08-23-2006, 01:14 PM
Quote:What is this "Family and Friends" beta for the Burning Crusade that is now running in the U.S.?Family and Friends is an alpha program for a very select group of people. Blizzard employees, obviously, along with industry people, friends of Blizzard; strictly invite-only. And no, not me; "fan site" webmasters are very specifically on Blizzard's no-no list because they can't trust us not to leak info. (Whatever.)
Who participates there, and what can we expect next? Is the closed beta, where the leveling contest winners are also allowed to participate in, next? And after that the public open beta before release?
I think it even violates NDA to say you're ON the Family and Friends program, although I know of Lurkers who are on Blizzard's list.
After the Family and Friends program ends, the closed beta starts. They did this for WoW pre-release, and they're doing it again now for the expansion apparently.
Considering WoW was released way before it was "ready," they may stick to the release date for Burning Crusade and put it out there no matter where it's at in terms of development. Or they may not. We'll see. I can't see how they could possibly release it as a stable, polished product in November when closed beta hasn't even started yet. No way.
-Bolty
Quote:Considering the mods here are generally liberals who seem to have a soft spot for fascism and white supremacy (despite them saying otherwise), me being perma-banned at some point is probably not out of the question.