Subscription wasn't the problem why people left. Though not to sound too pessimistic - follow forums, some might give it another chance or move to NA version where is no Gameforge.
Was Gameforge so awful? I really want to try TERA, but am torn between EU and NA, since I hear so many Europeans upset with the EU TERA management, but also bitch about the latency to NA servers.
I liked Tera during the beta and wanted to play it... I just didn't find it worth paying for. Now that it's going f2p, I'll be playing it until Anet devs decide to get their heads outta the sand and fix GW2!