I'm turned off by subscriptions in general, especially since many time periods where i have played BM in were when I was broke and/or unemployed. I also haven't gotten around to trying M&F yet, it seemed a bit too much in beta and looked kind of ugly a while ago. I should probably check it out again though.
I kind of like the AoW maps and simplicity of BM, but there certainly does need to be more to do outside of war and maybe a refresh of the continents. The years of player made history are great and it would be sad to lose them, but it's clear that the design of the continents is no longer working that well.
It's certainly a great idea to throw out and think about ideas of a merger anyway even if it doesn't happen.
