I think after playing people are likely to love it or hate it. I don't think there will be any middle ground. I wouldn't worry about the sparseness of the forums, because there is a lot of interest there for this type of game, and once word spreads people will pick it up soon enough.
Can you opt out on months, or is it an automatic rolling subscription. I'm sure i remember it being said it was the former but i'm not sure...