Anarchy Online offers free 14-day trial

Funcom has a fresh strategy for attracting new players to its sci-fi multiplayer online role-playing game Anarchy Online: give the game away for free. The full version of Anarchy Online is now available for download free of charge from the publisher's official Web site for a 14-day trial (increased from the earlier 7-day trial offer).

Once the trial ends, players can continue to explore the virtual universe for a $7.95 monthly fee. Anarchy Online, released in 2001, is a sci-fi-themed MMORPG set 20 thousand years in the future. Players create characters and jump right into a quarrel between a megacorporation and rebel insurgents. The publisher also has some good news for current players of the game, particularly those bugged by bugs. AO director Marius Enge announced some upcoming changes to its recently released Anarchy Online expansion pack, Alien Invasion. "We launched in a technically fantastic way, but we did have some issues we weren't too happy about. Luckily our great community manager, and you, our players, have given us feedback in a (for the most part) constructive way, enabling us to swiftly shape up what wasn't good about Alien Invasion," stated Enge.