This is indeed a very interesting subject. Another sandbox mmo has just gone free to play in a similar way offering accounts that skill up to 60. I think this is a great way to get people interested in the game, addicted and then wanting more. These people will then sub. It's funny that pretty much all of these free mmo's offer a "premium account" which is effectively the old sub rate. So free to play is mostly a clever marketing ploy to get people through the door. I do agree with the server strain issue. Even with the slight increase in population we have had in game recently I have noticed some lag spikes coming back into the game (although not serious ones). With a large influx of new free players I would also worry that the server gets overloaded.

This will certainly give the Xsyon team food for thought