Lord of the Rings Online is set to go 'free to play' beginning September 10th. Turbine has announced, however, that current/former subscribers and beta testers have the opportunity to get a head start on the new features and content on September 8th and 9th. Players will be able to access the four new servers to reserve their character names if desired.

The head start will happen on the live game servers. Current and former subscribers as well as recent participants in the closed beta may be able to patch up and start playing as early as the 7th, dependent upon server availability. Beta players who did not previously play on the live service will need to download and install the live game client prior to playing, and will log into the live servers using their beta logins, which will be converted to live accounts in time for the beginning of the head start on 09/08/10. The Beta (Bullroarer) game software will not work to access the headstart. To download the live game client go here for the standard version and here for the high res version.