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Are you excited yet? Age of Conan's Early Access Weekend is soon upon us, and the forums -- both official and unofficial -- are ablaze with information, speculation and anticipation as that final retail launch date closes in on us.

The good people over at Ten Ton Hammer have gathered a wonderful compilation of the best of the best when it comes to AoC forum posts, fan site info and all the general information you'll need to get started on the right foot this coming May 20th. If you were lucky enough to get into the Early Access Weekend, feel free to leave some comments to this post as to your impressions of the game outside of beta.

As our MMOs get more immersive in regards to graphical environments and especially character models, it is an inevitable progression to introduce fan-driven beauty contests into the mix. Fansites and forums are always finding new ways to boost the community in our MMOs, and competition is a natural element of our favorite games anyway, so why not combine the two? This type of community-based event showcasing the beauty of in-game graphics tends to be something that can most effectively be done in an MMO, and works quite well as a distraction from the typical killing, looting and questing.

So are these in-game character beauty contests an extension of roleplaying, or are they focused more on the competitive aspect? Do you think they're trying to over-compensate for real-world qualities as a form of escapism? Are they simply good-natured fun, and a way to pass the time? Regardless of the reason, they're becoming more popular with each new MMO. In fact, we anticipate one of these in Age of Conan very soon.

What becomes even more fascinating though is the conversion from in-game character beauty contests to real-world costume contests. Many players are willing to take it that extra mile for the love of their game, and this certainly isn't a new phenomenon. We've seen this for decades with Star Trek and Star Wars conventions, but are MMOs replacing this type of event?

Check out the gallery below for a walk down the runway of MMO fashion shows.

Arguably the most recognizable Second Life resident from the outside, with her blue-and-purple butterfly wings, Aimee Weber has made a name for herself with her metaverse development company Aimee Weber Studios. She's become so successful, in fact, that she no longer has the time to play on her own private island, so she's selling it. In a statement to Massively, she says:

"I used to love filling the sim with half-completed projects, fun little experiments in unusual texturing, experiments of my stream of consciousness, simulations of RL places I like to hang out in so that I could have virtual getaways. As Second Life became a profession I've found I had less and less time for such indulgences. SL is less a kiddy sandbox these days, and more like a serious construction zone."

Aimee takes care of the transfer fee, and you get full ownership of her jungle retreat. Such a deal! Interested residents can contact her in-world.

So there you are, sitting at the AoC character creation screen. You've just installed the game, created your perfect character that you will be playing for the next few months or years, but now you stare blankly at the little box with the blinking cursor asking for your character name. Argh!

Fret no more, my Hyborian friends. There is an easy way to create the perfect name for your AoC character without resorting to something like Chuknorissrulez or Ipwndurface. A simple, easy-to-use web-based name generator has been created around the infrastructure of the GE Name program. With proper permissions in place already, this generator can prove to be a valuable tool for those not as familiar with the Conan lore, yet eager to get started in the game.

One look at the most recent Weekend Wrapup for Tabula Rasa and you'll see that the TR community is flourishing as strong as ever. Amid concerns from many early-adopters of the game, these community-run events seem to be popping up everywhere.

• PlanetTR's Hottest Armor Contest - The top seven winners of this glorified beauty contest are showcased and praised in the PlanetTR forums.
• Friday Night Fights - The FnF for May 16th will be the first time it will be done in the C.E.L.L.A.R., which is the brand new boxing ring still on the Public Test Server. So yes, this means the FnF itself will be on the test server as well. It's still not too late to sign up for this, but even if you don't participate in the fighting this week, it will certainly be worth watching!
• It's Raining Bane - This dev-supported event is basically a giant collection of players running around the Torden Mires killing stuff. Sounds great to us!
• PvP Singles Tournament - Sponsored by the Warlords of Exodus clan, this PvP tournament seems to be a well-organized event with some rare purple items as prizes, courtesy of the GMs.

Whether certain tactics and ship setups are balanced is a topic that's been constantly debated on the EVE Online forums for as long as I can remember. The argument itself is as old as EVE and is repeated daily on the forums like some kind of popular EVE Online screen play. The script of this play doesn't always follow the same format but the same roles are always filled by the players participating. On one side, we have people who think a certain tactic is unbalanced and should be fixed by CCP in a balance patch. On the other side, we have people who rely on the tactic being discussed that are afraid it might be changed. Everyone else with an opinion falls somewhere on the spectrum between these two extremes.

Not so long ago, the arguments were about nosferatu used on a Dominix being unbalanced and remote sensor dampeners being too powerful. Discussions about of these led to some re-balancing to help level the PvP playing field. The latest argument is about nano-fit ships and nano-gangs. The "nano" craze is a PvP ship fitting style and fighting strategy that favours speed over all else. Ships like the Sacrilege and the Ishtar which might normally be fitted with heavy tanks are instead fitted for high speed and agility. Rather than resist and repair damage, a ship with high speed and agility can evade enemy fire altogether. A nano-fit ship can orbit an enemy so quickly that the enemy's turrets can't track them and missiles deal tiny amounts of damage.

With some pilots claiming that viable counter-maneuvers exist to combat the nano craze and others calling it "easy mode for PvP", it's hard to know what to think. Read on while I delve into this controversial issue and draw some important conclusions.

Funcom posted a bulletin seeking volunteers to moderate the official Age of Conan forums. The game will be launching in just over a week, so if you're a particularly passionate member of its community, this is probably a good time to jump on board.

All you need: strong English language skills, an infraction-free couple of months of history on the AoC forums, "organization skills," and a little bit of forum moderation experience. It's too bad it's not a paying gig, but there's no doubt that there are people out there who are committed enough to the game that they'll help out for free. So if you're one of those people, head on over; Funcom has provided a application for you to fill out.

Just don't be too shocked when you end up spending hours every day battling level 80 elite trolls.

You see it all the time in forums and comments. Someone will come out against a game mechanic, or class, or quest, comparing it unfavorably to a different (and presumably better) game. Someone who loves the maligned game jumps in to defend it, frequently attacking the other game in retaliation. Then it's the initial attacker's turn to defend, rinse and repeat, ad nauseam.

After the dust has settled, however, is either party any the wiser for the exchange? Two extremes of opinion typically tend to cancel each other out, either side espousing their own beliefs so vehemently that no middle ground can be attained. In the end, does it really matter if someone else thinks your game sucks? Do you bother to defend your favorite MMO?

The second closed beta for Aion is over, and all eyes are now on Korean Closed Beta Test 3. But recently, some members of the Aion Source forums were able to answer some questions on the game from fans of the upcoming NCsoft MMO.

Overall, the beta testers were much happier about Closed Beta Test 2 than Closed Beta Test 1. There were many complaints about class balance and respawn timers in CBT1, but that all seems to be fixed currently, showing that NCsoft is listening. These testers also cite some of their favorite parts of the game, namely the gorgeous graphics and flowing animations, which tend to be focus points on many of these Korean-based MMOs. Be sure to check out the complete Q&A as well as some exciting videos of Aion so far.

The Endless Forest, which our very own Turpster has reviewed in his own very special way, seems to be outgrowing its community forums and website. Luckily for the dedicated members of this community, creators Michael Samyn and Auriea Harvey have developed a new-and-improved site offering players a place to post their artwork, keep diaries and keep tabs on their friends through a live map of the game.

The beauty of The Endless Forest, besides its stunning surrealistic visuals, is the fact that it contains no competition or real goals. It's an online world that challenges the imagination and creativity of players by expressing themselves through upgradeable costumes and gestures instead of words. Since September of 2005, the world of TEF has grown to more than 25,000 players, and they hope through the aid of this new community website, that number will continue to rise.

The Fallen Earth forums were alive with the sound of falling chunks of information yesterday as the devs from Icarus Studios answered seven more questions about their post-apocalyptic MMO. At launch players won't be able to upload their own clan symbols, mainly because it's a headache for the devs to inspect each one of them. While it is a mature game with a bit more leeway, it still takes an incredible amount of manually intensive labor to make sure some wanker isn't trying to sneak something absurd into the game.

Deep in the heart of the Las Vegas desert the real Lake Mead is "alive and well" with water skiers and jet skiers. The virtual Lake Mead found in Fallen Earth won't be ready for prime time when the game goes live, but will come online through a later expansion. However, it too will be accessible via the Hoover Dam. Just like in real life.

The Sneak/Stealth skill is made up of both active and passive parts. The "I heard something" part is passive, while the "I think you're an enemy faction member in disguise!" part is active and requires a player to activate an ability on the target. Hopefully, this MMO won't sneak past the gaming populace when it drops because the more we learn about it the better it sounds.

In one of the more bizarre contests in recent memory, the NetDevil boys are submitting the hair of two of their developers to the whims and amusement of the larger Jumpgate Evolution community. In order to participate in the contest, you just Photoshop whatever freaky color you think would look good on either of the pair of developers, and the two that most amuse the team will earn the winners a signed Jumpgate Evolution print and a guaranteed closed beta spot. Oh, and did I mention they're actually going to follow through and dye their hair that color as well?

Now, this is pure speculation, but this blogger has a sneaking suspicion that this contest may have been the product of some heavy drinking. In any case, entries must be submitted on the official forums by May 20. So get cracking!

We're excited to report that Tabula Rasa's patch 1.8 will be on test some time today. Among the changes, and this time it appears there's a real smattering of different stuff, is a new target lock-on system that allows you to set both friendly and and hostile target locks. Also, this blogger is excited about the changes to the Demolitionist class, which could finally prompt him to get that Sapper over the hump from level 28 to 30. We don't have full patch notes at the time of posting, because the patch isn't up yet, but we'll update with further details as they become available.

And as an added bonus, Harley Quin will be hanging around Alia Das, just like with patch 1.7, to level players to 30 so they can test out the changes that are only available at a higher level. According to CuppaJo, they're looking to make this process automatic in the near-future, but for the time being this is how it'll work. This service is only available today and tomorrow, so make sure to get on sometime soon if you want to give the new patch a full look and you don't already have a character on Orion, which is the server being copied over this patch.