i heard that they did that but didnt know if it was true... From what i hear non members are really limited. No chat and all the secondary armors are off limits too. Along with a few other things. I did not know they actualy took out the chat though. Lol to activate the chat you must either pay to upgrade the game or pay for one of there other games.
But i have reason to believe that they will give chat to the free players soon, but they will still be limited in there armors. (really so far the second armor sets have the EXACT same skills as the armors before them) The only armor with its own skills shared by no other armors is Paladin. So i guess if you liked it enough you could play and level up the armor and when (if) they give free players chat you are all ready to go.
Plus if anyone else joins the forum we can all get MSN messager (or what ever work for you) and chat with that. Then we can all still chat.