The signups for Round 28 - Era of Hope opened a couple of hours ago and a planet is waiting for you so go sign up at http://game.planetarion.com/signup.pl (Login).
Playing is free, however you can choose to upgrade to gain a few advantages, you can find a list of what those advantages are here as well as information on credit costs and how to pay.

Round starts on Friday the 15th August, so there's plenty of time to catch the start and enjoy the full 7 weeks.

Beta testing is still going on if you want to take part in testing and get a preview of the round. Beta signups can be found at http://beta.planetarion.com/signup.pl and the login is at http://beta.planetarion.com/login.pl.

We also have a speedgame continuously running using round 27 code. It can provide a nice place to get familiar with the game basics and it's completely free.
Speedgame Signup and Login.
People playing the speedgame usually also stay in #speedgame on irc.netgamers.org to chat and get information about the speedgame.

For information on how to use irc, check out our IRC guide.
Everyone is also welcome to stay in our official channel #planetarion on irc.netgamers.org, a nice place to find other planetarion players.

It would be nice and helpful if you could take some time to answer our little survey at http://www.polldaddy.com/s/DC537C01232AEC5D/, it's only 10 short and simple questions so shouldn't take long to do.