't bought a physical video game in at least 5 years - so I've succumbed to convenience in that regard.
I guess Iโm in the minority because I donโt mind subscriptions much. If I think itโs unreasonable I just wonโt pay for it. Nobody is forcing me to.
Yeah. I have no problem paying for products that I happily use. Especially when they are supporting independent developers.
This Google 1 shit. I love my Pixel phone, but they give shit for memory options so that you are forced to pay for the experience of Gmail and saving media. Pisses me off that I can't just save it to my phone.
Cable TV.
At one point I had
Spotify, Wow, Runescape, Netflix, Hulu, HBO, Disney+, Amazon, and Doordash. I didnt even realize it but one day I was just like, why the fuck am I paying for all this. Cut it allllllll away. Now I just have Spotify and HBO. Not as bad and if I want to watch something on the other platforms I cancel HBO. One streaming service at a time.
I signed up for Netflix years ago. When they decided to make it cost more to let my parents share the sub I pulled the plug.
Everything kind of. Netflix, Dinsey, YouTube, Prime, HBO, Spotify, Apple Music and so much more. I rather sail the seas.
2020 Design. The software costs $1500 a year.
When Sony Plus became required for online play on the PS4. Xbox already had similar going on at that point. The last console I have ever bought was a PS3 as a direct result of this.
Just watching all these new subscription services for everything gave me the fatigue and started my self-hosting and actually-owning-things journey, even just paying for Netflix (when I still did) was too much for me, it didn't have everything I wanted, if it did it would remove it after a year or so, and every couple years the price would hike.
My mobile plan. The standard is signing for 24 months. I can't really choose a plan that suits me, they stick virtually unlimited calls (which I barely use), and add mobile data that I can't use up either. Settling for less barely reduces my bill if at all for whatever reason. On top of this, despite me signing for a set fixed amount to pay, they decide to "index" an extra 10-15% every year due to "unforseen circumstances" like inflation. And every time I sign a new contract I get an extra 10% on top of my bill for the same features I don't use. Oh and they add a "happy call" where the call signal sounds like a piercing annoying very low quality melody, despite me denying the service. Switching to another telecom doesn't really remedy the problem, the other two on the market here seem worse than mine in every respect.
Looking at the prepaid features, we're looking at a 40-50% reduction in monthly fees, just paying for what I use, whenever I want to use it. It's needlessly annoying switching from a subscription to a prepaid plan. You'd have to switch telecoms for a month and switch back to the one you like the most if you want to keep your number.
So yeah, as soon as my contract expires, I'm done with renewing. I'm sick of this.
Sync for Lemmy. I was looking forward for the app, but the subscription to remove ads made me stick with Connect instead.
Then do the one time payment option that was added literally a couple hours after the launch of the public beta?
I bought a new PC in 2021 (because building was hard due to supply shortages) and it came with GamePass Ultimate. When I combined my existing Xbox Gold subscription, it gave me something like 1.5 years worth of GamePass Ultimate, which was really great! Once that subscription expired, I had saved up for a year worth of another subscription up front, but noticed they only offered month-to-month at that point. I realized I wasn't playing GamePass games enough to warrant the subscription (might have been different if I could install on my Steam Deck, not through a Windows install or streaming).
Once that GamePass subscription came up, and then Netflix started cracking down on password sharing that I was sharing with my sister in the next city over, it made me question a lot of recurring subscription. For streaming TV shows/movies, I think going forward we'll have one service subscribed to but bouncing around to catch up on shows that my wife and I may want to watch. For GamePass, I'll probably resubscribe once Starfield comes out.
As a kid I had to choose between FFXI and Star Wars Galaxies - and then Planetside came out!
I had a lot of good times in those games but switching between them month to month because I could only afford one at a time gave me a pretty healthy aversion to subscriptions before I got out of middle school. The only subscription service I've ever had was YouTube Red when it first came out because I was interested in a couple of the shows, but they all sucked so now I'm back down to just one subscription (FF14) unless you count car payments and my cell phone plan.
edit: oh wait I've also subbed to Disco+ for battlebots, but that was only because whoever was uploading them to 1337x stopped doing it which was a shame.
HBO Max and Spotify were the only streaming services I paid for. I had HBO Max since the first few months of it's launch but when they raised the already high fee I cancelled it. Shortly after they changed it to Max, definitely don't regret it. HBO Max used to feel special but that specialness died.
Ignoring anything I subscribe online for and canโt cancel example (Just cancelled my cable internet was more painful than ID like)?
Any service that tries to auto deliver me another product in a monthly and won't let me order one without the auto replenish. (Example: Meal services and the like you tubers like to promote, but Iโve been seeing many things attempt this lately)
I don't subscribe to anything because they're all scams.