What it will look like when you're invited to the WotLK beta
by Adam Holisky 
Apr 20th 2008 at 7:00PM
Right now there is no WotLK beta, there is no chance you'll get in the alpha if you're not already in it, and there is no email that's going to be coming to your inbox anytime soon about it. But when it comes, it's going to make you one happy gamer. This is a very important thing for people to understand, especially with the flood of fake emails lately.Blizzard will make an announcement on their forums and/or their homepage letting all of us know that WotLK beta invites are going out. The email that you'll get if you're lucky enough to get invited will be sent from an @blizzard.com address, will come through the blizzard.com servers (you can check the extended email headers in your email program to see this). The email will have tons of identifiable information in it that only points to blizzard.com or worldofwarcraft.com and nowhere else.
For a reference, let's that a look at what the Burning Crusade beta email looked like that I got back in 2006
From: "WoW Expansion Beta" <WoWExpansionBeta@blizzard.com>
To: My email address associated with my WoW account.
Subject: World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade - Welcome to Closed-Beta!
World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade Beta Test
Welcome to the beta test of World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade!
We're excited to have reached the beta-testing stage for the expansion, and we'd be grateful to have your assistance in finalizing the content. There are a lot of new things to see and do in Azeroth and Outland, and we look forward to receiving any feedback you can offer on your overall expansion-beta experience, including quests, spells/abilities, monsters, zones, aesthetics, and more. We would also appreciate reports on any bugs you may find.
Read on to learn how to participate, and thanks in advance for your support in helping us put the finishing touches on the expansion.
Getting started:
You will need to upgrade an existing retail World of Warcraft account to connect to the Burning Crusade beta realms. Upgraded accounts will carry over to later testing phases for the Burning Crusade.
Please begin by logging in to the website below with the account name and password of the retail World of Warcraft account that you play on. From there, you will be able to upgrade the retail account to an expansion beta account, which will allow you to copy characters to the test realms, download the installer, and access the beta-test forums. Upgrading to an expansion beta account does not affect your ability to continue playing on the retail realms as well.
https://beta.worldofwarcraft.com/expansion
Be prepared to enter your World of Warcraft account name, password, and the account-upgrade key listed below. To participate in the beta test immediately, the retail World of Warcraft account that you'd like to use for beta testing must be active as of October 8, 2006. If the account is activated sometime after October 8, it will be ready for use in the beta test after the subsequent weekly beta maintenance period, which occurs every Monday between 12pm and 4pm PDT. For example, if you activate the account today, you will be able to start playing the closed beta on the following Monday after 4pm PDT.
Below is the required account-upgrade key. Each game key can be used once to upgrade an active retail World of Warcraft account. The key cannot be replaced, so please ensure you use it to upgrade the account you wish to use for testing.
XXXXXX-XXXX-XXXXXX-XXXX-XXXXXX
After you have created an expansion beta account, we invite you to copy characters to our expansion realms. You will be able to bring over up to 4 level 55+ characters to travel through the Dark Portal.
Go to the following URL to copy up to 4 characters to the beta test realms: https://beta.worldofwarcraft.com/game/
Sending us feedback:
Bugs & Suggestions
We've set up an in-game method for submitting game bugs and suggestions, without the need to send us an email or exit the game. To do so, enter the chat console by pressing the Enter key, then type "/bug" or "/suggest" (without the quotation marks).
Examples:
/bug You can clip through a wall near the priest trainer at the newbie area on Sunstrider Isle.
/suggest The low-level mobs in Azuremyst Isles should drop more money.
There is no chat response when you send feedback through the in-game chat system, but the information is stored in our database and reviewed daily. Your feedback is important to us.
Forums
There are new forums for the game at http://beta.worldofwarcraft.com. These forums are viewable by the public, but only members of the beta test can create posts and threads. Although we're unable to respond to all posts, developers do monitor the forums for feedback.
Contact Info, Known Issues, Downtimes, and FAQs
Whom do I ask for help?
Technical Support
If you experience issues downloading or installing the beta or any patches, connecting to the game, or any problems with video or sound, game lockups, crashes, or other technical issues, send an email to wowbctech@blizzard.com. Support is also offered via the beta forum at http://beta.worldofwarcraft.com.
Billing & Account Services
For problems with upgrading a retail account to a beta test account, password problems, or issues related to your account-upgrade key, please email our Billing & Account Services department at wowbcbilling@blizzard.com.
In-Game Support
If you have any type of in-game difficulty, such as getting stuck in terrain or problems retrieving a corpse, petition our game masters. You may do so in game by clicking the red question mark icon located in the center of the action bar at the bottom of the screen.
Why doesn't my password change immediately?
Account updates are done during hardware maintenance on Mondays between 12pm and 4pm PDT.
Please note that account updates include password changes, so if you change your retail password, it won't be updated for the beta test realms until after the next account update takes place. This means that if you update your retail password, you should continue using your "old" password to access the beta test realms until the weekly hardware maintenance has occurred.
Important! During the update time, you will be unable to log in to the beta test realms. Accounts that are already online should not be affected.
How many characters can I copy to the beta test realms?
You may copy 4 characters to the test realms (it is possible to copy the same character more than once). Outland is only open to characters of level 55 and higher, so be careful picking which characters you want to copy.
Can I replace characters I've deleted from the beta test realms with additional characters?
Once 4 characters have been copied to the beta test realms, no more characters can be copied over, even if you delete any of the characters that you originally copied over or accidentally copy over the same character more than once.
Why do I have to rename the character that I am moving to the beta test realm?
We are requiring a character name change in order to allow those developers with known characters to remain anonymous on the test realms.
Known Installation issues
You must install this expansion beta over an installed retail version of World of Warcraft. Furthermore, the language version of the expansion beta that you install must match that of your retail World of Warcraft installation. For example, you cannot install a French version of the expansion beta over a US English version of the game.
Make sure you run the retail version of World of Warcraft at least once before you attempt to install the Burning Crusade beta.
Thank you again for your participation in the Burning Crusade beta test; we'll see you in Outland!
The important thing to remember is that a email scammer might duplicate this email exactly, but it will not be directing you towards blizzard.com or worldofwarcraft.com sites and references. And further, all beta announcements will come from Blizzard first (we'll also carry the news here as soon as we get it, and maybe even a little before if we can).
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Heilig Apr 20th 2008 7:06PM
How does one get on the list of potentials? Just by having an account, or is there somewhere we must sign up?
Adam Holisky Apr 20th 2008 7:21PM
Just by having an account, if past beta's are any indication. No matter what, the official announcement will come from Blizzard. Any site, like WoW Insider, will report the news and direct people to Blizzard's sites. No where else. =)
Galipan Apr 20th 2008 8:48PM
Aparently, people that killed C'Thun were the ones that got the beta test key, I've heard rumours that if you've killed Illidan, you're in.
Charlie Apr 20th 2008 10:54PM
The percentage of people who have killed illidan is far higher than c'thun.
I think they will be a little bit more selective than that.
However, they do select some high end guilds, as well as high end pvpers, to get their perspective, but this is most definatley not the only way in.
VIrusz Apr 20th 2008 7:10PM
Thanks for the Heads-up Adam, this should keep people aware
Armath Apr 20th 2008 7:28PM
Now we just need some examples of the fishing emails, so we know what they *won't* look like.
Greg Apr 20th 2008 7:28PM
Keep in mind the massive flaw just exposed in DNS hijacking stuff lately:
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/04/isps-error-page.html
A link might LOOK like it's going to an official Blizzard page, but if you're on one of the ISPs that are messing with DNS to insert ads (Earthlink, Verizon, Time Warner, Comcast and Qwest for sure), it could still be a scam. Extra caution for the next while, folks...
Camann Apr 21st 2008 1:42AM
Wow, and he proved the vulnerability by using PayPal to rick roll. That's awesome.
Melzurian Apr 21st 2008 5:08PM
This is how SSL protects you, even if there is some sort of redirection you can still view the security certificate of the website and be sure that you are communicating with people you trust.
In summary, to make sure that you are sending your password to Blizzard's servers, at https://www.worldofwarcraft.com/ check the SSL certificate details. It should be signed by "Thawte Premium Server CA".
For more information on how Digital Certificate's work, you can read: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Certificate
Elder Apr 20th 2008 7:39PM
This post will Immediately help only those looking to steal accounts.
Posting a word-for-word "beta invite" template hands over the best looking beta.blizzord.com (notice the O?) scam email possible to those who would use it.
By the way, spoofing an email address or link in an email is so easy it could be done by a semi-retarded 5th grader with ADHD. The best way to avoid being scammed is to ALWAYS Manually type the address you want to go to into your browser address bar.
Never click a link found in any email.
Michel Apr 20th 2008 8:55PM
and stop the lies. NEVER people got in beta because they killed c'thun or whatever Kel thuzad while doing 3 jumps
and NEVER you will be in beta because you kill Illidan, even if you kill him in 9.3 second with 15 people armed with knife.
NO
-
blizzard simply take people with different styles, different background, different way of playing, different countries, different age and so on to have a good feeling of the population who will play the game.
you can be UBER OF the DEATH or the most bad player of the world or to be plain average joe or Exotic Emo Weird Green Fuzzy Guy, maybe you will be selected for the beta, or maybe NOT.
the same for guild. of course they will take UBER-guild like nihilium and they also will pick roleplaying guild telling jokes in town, and even the average 250-members never speaking guild.
they will try to have every kind of players. you see ?
they did that for BC, they will do that for Wrath.
Charlie Apr 20th 2008 11:00PM
1) ahhh grammar. burns. eyes.
2) you contradicted your self. (people don't get into beta cause they killed a high end boss, but you said they will invite nihilum).
3) Will all people who killed illidan get in? No, but will it increase your chances? possibly.
Taxis Apr 21st 2008 1:05AM
Irregardless of spelling or mental defect, he has a good point. Blizzard realizes that there are different kind of people that enjoy the game, and they are going to want to get an idea from everyone. If they just wanted endgame raiders, then they would make Northend one big raid dungeon.
And besides, with the way they have been altering the game in the favor of PVP, they would more likely choose from the top 0.5% arena players than people who downed Illidan if they were to be going in that kind of a route.
Plethora Apr 21st 2008 2:46AM
FYI Taxis...irregardless isn't a word. If you are going to say some one else has a "spelling or mental defect" at least use proper grammar yourself.
Zali Apr 21st 2008 8:47AM
Taxis,
I believe you mean Regardless. Irregardless isn't a word. Even if it was a word, the use of the prefix "ir" and the suffix "less" make it a double negative, causing it to mean the exact opposite of your intended use.
Sorry mate. It is just a little pet peeve of mine.
Zali Apr 21st 2008 9:02AM
Drats! Foiled again.
Plethora,
"Irregardless" isn't an example of poor grammar, it is an example of a poor vocabulary.
Todays "Word Of The Day" is Nitpick - to be excessively concerned with or critical of inconsequential details. A recent addition to the English language, nitpick combines the word Nit, the eggs of lice, and the word pick, to separate or pull apart.
Happy Monday!
peaglemancer Apr 21st 2008 4:16PM
Hopefully they select people based on posts that read like they were Google translated from English to French to ancient Latin and back to English, in which case you're a shoe-in.
Ed209 Apr 21st 2008 12:04AM
I paid 100 bucks for my invite! And had a sweet vacation in California to boot!
Aichon Apr 20th 2008 11:58PM
As has been said, your progression or lack thereof may have an impact on your chances of getting in, but it is not the sole deciding factor. With the TBC beta, I was in a VERY casual guild (the best we ever did was 4/10 in Molten Core and all but Hakkar and Jin'do in ZG), but I can think of several members off the top of my head who were invited to the beta.
On the flipside, I can think of reports of whole guilds getting invites, simply because of how far they had progressed. Blizzard has, in the past, made no bones about the fact that they use high-end players to balance their content since those players are most capable of spotting weaknesses or flaws in the mechanics of the systems.
So, wait, see if it comes. Don't beg anyone. Don't bother changing your playstyle at this point. And when it comes, be absolutely sure that you're not giving away your account name and password to anyone or anything besides the WoW client itself or the Manage Your Account section of the website.
RogueJedi86 Apr 21st 2008 3:37AM
I don't think a "VERY casual guild" would have been able to do any bosses in Molten Core, or beat almost all of Zul'Gurub. Really casual guilds can't get the 40 or 20 members together to do raids. Casual guilds would/could do 5-mans at the most. Doing 20-man and 40-man dungeons isn't casual. Casual is a word that's overused, and in improper context.