For organizational efforts, we're opening a new question to follow up on the plans for sponsoring Beta participation. To note the point of the motion, I'll quote Oak's statements on it.
[...] wouldn't it be great if we could get great questions and answers... even before the game comes out?
A lot of games run a closed beta period, meaning a select few get the chance to play the game for testing purposes before it's released. StarCraft II was being beta-tested for many months prior to its released, for example. Many other games have beta-tests as well, especially ones with an extensive multiplayer gaming mode.
The idea is to check if there's some way for stackexchange to get a few gaming.se users beta keys for upcoming high-profile releases. I'm not quite sure how one can arrange it, I'm just throwing the idea out there, if anyone has any ideas. Getting a few members to participate in the beta of Diablo 3 or Guild Wars 2, for example, could do wonders for our traffic - both during the beta period, when other beta-testers will be drawn to our site, and after the game is released - when will we have many ready-made questions and answers.
My relevant response was that we've gotten the green light to go forward with this, but I need your help in starting this prospect to move forward. I can act as our representative to contact companies for the opportunity, and of course I still carry the purse, but I'll need your help with the basic aspects of research to begin the movement. Namely:
- What game/companies should I look at? (Yes, I know Blizzard and Arenanet(Guild Wars), and I'll still like to do the Might & Magic thing as well. But in case anything else stands out, don't hesitate.)
- What can you find out about the Beta that I should know before trying to make contact? Do as much research on the requirements for eligibility as you can.
- Anything else that can be used to our advantage in securing a place, really.
The selection of users for eligibility into the Beta slots we earn will be determined based on how many slots we can get. So let's see how awesome we can get it for this community! ♪
Please use answers here to indicate the upcoming Beta options we have, especially any in-depth data on the lines of research or other data I can use to help secure our slots.