Team Fortress 2 - For Better or Worse? & The Future of Gaming

Alright, so I come home from work, boot up steam, and am forced to update Team Fortress 2. I think okay cool, more new stuff - UNTIL I READ THE DETAILS.

In-Game Store - Players can buy items that were once only available through playing the game.

Item Sets - Item sets which give the player certain bonuses/boosts (Also the sniper's set which blocks headshots?)

I am not a support of this blasphemy. I think Valve is getting a little too greedy. What happened to the good ole days where you pay for a game once, via purchasing it, then  you can play online for free? Now all the good games are subscription.

Some companies try to keep their games free by adding a Cash Shop, but more often than not, the Cash Shop is filled with such imbalanced items, there's no way to proceed in the game without purchasing with real money, or excessive amounts of in-game money.

I remember when games first started following this subscription/cash shop model. I knew it was going to change gaming in the long run, I even wrote about it in an online forum once. I'm just surprised its taking this long to set in though.

I know a lot of companies are trying to jump on the World of Warcraft bandwagon, having subscriptions to play (because we all love money), but like I stated earlier, I miss only having to pay for a game once. What game started subscription play? Ultima Online? Everquest? Ragnarok Online? All I I know is Diablo was free to play online..