There will be a Free trial weekend down the road Jimmy, I'm certain of this. Champions Online did it, shortly after Launch, and i see no reason Cryptic won't follow suit for STO, it's only "Logical".
Speaking of CO, I finally made my mind up to cancel it and delete it. It was a worthwhile "filler" MMO but ultimately STO is my long term commitment. I was debating with a close friend on AIM last eve, he refuses to try STO because he hates star trek and star trek's "lore" as he puts it. I argued that STO can theoretically stand alone if he seperated the "trek" aspect and pretended it was a New MMO he could understand what was going on and see a Unique game for what it is under the Flag of "star trek". Alas, there was no budging on his part. e agreed to meet in Star wars-The old republic (i will be playing that as well when the time comes but my first duty will be STO.)
STO has met my expectations. It has not "beat" my expectations, but it at least "meets" it. There are times when the "MMO" aspect sticks out and others the "trek" part sticks out. It has more "pros" than "cons" (or is that Khaaans!?)
If i had one suggestion to cryptic it would be to step back on the heavy handed need for constant combat scenerios, I love all things space battle wise in Trek,i always have, But when you get Drowned in so much War war combat enemy enemy attack attack, after a while you wish there was a bit more going on, the exploration missions, the other aspects so far always end up being about conflict 99% of the time. It's a double edged Bat'leth..you need conflict to make things exciting at times..But Cryptic needs to realise that they Underestimate the mentality of the player base..we can handle More than a mission that creates an excuse to fire our Phasers..
Update- I hit 6 finally and made/remade my Klingon chick "Katanna" Klingon ex wife of George kane. I had a funny experience- i accidentally challenged a TON of officers in the arena at the SAME time lol!! man..what a beating i took!!