It’s been stated a few times already but important for everyone to understand - media personalities / content creators are not selected randomly for Alpha testing.
This first batch of invitations will mainly go out to long-time WoW players with active accounts in good standing, as well as Blizzard friends and family, along with a limited number of content creators and journalists.
(https://worldofwarcraft.com/news/23377994/)
Content creators / journalist allow the game team to get the new game content in front of a large audience even if they can’t invite that full audience to experience the game first hand. Content creators and journalist can use their platforms to start conversations and get the community to provide feedback on what they’ve seen so far.
And while the selection process in later phases may be mostly random, the blog goes on to explain that they may do additional content specific targeted invites.
Later on, as we engage in focused PvP and raid testing, we’ll also do some targeted invite waves that prioritize players with extensive experience or expertise in those parts of the game.
This is to ensure that the limited space available for testing includes a player population that has significant interests in testing specific systems that need it.
You are incorrect. Pre-purchasing Shadowlands is not a requirement.
Anyone who is interested in participating only needs to sign up. This does not guarantee you will be selected, but it shows your interest in being selected when additional invites start going out.
Good luck all!
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How do we reply to posts on the Shadow General Discussions forum?
Is this function only available to those in the alpha?
If it is only available to those in alpha, (and then beta), how do those not lucky enough to get those invites provide feed back?
It will be a real shame if general feedback is not allowable prior to launch as the normal response to such feedback is always derided as “crying”, or “why didn’t you raise this during alpha/beta/before launch” posters.
For the time being, if your account is not flagged for Alpha access, it is not eligible to post on the Alpha forums.
Currently, there’s plenty of feedback being given on some systems (along with a glut of speculation) in the General Discussion forums.
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Correct. Anyone can read those forums, but only those currently participating can post there.
Feedback is gathered from more than just those forums. There are a lot of other sites that discuss the game, including alpha. Our Community Managers and Developers tend to go everywhere for it… (i.e. Reddit, etc…)
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That’s a shame as GD seems to be more of “lets shout at each other” than a discussion. 
Hey vrak when is the usual CS post that you guys usualy put up when the alpha/beta usualy goes live gona pop up.
You’ll have to remind me, Darthwraith, which post is that?
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usualy the one that reminds well kinda like mine but has more relevant information up front.
I generally add a threads based on necessity, usually judged by the volume of contacts we see. We put a Breaking News on the support site the first week of the invites and it became a Support Article there after. That, coupled with some Tweets from BlizzardCS, should hopefully be enough.
If we start getting a lot of contacts though, we’ll reevaluate.
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OK just curious not that theres anything wrong with this topic.
The question is, there is no option for alpha-opt in… Only Beta.
So when is the Beta? Since it’s Alpha now. 
CS wouldn’t have information on this. Just make sure to opt in, if and when blizzard needs more testers you may be picked no matter what stage of the test is running.
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Same thing. They used to not divide development into public alpha and beta. Alpha was usually very much internal only. So it was just named “beta opt-in” because that’s what you were doing. It still applies to public alpha stages, just a name thing.
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Alpha used to be only in-house until the very end, when some outside players were invited. It was called “Friends and Family” because they were the only ones invited. And it wasn’t public. The content makers and journalists and regular Wow players mentioned in the blog post are new additions to that. They used to be invited at the start of Beta.
We don’t know how long Alpha is going to be or how many are going to be invited or what criteria they are using for the invites for Alpha. They appear to be opening one section of Shadowlands at a time, and invites seem to go out once a week. We’ll likely see a lot of invites when they finish opening all the zones and Beta starts.
For BfA they brought in layering to allow more players to be logged in at the same time. They did open stress tests during Beta to test the system. Anyone with an active subscription could test the Beta during these. If they are making changes to layering (spreading out realms) or CRZ (combining realms) they may do stress tests again. Keep an eye out in the News section of the website.
Like others, I’ve opted in but have not yet gotten an invite. I check my launcher and mail regularly. I am currently leveling characters on another account. I can’t wait to see how leveling is changed. Is it faster? How do expansions with extra zones, like Pandaria (Timeless isle, Isle of Thunder, Isle of Giants) and Legion (Broken Shore, Argus) and BfA (Mechagon, Nazjatar, Arathi, Darkshore, Uldum, Vale of Eternal Blossoms,) work? Are those extra areas part of the leveling experience or are they just afterthoughts.?
My thoughts - right or wrong - have always been that the people that get salty over not getting alpha/beta and/or are begging to get in are typically the ones that would be the worst testers. They seem like the ones that just want in so they can play a free demo, or to brag to their friends, or use it to try to build their following on Twitch or whatever other streaming platform.
You want people in alpha and beta who want to play an unfinished, buggy game. They should want to go out of their way to try to find problems with it, offer suggestions on class balance (not just “X class is OP, nerf plz!” because they ganked you), and offer lots of constructive feedback rather than just complaining about how bad X, Y, or Z sucks. Talk about what’s good, and why you like it. Talk about what’s not so good, and why and how it could be better.
Me? I used to be an internal QA tester at a local Activision office a number of summers back. Testing pre-release games was my job. I’ve played WoW since day 1. I also opted out of beta. Why? I want to explore the new expansions fresh once they launch. I want that big “wow” moment when you first arrive in a new land to be with everyone else. I also don’t want to be burned out on the new content before it even launches. I want to stumble my way through it, not knowing where to go or what to do.
That’s me. You do you.
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I accidentally reported things that are not bugs that I thought were, does this void my chances of getting beta?
No it realy shouldnt getting into the beta is like playing the lottery either you do or you dont tho having a acccount in good standing doesnt help either.
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Nope! That won’t affect your chances.
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Is there a date or any idea when 2nd wave of invites will be?
Nope. They never announce the waves in advance except perhaps for Classic.
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