Play Anarchy Online for Free Until January 2007

I don't really do the MMORPG thing (tried Everquest Escape to Norrath (also free) briefly, and I have recently downloaded Second Life but I've only spent about 2 1/2 minutes 'in world'), but for those who are interested in giving one a try, Anarchy Online is letting people try it out for free.

Unlike many other online role-playing games, Anarchy Online is sci-fi themed, as opposed to the more typical medieval fantasy sorts of themes. Like many other online games, it involves creating a character and spending a lot of time running around killing things in order to get better weapons, armor and other gear so you can spend a lot of time killing bigger, badder, uglier things. Maybe that's a bit like describing The Lord of the Rings as a story about a bunch of guys running around killing things so they can discard an unwanted trinket, but if that kind of thinking stops me from downloading the game and spending 100 hours a week as an Atrox Enforcer running all over the planet Rubi-Ka killing things, then there's no harm done, right?

According to their FAQ, the recommended hardware requirements are:

• Pentium II 450
• 256 Mb RAM
• 3D graphics card with 32MB RAM
• DirectX 8X
• CD-ROM drive
• 1GB free hard drive space
• Internet connection, 56K Modem

If you decide to give it a try, good luck in your um, struggle for freedom from the Omni-Tek Security Forces, and all that sort of stuff.