Gaming companies have their own ways and means of selecting beta testers, and Blizzard is no exception. If you've been wondering, as World of Warcraft player Holger did, how Blizzard selected beta testers for The Burning Crusade expansion, wonder no more. Blue poster Nethaera has recently shed light on the subject.

Nethaera mentioned that the selection process was an eclectic one:

it's largely random. We do our best to make sure we have a good mix of players. I've seen it before where one friend has posted on the forum about another friend who got in but they didn't and why didn't they when their friend is the one that only plays casually and they (the op) are the one that is hardcore.

We're not looking to pick one demographic to help do the testing. We look for a good mixture of people with different play styles and interests. It gives a decent snapshot of what issues need fixed or tweaked prior to release.

Nethaera also had a bit of a reminder for all Blizzard forum members out there: update your contact details and info every so often. The reason? Many WoW players never received invites because they had bad e-mail.

According to Nethaera, Blizzard has a penchant for incessantly reminding players to update their contact details, so you can likely expect a whole barrage of reminders the next time a beta rolls around.