edit 4 double xp weekend started! Going on until March 17th.

Changes to Free and Silver Memberships.

Details on their 14th anniversary.

From what I can see, the major differences between free players and subscribers is that subscribers can use higher level mercenaries (party member NPCs you can hire to group with you) and are not limited to 1000AA points (higher level class customization), and do not have a platinum cap.

I'd estimate with these changes f2p players could level to about 70 before they started to hit any real limitations.

As far as I know, all zones but the latest expansion are open up to everyone.

I just got back into the game after a 5 year hiatus so I'll try to answer any questions but my knowledge is quite limited as I'm only level 59.

edit: If you're a returning old player, type into chat /veteranrewards and /claims. You get free stuff depending on how old the account is.

edit 2: I forgot to mention as a f2p player you cannot use the bazaar (auction house), which I believe you have to leave your character logged in to sell from it even if you subscribe (they might have changed it).

edit 3: others have mentioned this applies to EQ2 as well!