I think this may be the first time I’ve used the word infected in a positive way, with Crypics STF: Infected patch finally here, players are now getting what they’ve been asking for, for quite a lot time I might add.

In this new patch dubbed “STF”, infected Federation and Klingons get to work together after the Borg have taken over Starbase 82 in the Sibiran system. In the Starbase 82 scenario, you must stop the Borg from assimilating the people there.

While I haven’t tested how the Federation and Klingon work together, I think it will be a nice feature to have if we can communicate with each other, and hopefully not be hostile, I think it’d be great for the games community if you’d be able to party with one another as well, even if it’s just for this one scenario.

Some key features of the STF: Infected patch are;

* Klingon and Federation players both have access to this Special Task Force.

* It is a daily repeatable mission.

* Mark X gear drops in the mission.

* Mission success provides Marks of Valor, which will be used in a special gear store coming in the 45-day update.

* The Federation and Klingon Empire are now tentatively working together to fight the Borg and can be on the same Deepspace encounter maps against the Borg.

You can view the winners and the runner ups here

The goal with the Stat changes is to is to make the effects of stats more easily understandable and make the choices more interesting.

According to Eyonix, the current system has just become too convoluted over the years and something needed to be done to clean it up. You can read the complete post and list of changes here

The following has been taken from the official forums.

What You’ll See on Gear

Stamina – Because of the way we will be assigning Strength, Agility, and Intellect, non-plate wearers will end up with more Stamina than before. Health pools will be much closer between plate-wearers and other classes.

Spirit - Come Cataclysm, this stat should only be found on healing gear. Non-healing casters will have other systems in place to regenerate mana, and we are designing special solutions for Elemental shaman and Balance druids who often share gear with healers (more on this below). Raid buffs that currently boost Spirit (such as Blessing of Kings) will only boost the primary stats of Stamina, Strength, Agility, and Intellect. We are also likely changing the five-second rule and other quirks of the current regen system.

Intellect – Intellect will now grant Spell Power (more on this below). Intellect will also provide less mana than it currently does.

Haste – Haste will become more attractive for melee classes by allowing them to recover resources such as energy and runes more quickly. Our intention is for Haste to let you “do stuff” more often.

Block Rating – Block is being redesigned to scale better. Blocked attacks will simply hit for 30% less damage. Block rating will improve your chance to block, though overall block chances will be lower than they are today.

Parry – Parry no longer provides 100% avoidance and no longer speeds up attacks. Instead, when you parry an attack, it and the next attack will each hit for 50% damage (assuming they hit at all). In other words, Dodge is a chance to avoid 100% of the damage from one attack, Parry is a chance to avoid 50% of the damage from two attacks, and Block is a chance to avoid 30% of the damage from one attack.

Mastery – This is a new stat that will allow players to become better at whatever makes their chosen talent tree cool or unique. It’s directly tied to talents, so what you gain from improving this stat is entirely dependent upon your class and the talent specialization you choose. We’ll talk more about specific Mastery benefits in the future.

Armor – The way Armor mitigates damage is not changing, but the Armor stat has been rebalanced to mirror changes to the armor curve in Cataclysm. As a result, bonus Armor will go down slightly overall. We are also changing the mitigation difference among armor types so that plate doesn’t offer so much more protection than mail, leather, and cloth.

Resilience – This will only affect damage done by players and critical damage done by players. It will not impact crit chance, mana drains, or other such effects.

Strength, Agility, Hit Rating, Expertise, and Critical Strike Rating – These will all still appear on gear as well. Aside from situations mentioned elsewhere in this list, in general these will function similarly to how they do now, though the details — such as how much Hit Rating you might need to effectively combat high-level creatures (more on this below) — are likely to change.

Being Removed from Items

Attack Power – This stat will no longer be present on most items as a flat value, though it will still show up on some process. Strength and Agility, which will be present on items, will grant the appropriate amount of Attack Power (generally 2 Attack Power per point of Strength or Agility) depending upon which stat a particular class favors. Agility may provide less Crit than it currently does.

Spell Power - Spell Power is another stat that you’ll no longer see present on most items. Instead, as mentioned above, Intellect will grant Spell Power. One exception is that caster weapons will still have Spell Power. This allows us to make weapons proportionately more powerful for casters in the same way they are for melee classes.

Armor Penetration – This stat will no longer be present on items. Armor Penetration will still exist in talents and abilities.

Shield Block Value – This stat will no longer be present on items, since the amount blocked is always proportional to the amount of damage done. Talents and other effects might still modify the damage-reduction percentage from 30%, however.

Going Away Completely

MP5 - This stat will be removed from the game completely. Holy paladins and Restoration shaman will be redesigned to benefit from Spirit.

Defense – Defense is being removed from the game entirely. Tanking classes should expect to become uncrittable versus creatures just by shifting into Defensive Stance, Frost Presence, Bear Form, or by using Righteous Fury.

Spell Ranks - Spell ranks will cease to exist. All spells will have one rank and will scale appropriately with level. The levels at which you can learn certain spells are being changed in order to fill in some of the gaps, and we will be introducing some new spells to learn along the way as well.

Weapon Skill - This stat will be removed from the game completely. Classes will start with all the weapon skills they need to know and will not need to improve them.

What Else You Should Know

Combat ratings - All ratings will be much harder to “cap out” at maximum gear levels. Ratings will be steeper in Cataclysm, and creatures in later tiers of content will be harder to hit or crit, similar to how level-83 mobs are harder to hit or crit than level-80 mobs.

Reforging - While these changes will go a long way to making a wider variety of stats more attractive, we understand that sometimes you simply don’t want more Hit Rating on your gear or you’d rather have more Haste than more Crit. In Cataclysm, we are going to give players a way to replace stats on gear as part of the existing profession system. As a general rule of thumb, you’ll be able to convert one stat to 50% of another stat. While some conversions (like converting Stamina to Strength) won’t be permitted, the goal is to let you customize your gear more.

Gems - We are changing the gem colors of a few stats as a result of these adjustments. For example, Hit is likely to be blue instead of yellow. We’ll have more details on this in the future.

Changes to Existing Gear

As with previous expansions, we plan to roll out these changes and modify all existing gear shortly before Cataclysm launches, though it’s still too early to say exactly when. For the most part, the gear you have will still be good for you, though there will be exceptions, such as warriors using leather and mail armor.

If you are a tank (druids an exception), expect to see:

•    No more Defense on gear. Existing Defense becomes Dodge, Parry, or Block Rating.

•    No more Block Value on gear. Existing Block Value becomes Block Rating.

•    You’ll have as much Stamina as you’re used to, though you may notice your tanking plate has a bit less Stamina than a comparable piece of DPS plate, since we tend to take the gem budget out of your most attractive stat.

•    Bonus Armor on gear will go down slightly.

If you are a melee DPS class, druid tank, or hunter, expect to see:

•    A lot more Stamina. Bear-form Stamina scaling will be lowered as a result.

•    Strength if you wear plate. Agility if you wear mail or leather.

•    Existing Attack Power becomes Agility and Stamina.Armor Penetration becomes Haste or Crit.

•    No Intellect on melee gear. Hunters won’t need Intellect since they will no longer use mana. Shaman and Retribution paladins will get mana and spell damage in other ways.

If you are a DPS caster, expect to see:

•    A lot more Stamina.

•    All of your Spell Power converted to Intellect and Stamina.

•    No Spirit. You won’t miss Spirit, though, because you won’t need it for DPS or mana regen.

If you are a healer, expect to see:

•    A lot more Stamina.

•    All of your Spell Power converted to Intellect and Stamina.

•    Spirit instead of MP5. You’ll probably be happy with Spirit, though, because mana regen is going to matter more than it does currently. Healing paladins and shaman will benefit more from Spirit than they do currently.

If you are a Balance druid or Elemental shaman:

•    You will still share gear with Restoration druids and shaman.

•    Your gear will have Spirit on it. It won’t have Hit on it.

•    You will have a talent that converts Spirit to Hit. We will adjust talents accordingly so that you want about as much Spirit as, say, a warlock wants Hit.

•    Hit on rings and other such gear will still benefit you.

•    Raid buffs will no longer boost Spirit, so you shouldn’t find yourself unexpectedly over the Hit cap because of buffs.

Mastery

There’s finally some new information on WOW cataclysm, a brief Mastery System preview from Eyonix on the Wow forums. Some exciting information! I can’t wait until this comes out in beta and we can experience it firsthand.

Eyonix says they want to accomplish 3 things with the new mastery system: Give more freedom in how you allocate points, simplify some of the talents that try to do too much, and add a new stat to high level gear that makes you better at your chosen role. Sounds good to me!

In Cataclysm, as you spend points in a tree, you will automatically gain passive bonuses specific to that tree.

First bonus – Increase Damage healing or survivability

Second bonus – Raise a state that is desirable to you (something usually found on gear) such as Haste or Crit.

Third Bonus – Completely unique to that tree. Will benefit from the Mastery rating found on high-level (80-85) gear.

Age of Conan is apparently still in development for the Xbox. According to Funcom Game director Craig Morrison:

“We obviously had many more challenges than we envisioned getting our technology to adapt to the console platform.

“We are still working on it for the future, and we see it as a potentially valuable platform for our games. Whether we have missed a window for Age of Conan itself remains to be seen.”

He added: “There are many challenges inherent in [developing for console] that many MMO developers haven’t mastered yet.

“… It is currently an untapped market, but as time goes on I think we will start to find good solutions to the challenges that we face there. There are enough people exploring it and working on it that I am confident we will start to see more cross-platform MMO titles.”

So basically they had no idea what they were doing until it was time to put out a product? Hey I think we’ve all been there.

Looking for an Age of Conan Leveling Guide? Check out our original and hands down best in the world guide here.

#10 Prius Online

You may have already heard of this Korean game in the news when a couple allowed their child to die from malnutrition while immersed in caring for a little girl in the game, referred to as an Anima. This game makes our list because of its base in “emotions and love” which can control the outcome of your character in the game. You start off with a little girl called an “Anima” which you have to care for, and based on your actions (such as giving gifts and telling her how to feel) towards this Anima she will act differently, becoming more or less powerful, and developing different skills to help you on your way.

#9 3 feel

Well it is not surprising and it was bound to happen sometime: An MMO based solely on sex. As a female gamer I am well aware of the naughty basement dwelling play-boy wannabes that frequent any MMO game world…. but to take this to the next level and play it as an MMO? Yikes! Don’t get too excited though boys and girls, apparently this game never “came out of the closet” and as of now it is in limbo. I can safely predict that most of these gamers would have been males or males playing female avatars, talk about an identity crisis!

#8 Alicia

Ever wanted to gallop off into the sunset? We’ll apparently you are not alone. Now equine lovers can unite in this horse racing and horse flying game. You can trick out your horse with bling and compete with other players… and even mate.. (Your horse that is).

#7 Furcadia

The front page of this MMO’s website advertises Female players make up over 50% of our population.*Shudder* Furcadia is notorious as a roleplaying cyber joint for those people interested in this Furry Fetish. In case you didn’t see that CSI episode, Furries are people who dress up like fuzzy animals and hump each other.

#6 Gatheryn

Gatheryn is a Sim’s style steam punk MMO. Basically you get to dress yourself up, and harness the power of steam to create items. You can delve into the underworld of Elymia Island and find out what makes it tick (no pun intended).

#5 Oz World

Where else but in an MMO could you go on a first date, and fish at the same time? I guess this could be some guy’s dreams come true. In Oz World, you can meet a new lover in the personal ads, fish, build a house, fish, get married… and fish… they even offer a marriage register and couples listing!

Once you consent to becoming a “lover” you can become a certified married couple. And Fish happily ever after.

#4 Hello Kitty Online

No strange MMO list would be complete without Hello Kitty Online. In this game you get to enter the world of Hello Kitty and friends, and achieve such exciting goals as mining for ore and picking fruit. You can decorate your own house, access and make your own blogs and videos, cook and tailor your own items. This game as garnered a bit of internet notoriety as being a very hardcore gamers’ game.

#3 Secondhand Lands

Secondhand Lands is a very odd MMO set in a fairytale world, where you can choose to become a “Wolf, Sheep. Catgirl or Scrapper”. I have no idea what relationship these classes have to one another, or what they have to do with a fairytale. I guess the fairytale comes in when you must pledge your undying allegiance to either Little bo peep or Red Riding Hood…

#2 Roma Victor

This has to be one of the oddest games I have ever played, personally. It is designed to appeal to real-time MMO history buffs. Everything one does in the game takes real time, so for instance, say you want to run to a camp or a city, well it takes you actual time to get there. When you start off, for instance, you’re a weakling who can barely run, and over time you develop better running skills. Over a LOT of time. I put this at #2 because it is just so creepy. The faces of the avatars have an odd hyper realism to go with the rest of the game.

#1 Farmville

Ok so I am stretching the definition of MMO a little here, but I can’t resist putting Farmville as #1. Farmville… the game that lets you farm with your friends, since its launch last year has 1% OF THE WORLD playing it. It requires you to tend to your virtual crops, leaving the crops for too long will cause them to wither and die. It is basically the social networking version of Lemonade Stand. Who could ever imagine a year ago that the #1 game in the world would involve raising cows and sheep and harvesting pumpkins? What does this say about humanity!

Farmville’s creator company is also facing a class action lawsuit for offering virtual cash in their game for users who signed up for various advertising offers.

There’s many weird MMO’s out there and perhaps in the future I will create another list. I think this list will keep you busy for at least a couple minutes. *Disclaimer* This author is not responsible for any perverted basement dwellers you might meet attempting to play these games. Download at your own risk.

Oath of the Rangers

Recently Turbine released Volume 3, Book 1: Oath of the Rangers onto the live LotRO servers. This patch includes a lot of much needed and eagerly awaited features such as four Skirmishes, new skill upgrades, new level 65 crafting recipes and the Depths of Nurz Ghashu instance.

Taken from the official website:

Skirmishes:

• At the Necromancer’s Gate, a powerful Olog-Hai thinks he’s king of the hill, and your force must prove him wrong.
• Before the Gate of the Ringwraith’s Lair, creatures of nightmare seek to lay a deadly trap.
• Man the catapults! A powerful force seeks to capture the outpost at Thangúlhad, and you must drive them back into the darkness.
• In the dungeons of Dannenglor, captured elves face torment and destruction, unless you can rescue them from the Enemy!

New Skill Upgrades:

When we looked at our list of “things we want to do,” sitting right on top was “add level 64 skill upgrades.” So here we are! The new combat system has had some time to mature, and we are feeling more comfortable with making additions to players’ skills.

New Level 65 Crafting Recipes:

• Make your own power with new Level 65 recipes and updates to crafting abilities.
• New icons and updated stats for all Jeweler recipes.
• New recipes and more powerful products for Cooks.
• New class items for Weapon smiths and Woodworker.
• New crop recipes for Artisan, Master, and Superior Farmers.

The Depths of Nurz Ghashu:

One of the Rangers, mighty fighter for the Free Peoples of Middle-earth, has ventured into the fiery depths of Nûrz Ghâshu, believing that his daughter is trapped within. In this deadly new Skirmish, you must brave flame and madness to rescue a Ranger of the North who has been called to aid his future King. Should you fail, the hope of Middle-earth may be lost.

After doing a bit of research and asking a few friends who still play Lotro regularly, it seems as if this latest update has been exactly what the game needed PvP and PvE wise, they also say that they are seeing hundreds of new players ever since it went and that the game seems much alive again. Every since DDO went F2P/P2P it seems as if Turbine is getting things in gear as is greatly improving all their products, I recently went back to DDO to check it out, and I was surprised to see about 90-100 people in the starter zone on each server, with almost 100% positive replies about how much the game has improved.

I can’t wait to see what Turbine’s next MMO is going to be if this keeps up!

View the Rankings here.

It may not be an Olympic medal but for us gamers it’s almost as good J

If you’re infected with this Trojan, when you log into your WOW account via the authenticator the Trojan will intercept the authenticator code, send it to the hacker and send a wrong code to blizzard. So, you’ll get an error and the hacker will get the code and be able to access your account!  If you are infected, you have the file name“emcor.dll” on your computer. It will probably be at “C:\Users\(Your user name)\AppData\Temp

So, though the authenticator may give you an added sense of security, it is not foolproof, so remember to be careful what you download and use a virus scanner!

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