Just an update: To make a long story short, I finally was able to sign up for PSN+. Great, right? Well sorta. As far as I'm concerned, I've pretty much just spent $18 for a Mortal Kombat demo (one that will be FREE, I think, one week from tomorrow). But what about the glorious freebies that are included with a PSN+ subscription, you ask? I'll say this: Sony is sneaky!
After finally being able to join PSN+, I decided to go and download the plethora of free goodies they were offering. The first was Stacking. I clicked download and got a message basically telling me that while the game was totally free because I was a PSN+ subscriber now... it was only free and playable while I was a PSN+ subscriber. Translated: Once my PSN+ subscription runs out, I can no longer access any of the supposed freebies associated with the service. Really wish I had known that in the beginning. I was really only subscribing to access the MK demo early, but figured it was a smart buy and good deal because of the freebies. Probably should have taken the issues I had signing up as a hint!
The morale of this story is: NOTHING IS FREE! /end_rant :banghead: