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Anarchy Online to be Subscription Free
According to the offial site, Anarchy Online is removing fees for new users who subscribe to the game between the 15th of December 2004 and the 15th of January 2005. From the release: "We feel very confident in the unique features and heralded qualities of our game, and are now openly inviting everyone playing MMO's to find out what Anarchy Online is all about, completely free of commitment" said Ole Schreiner, Project Director for Anarchy Online. "Not only can we boast of a fantastic game which has been expanding for years, we are also constantly adding exciting new content, progressively making the ultimate sci-fi MMORPG even better." Commentary on the Zen of Design blog.
The temptation is ridiculous. A year free trial? Usually I get bored of these games before a year is up. I'd have to reboot, I suppose, anyone know if AO runs under WINE. But a free year... hmmm.
Well I googled and found this: http://www.csh.rit.edu/~marius/aolinux/. Perhaps I will give it a shot...
Why not fork?
Given the timing of this, I'd be inclined to think this has been done due to competition since the release of World of Warcraft.
I have played AO a fair bit, right from the start, however, I never felt I could make any progress if I didn't spend more than 3 hours on at a time. All the best gear in the game is constantly camped, and the latest expansion really only benifited high level characters who put imense amount of effort into the game.
I've now cancelled, and am enjoying WoW much more, with it's much more flexible play style and questing. Some of my friends have done the same. With WoW stealing many if not most of their players, I'm sure AO is doing this to keep their subscription levels up, but I doubt it's going to be enough.