MMO Space warfare game EVE Online is going to be adding a free to play option this November, and despite your gut reaction, they don't think it'll ruin the game. When it launches, players will have access to two states of play, Alpha and Omega. Alpha will be for the crowd who wishes to play for free and will have limited options to that of the Omega subscribers.
While the Alpha experience is limited in terms of skill upgrades, it does appear that there will still be a great deal of things you can do within the game according to their announcement...
The most important thing to know about Alpha clones is that they may only use a specific set of skills and skill levels. To begin with, we are planning that the Alpha skill set will be focused on using tech one Frigates, Destroyers and Cruisers. Alpha clones will only be able to use ship and weapon skills native to their faction. If you have skills trained on a character in Alpha State, which are not part of the Alpha skill set, those skills will be locked and unusable until Omega state is reactivated. Characters will start the game with the same 400,000 skill points as they do now and will be able to train freely within the Alpha list. A fully trained Alpha will have roughly 5 million skill points.
Developers say limiting the Alpha (Free) players will prevent the experience from being ruined for paid subscribers. I'll admit they seem to have an answer for every possible complaint you could think of be it "suicide accounts" "farming alts" and "server issues". Of course, it's easy to say you have it all figured out prior to launching the product, we'll see for sure whether or not they have all the answers come this November.
