Really this just means they are doing one longer phase instead of two different named phases.
You could also say they have made the Alpha as large as the Beta, so it could mean less bugs actually. Hard to say with out exact details on number of users included and time frame.
PS we should always worry. It’s a total crap shoot if we will get a good expansion or a dud. Historically this next one should suck as they always seem to be tiktok, but we kind of had two duds after Legion debatably so maybe we will get two solid expansions.
edit: just a quick rexplain. Calling it an alpha or beta doesn’t matter. What matters is number of testers * time testing, and amount of time to fix and retest.
As far as I remember, havent most, if not all, of the expansion alphas been under NDA? We don’t start seeing things until the Beta where we then start hearing from the alpha testers what changed between the alpha and beta?
No, they haven’t done NDA’s since the pre-Wrath days.
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Darnit, Zuma. I complimented you for the info on Remix powers and now you go and pull this fear mongering?
I only ever have WoWhead and this site for WoW news. I don’t remember ever seeing posts going into detail of whats in the alpha? Am I misremembering? I just don’t see why everyone is so concerned about the alpha when nothing is ever released from it?
There’s always internal testing and friends and family testing done by most developers before a beta is done. Just because they haven’t announced an open Alpha that lets you apply to join doesn’t mean alpha testing isn’t taking place.
I’ve been in several alpha tests and they don’t require an NDA.
The main differences for alpha are:
- The pool is very small, mostly friends & family suggested by Blizzard staff, some industry folks, etc. They also tend to invite people into alpha who have been in alphas before.
- It’s rolled out in phases, one zone at a time. Sometimes previously available zones are shut off because they don’t want you testing those anymore, they want you testing the new stuff.
- A lot of classes aren’t done at the start. So you might have a new expansion version of a druid but a previous expansion version of a monk, for example. Sometimes they’ll just deactivate some classes at character creation so you can’t make them at all.
- There’s no character copy, you just play from scratch.
- As with the zone availability, content availability is small. So the level cap would be like 71 or 72, typically, if you start at 70.
Because general discussion is a bunch of no-nothing busybodies. 
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I think the whole point of NDAs though is that anyone outside of them won’t know about it. It’d be kinda hard to disprove that WoW no longer has testing phases under NDA because you can’t really talk about it even after those phases have concluded.
Why? What difference does it make? Are you afraid that if you don’t take part in testing they won’t find all their bugs without you?
Testing the product is not our job. You can help if you like but it’s not necessary. When they release the product, buy it and play.
I’ve been in several Day One WoW friends & family alpha tests; they don’t do NDA’s.
NDA’s for game testers have largely fallen out of favor in the industry since people break them all the time and enforcing them is a pain and largely pointless.
Earliest testing is internal-only. You can call that an alpha if you want, but doing so would be mistaken.
(Source: I’ve worked in game publishing for over 25 years. I’ve been on both sides of NDA’s, which ARE used, but not for game testing except at the smallest level. I’ve signed an NDA for a project where I’m the ONLY person outside the publisher who knows about it, but nobody called what I was working on “alpha testing”.)
This. These terms aren’t exactly industry standards. People call them whatever. We know there’s a TWW build on the CDN right now. They can call that alpha. They can call the first “hosted” version they ever put up internally alpha. They can call it alpha all the way up to launch if they want.
Alpha just means it’s incomplete. Not fit for the public. Historically, they have used alpha to mean a rougher, focused test and beta as a more open ended semi-public test with volunteer testers working with no plan. But this can change from project to project, sometimes during a project, sometimes between project managers.
You don’t necessarily know that that’s the first playable version of the game though, do you? That’s kinda the point I was making. Not so much what that phase might be called, but just the confidentiality of the environment.
I think you should read the rest of my post you were quoting.
Alpha never has sign ups, just beta.
Alpha is internal, friends and family, and popular streamers.
Alpha will likely start this week. Gathering info on people interested in beta, shockingly, is useful before beta starts.
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But… TWW does have an alpha, and it’s probably this week, Blizzard confirmed the alpha already on their callendar.
If the ordering of icons is to be believed, the alpha is happening right now. Alpha launch is slated between plunderstorm and season 4 which is next week. It’d launch tomorrow at the very latest.