will the online world be free or do you have to pay like Everquest?

There's no one 'official' online world. People create them and will charge or not depending on what they want. ALFA (http://www.alandfaraway.net) whose intent is to recreate as much of the Forgotten Realms as it can does not charge, but requires you to apply and be accepted based on their own rules of what makes a good player on ALFA.

Exactly right, BTA. Some other worlds have announced they will be charging eg NWN Online. Some worlds will be Faerun based, others Dragonlance or Middle Earth or completely 'made up'. It will be up to the players to find one that best suits their tastes/pockets.

thanks for the replies

I thought that the world would be held on the alfa and DM servers!.
For those people who do not have servers and have no knowledge of one what would happen?
-Kane

You an play NWN as a single player game on your own computer. It comes with several modules built in to be played.

I thought the game was set to be in faerun, or more precisely, in the city of Newer Winter. Looks good about not having to pay a fee just to play. My internet connection is expensive enough already! (I seriously need that cable connection now!)