Similar to what other MMOs have been doing for a while (like Warhammer Online and Age of Conan), World of Warcraft is getting an endless trial, called Starter Edition. That means that the old time-restriction of 14 days is removed and that you are free to create as many characters as you like and play them up to level 20. The trial includes the two races introduced in World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, the Blood Elves and the Draenei, and if you want to upgrade to a regular account it will cost you $19.99 (which also includes The Burning Crusade-expansion).
The endless trial comes with a couple of restrictions besides the level cap of course. Those are:
- A maximum of 10 gold.
- Trade skills are capped at 100 ranks.
- Unable to trade via the Auction House, mailbox, or player-to-player.
- In-game access to public chat channels unavailable. Players are limited to communicating using only say, party, or whisper.
- Characters will be unable to create or join guilds.
- Characters are not able to send whispers to other characters unless they have been added to the characters' friends lists or have received a whisper from a character first.
- Characters will not be able to invite other players into a party.
- Characters will not be able to join parties with other characters above level 20.
- Voice chat disabled on Starter Edition accounts.
- Realms experiencing login queues will prioritize players who have full, paid accounts.
- Starter Edition accounts are not eligible for character transfers
- RealID features are disabled on all Starter Edition Accounts.
You can find out more about the Starter Edition on Blizzard's site.