I remember a time when, after buying a video game, you were done giving that company your money. These days, game makers are coming up with all kinds of ways to siphon your paycheck. Just consider Activision and its Call of Duty franchise. When you add up the cost of the game disc (or the special $150 Prestige Edition), the $15 map packs, and now the premium Call of Duty: Elite subscription service, we’re looking at a sum upward of one or two C-notes. Activision charging its dedicated customers a monthly fee on top of everything else just to experience the upcoming Modern Warfare 3 in its ultimate form sounds like a pretty bad deal. But in reality, things might not be as ridiculous as they initially seem, and here’s why:

1. COD: Elite's pricing structure is less World of Warcraft and more free-to-play. When Activision CEO Bobby Kotick revealed his dream last year of turning the Call of Duty franchise into a subscription service, we all had a good laugh. We, or at least I, thought he meant he wanted to turn the series into a first-person-shooter version of the pay-to-play cash cow, World of Warcraft. Instead, based off of the information currently available, Call of Duty: Elite more closely resembles online free-to-play titles...even though the initial game is still 60 bucks.

1UP reports that the basic services (the online community, stat-tracking, etc.) and online multiplayer are going to be free. This will likely bring in the majority of habitual players to sign up and familiarize themselves with Elite. Then, as Activision rolls out the details of what features the premium version will offer, players can choose whether they want to broaden their experiences. According to the same 1UP story, Kotick claims that customers who choose to pay for Elite won't gain an edge in multiplayer. So if people don't value what's included with the premium service, they aren't really penalized for not jumping on board.

2. Call of Duty fans can simply stop buying other video games to help pay for Elite. I say that sarcastically, but I’m also half serious. Players are logging in billions of hours into COD online multiplayer, so I’m doubtful that the average fiend is making time for other titles. Money that they would normally spend on other games -- or other sources of entertainment for that matter -- can now just go straight into Activision’s bank account. The customer supposedly gets even more replay value out of his purchase, and Activision gets another fleet of cash-filled dump trucks. It’s a win-win situation, right?

3. Maybe the premium service will be better than people expect. Activision and Kotick have so far been fairly coy about what customers who sign up for the premium Elite subscription are in for other than some vague “customer-service operation.” Until we know more of the specifics, it’s hard to completely write it off as being a blatant get-richer-quick scheme to take advantage of addicted gamers. Perhaps paying members will gain instant access to the golden camouflage weapons? Or custom clan tags? How about the most in-depth avatar editor ever?  

Who knows? Maybe Activision really will offer something amazing that makes shelling out approximately $100 a year extra for one game worth it. Yeah, maybe….