A demo would be cool to try out, but past that: game purchase only with purchasable skins for your character(with corresponding bandit skins). What about studio developed with strong community input? It doesn't have to be either/or, the people remaking Shadowrun(with the original lead designer of the tabletop game) as an isometric RPG are doing it via Kickstarter. Private servers are essential to popularity to this type of game, studio-run servers can still exist.