Blizzard has announced World of Warcraft “Starter Edition,” a new version of the game that is free to play – up to a point. Gamers who download the software will be able to play as much as they want, but their characters are capped at level 20 until they purchase the full game.

[ad#Google Adsense 300×250 in story]World of Warcraft is Blizzard’s perennially popular online role playing game for Mac OS X and Windows that brings players to the world of Azeroth, land of humans, orcs and other creatures locked in eternal conflict as they fight for control of land and resources.

Blizzard has long had a free trial version of the game that was time-based – you had 14 days from the time you created your account to decide whether to roll it over to a paid account. This new system favors more occasional players who aren’t able to focus time or attention on the game to maximize their experience in that two-week window.

There are some limitations to the new Starter Edition – it lacks the same content that’s found in Blizzard’s most recently-released expansion set for World of Warcraft, “Cataclysm,” for example. But players do get some of the content included in the “Burning Crusade” expansion, including the ability to play as Blood Elves or Draenei.

The Starter Edition’s release coincides with the release of a new 4.2 update to World of Warcraft that called Rage of the Firelands, which adds new content, changes player versus player dynamics and more.