Thanks to Slaughter for the news
http://www.bluesnews.com/cgi-bin/board.pl?...&threadid=63870

Subscription Free PlanetSide [January 22, 2006, 1:24 pm ET] - Viewing Comments
The PlanetSide Official Forums outline plans to launch a subscription free way to play the MMOFPS (thanks SabreWulf). The update outlines additional plans for the future, and here's a bit on what's being called the fodder program:

Subscription Free - "Fodder Program"
New Players will be able to create a new account and and play for free for a period of 12 months. The new account will have limitations on the BattleRank (+ or - BR8) and the CommandRank (+ or - CR2). Essentially, new players will be able to have access to any part of the game but they will be limited on the diversity of their arsenal. Time Frame – We are shooting for February 14th for Launch.

New Player Training
Simultaneously to be launched with the Subscription Free service, we will be changing the UI for all new characters. One of the complaints that we receive frequently is that when you enter the game, there isn’t an easy learning curve and transition into battle. We’re going to change that in hopes of getting new players/characters into battle within a couple minutes of entering the game at the same time teaching them how to play. You may or may have not noticed that we have implemented 2 new saved favorites just recently to equip new players with a load-out much quicker.

Interesting, I wonder if MMO games other than RPGs will ever be very popular...

I heard good things about planetside, supposedly to be a giant battlefield, where you can actually go across continents on foot if you want to, but that would take like weeks or something, fastest way is with spaceships which can take you in minutes. I read that in a computer magazine long ago, so I don't really know how's the actual game, but it sounds interesting.

Well, the longer it takes to travel the more money they make, I suppose. Can't be bad.