Don't know if you saw this:

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2...ee-to-play.ars

Dungeons and Dragons Online is enjoying a second life in terms of player count and buzz, all thanks to a new business strategy: giving the game away. Turbine is making their MMO as accessible as possible, and that includes making players who don't pay anything as happy as possible. Subscriptions are up 40 percent.

I guess subscribers have more slots to carry things and can get some content and items that non-payers can't but still... might be a cool way to check out the game. My son downloaded the client and was playing a bit over the weekend. Looks pretty cool.