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New Chat Enhancements Announced
We are releasing new community enhancements very soon!

One of the enhancements is 18+ Chat*. 18+ Chat will allow players a more open communication environment with other 18+ players. Starting tonight, we are adding web-based account controls for 18+ chat. Please be aware that although the control will be added to your account, 18+ Chat will NOT be launched tonight.

This chat feature is in response to our community’s requests. To ensure the highest level of safety, we have chosen to launch this for our active Subscriber community only. Please note that this option is off by default, and you must actively select this option under Account Management.

Our terms for in-game communication with other players will remain the same. Violent and abusive behavior, as well as the exchange of personal information is still not acceptable.

Once we launch this feature, the following updates to chat will apply:

1. Menu Chat (default setting for under13)
1. players will continue to see only Menu Chat.
2. 13 to 18+ Text Chat (default setting for 13+)
1. players will continue to see only our Dictionary Text Chat.
2. players will NOT see the 18+ chat.
3. New 18+ Chat
1. will be filtered for profanity.

*Accounts must be 18+ and must be an active subscriber with a valid credit card on file.

You can read the full post on the Wizard 101 news! I for one, am REALLY looking forward to these changes. Not because I don’t value the safety of children, but for those of us who are adults, this will be a feature that certainly comes in handy. I can’t recall the number of times I have tried to meet up with a friend and have been unable to spell out a number properly or a location.

What do you think of the chat changes?

I usually love the Path to 2409 posts on the Star Trek Online site, but this weeks edition, 2387, was just a repeat of what I’ve already read in the Star Trek Countdown comics, and just let’s us know that they are considering the comics and the upcoming movie part of the canon of the game.

Lots of people, including me, aren’t entirely impressed, but I will reserve judgement until they do the next update and go to the next year beyond this current “movie launching” story.

Some fans have been freaking out over the loss of the Romulan Empire, but I love when the Star Trek Universe is shaken to its core. Will the Romulans not be playable as their own faction? Who knows. It could make for a really interesting game experience, or if nothing else, as great material for both the Federation and Klingon stories in the game.

I am also looking to see what kind of technology we can expect in Star Trek Online. They’ve given us sneak peaks of ships, but without video to show off their “abilities”, we have to wait and speculate. I do like Geordi La Forge’s Jellyfish concept, though it doesn’t look like a Federation ship, hearing that he’s involved in some new “treknology” should be interesting.

One last detail worth mentioning is the return of the Orions as an interstellar race.

Starfleet Intelligence recommends that the Federation keep a close eye on activities of the Orion Syndicate. A multi-year crackdown on criminal activity in the Alpha and Beta Quadrants has been successful in curbing the threat of the Syndicate for Federation citizens, but on Stardate 64163.8 Hassan the Undying assassinates top Syndicate boss Raimus on Farius Prime.

Raimus’s death opens the door for Hassan’s employer, Melani D’ian, to take over Raimus’s Syndicate operations. Starfleet Intelligence estimates that Melani D’ian now controls as much as 30 percent of the Syndicate’s operations, and that other Syndicate bosses may seek to topple her before she seeks to expand her powerbase even more. Analysts note that Melani D’ian is the first Orion to rise to a top spot in Syndicate leadership in more than 20 years, and speculate that this could mark the return of the Orions as an interstellar power.

Anyways… I guess I have to wait until the next update for my real Star Trek Online excitement. If you haven’t read the Star Trek Countdown comics, the 2387 update will pretty much get you up to speed.