Originally Posted by
exochaft
I believe the standard operating procedure for beta nowadays is to get some prominent streamers beta access for the hype factor. Beyond that, I'm fairly confident they have a list of people/organizations who will be receiving betas regardless of the opt-in. I've been in every beta that has been offered to the public, and maybe it has something to do with the massive amount of bug reports and feedback I tend to submit... or it's pure luck on my end.
My personal 2 cents about this beta? They need to get it right, as in this coming expansion needs to be as flawless as they can get it. Yes, they get a ton of random people that probably report/suggest random things, and they have to sort through that. Be that as it may, they better have the staff available to parse through all the information and get the testing/QA side of things done well, as well as getting as many people to alpha/beta test Shadowlands as possible. Perhaps my perception of the situation in general is literally that: perception of the situation surrounding WoW is probably pretty terrible on the player side of things. You will always have people riding the hate train or basically shilling, but even ignoring those people I'd surmise that your average gamer is probably a little fed up with the gaming industry and how Blizz isn't immune to its negative effects. While 8.3 has been (and still is) a bug-filled mess, that seems to be the trend for many games released as of late. Perhaps Wolcen is a bit fresh in my mind and the horrible issues that game has, but I think Blizz has built up a reputation where they can't just look good by comparison... they need to recapture what made people love their games in the first place.
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If they can't break that mentality (and trust me, I felt that way after the 8.3 PTR and getting suspended for a bug I reported on the PTR/live multiple times), Blizz is in for a massive world of hurt.