Asklemmy

I was questioning myself when I started paying close to $25 for Netflix. Cancelled once I heard about pw-sharing no longer being a thing. Couldn't justify the cost of 4 screens if my family couldn't use it.

Now for most things, It's either self-hosted/FOSS/ or proprietary one-time fee. else I do without.

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 can’t 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 I’ve been seeing many things attempt this lately)

I don't subscribe to anything because they're all scams.

Man I've been having subscription fatigue since the first time I bought an RuneScape membership in 2004.

So glad I got Nexus Mods Life Time Subsciption before they ditched it

The Bluey android game.

For me, this beat saber knockoff game called "supernatural" which was advertised as free on the oculus app store. Not a one time purchase. Literal lunacy.