I reallly wanted in the Wrath Beta, never got it. Got in the Cat beta though - lemme tell you - it kinda ruined it for me. YES the beta was neat. But when I played Cat, it wasn't as fun.

I hope you get what you want though!

Same for me, I didn't get into Wrath beta, but got into Cata beta. It did mess up my experience slightly. I play four different classes. You kind of get tired of running the same zones that many times. And to be a good beta tester, they release a new build, you run those same quests again because they changed something.

And getting picked for beta has a lot to do with your PC specs. Along with a lot of people checking for bugs, they need a wide variety of PC setups. One video card may experience bugs when a different video card doesn't.

I got into the wrath beta and not the cata one, however it was towards the end of the beta so I only had a few weeks to play around with it (I did find two big mac glitches! fun times).

It did spoil me a bit, but not enough to diminish the fun of leveling at all. Honestly, I don't think there was a time in BC or wotlk where I got bored, even after months and months of Snaxxramas, EoE and OS3... unlike cata.

I had a low end mac mini for wotlk beta, and a high end pc for cata.... so I do know for sure they test those with low end computers :D and it doesn't diminish your chances of getting in at all.

I avoid betas.

Either they are complete bugfests and ruin the experience for me, or they are so like the finished product I am bored of it before it comes out.

Betas are like the PTR...."yey new content I can 'test' out".......Conent is released on live servers ...."finished it in a week, there is nothign to do".....

Avoid betas, unless you really really like proper testing, and can live with the reality of burnout quickly.
I HATE massive betas, they are just early access, not proper tests. Players should have to submit proper reports on bugs, performance and such. betas should also be specific areas of the game.
I'd much rather Bliz did a proper, targeted and rigrous beta test, and for once realse content that is not a bugfest. the quality of recent releases has been drastically sub par.

@Sharlatan

I used to think that way, for the reasons you said.

But now I use Beta Tests to deliberately find bugs. There is nothing more satisfying then making the game break. hehe.

For example. When Beta testing FF XI: Online (Japanese Version) there was a bug that would crash the game if you went to one specific in one of the starter zones. Several of us actually hit that spot on accident, but since I like to explore/quest it was fun to find it.

In the American Beta Test, many of us found and reported the AH exploit and found that even though it was reported, it still made it to the live game.

I have never been in a WoW Beta, Mists will by my first. :) I am looking forward to seeing the new zones and what I can break. ;)

Shinanji

I think that A LOT of people are going to learn that being in a beta is often not so great. ...and Blizz is going to learn that big big beta was a bad idea. Between the QQ regarding entry, and there will be much, to the burn out and boredom with new content for anyone playing more than a a couple weeks this is more than likely going to be a disaster.
Here is to hoping I'm wrong.

I was also in the Cata beta, and my experience was like so many others here: It was a cool experience, and I was the envy of my guild, but once Cata finally released to the public, it wasn't special to me and I lost interest in redoing all the stuff I had done (and re-done) for weeks prior in the beta. For that reason, I don't think I'll try to get in the MoP beta.

However, I will say that there was one advantage for me: I got to level a goblin and a worgen, which is something I probably would not have done, otherwise, because all 10 slots on what I consider to be my home server are full. I don't have a toon I want to delete, and although I have a few toons scattered on other servers, I've never enjoyed playing anywhere but my "home" server. It's just not fun without my friends and the support of my main(s). Because they are adding an 11th slot, I'll probably get to do a monk once MoP releases, so I don't really care about being in the beta. (I still think only 1 more slot is pretty lame, though. I would SO use more if they were available.)

I'm usually not a big beta fan and I'm still not sure I'll play this one much. They serve their purpose well, but my time is already limited enough as is, if I'm spending it playing WoW I'd like my time to "stick."

Still...with Mists I should be getting into this one pretty early if the "sign-up dates" heavily influence when you get an invite. I'm curious to run the dungeons while they are still a bit of a mystery. We'll see.

Plus, just having access to a special thing is kinda neat.