No, it's not a joke - this is exactly what you have to do to join the Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures beta. Honestly, I have lost count: is this the second beta test, the third... or what? Anyway, that's not the important thing - what matters is that you have yet another chance to join the fun and beta test this highly anticipated MMORPG. All you have to do, according to Funcom, is to pray to the Hyborian gods.

An official post on the Age of Conan boards reads: "Sometimes all you can do is pray to the gods and hope they listen. We at Funcom have heard your prayers to us, but it never hurts to have the gods on your side! Therefore, we have reserved a number of keys to the General Beta of Age of Conan for the best beta prayers to the Hyborian gods."

Anybody with a valid email address can get in the beta, but seats in Hyboria are currently limited, so only the best/funniest/most outstanding prayers will be chosen, the contest ends on the 9th of March 2008. If you think this is your chance - go ahead and try it. But be warned that there are no less than 2235 beta prayers at the moment of writing, so competition is tough. But that's what we all like in a MMORPG in the first place, right?

It is really hard to pick the best prayers we've read so far (probably Funcom has the same problem), but here is a small selection:

Exapium wrote: "Hail Crom, / Full of keys, / The Lord is with thee. / Blessed art thou among gamers, / and blessed is the game. / Holy Crom, / Mother of game, / pray for us gamers now, / and at the hour of deadline. / Amen"

Vendrix has a different approach: "Dear Crom, bless my keyboard and make swift my mouse so that I may smite the evil from your lands in a more proficient manner. Also, if possible, you could make my wife come down with something that requires her to be sent off to a foreign country for treatment for, oh, let's say a month or two so I'm not bothered by distractions such as taking out the trash, unnecessary trips to Bed, Bath & Beyond and "cuddle time on the couch" - that would be great. Thanks!"

You can go and say your prayers here. May the Hyborian Gods be with you!