Unfortunatly no. There will always be a fee associated with this game. But for a good reason, and believe me, its worth it.
True, its not fast paced killing like in Counter-Strike. But there are many features to Camelot that make the game truly worthwhile. The graphics for one as the game continues to improve graphically as it begins to make everquest look like stick figures. The gameplay is tremendously varried from killing things to going on quests or missions to defending your homeland from other player characters who want to destroy you. The classes and races are becoming more varied and you can customize your class a little bit on your playing style.
So why the fee? What makes it worth paying 12 bucks a month? Well, DAoC is professionally run, not some lag server with wierd mods. You can choose from a variety of servers, normal, roleplay, player v player, and even co-operative where there is peace in the realms. The game continues to grow and expand with the addition of low level battlegrounds, graphical improvements and dungeon additions in Shrouded Isles, upcoming player housing and guild buildings that you can create and customize, and coming soon, the ability to explore new underwater dungeons in an Atlantis type expansion.
Its why I moved from Half-life/Unreal Tournament to Dark Ages of Camelot. Its constantly growing, changing, and improving. Plus, its one of the few games you can actually form such a Christian guild as ours and preach the gospel to other players! We have fellowship with each other, adventures, chats, complaints, and even occationally hold prayer services and church services.
To me, the fun of Camelot is only as limited as your imagination and it is definatly worth the fee to play.
Anyhoo. that's my 5 cents.

Oh. And I created an ingame music video if you want to check it out. It should give you a small feel for the game if you are still interested. You can find it here:
http://camelot.allakhazam.com/Art/Movies/rebecca.wmv