E*A*G*L*E, I
think NEWBERY is saying he doesn't want the community to disappear.
I'm a little confused about the rest of it though . . . why wouldn't you be able to play?
For all the whining and complaining that has gone on in this forum,
Elite is essentially the same game as DF1 with a fresh coat of paint. There is bullet drop, some trees, no cockpit view, you'll have more levels to earn MORAF, BUT you earn points for hits (not just kills), you get more planes to fly, it will run on a wider variety of systems for a much longer life span (whereas DF1 was quickly becoming unplayable on all systems).
There are a few bugs that still need to be worked out, but those can be; the list of things that could not be fixed anymore in DF1 was growing rapidly.
The only truly major difference is that you have to pay for the initial download. If you still don't want to subscribe after that, you can do the same song and dance you did when you did subscribe to DF1.
.