They made it free because community patching has made the game cancerous and beyond frustrating to play. All that is left is the true believers that would play regardless how retarded the game becomes. In a week the numbers will be back to normal.
Which is funny to say, considering the fact that population is on a steady level for years.
Ironically enough, the most cancerous part of community that makes the game frustrating are people with few thousands of games played exclusively as one faction and still not being able to break 4 digit ranks.
Relic Entertainment
