Care to opt-in early for the StarCraft II beta test period? Blizzard just stamped its World of Warcraft news feed with a new post detailing the steps necessary to make it so, if you’d like a shot at a golden ticket.
Head over to the “Beta Profile Settings” page in your Battle.net account management interface — you’ll need a Battle.net account if you don’t have one — and walk through the new beta “opt-in” procedure (basically a system-spec snap-grab so Blizzard can ensure you’re not planning to test running Windows on WINE in Linux on a 486-something-or-other).
Only downside? You’ll have to download an app to run the info-pull. Well, that, and Blizzard’s a little vague on what “other information” refers to in the sentence “includes such information as how much RAM you have, available hard drive space, your graphics card and driver, and other information about your system.” Will we trust ’em anyway? Probably.
Tired of opting into Blizzard’s sneak previews proactively? Run the new process once and you’ll apparently have the option to volunteer for future betas as well. Easy enough.
Note that signing up now is still a gamble. Per the StarCraft II Beta FAQ, “once you’ve successfully uploaded a beta profile, the associated Battle.net account is added to a pool of potential beta testers.”
No word (yet) on whether this covers all eventual intended platforms, i.e. both Windows as well as OS X.
First to test when they flip the switch? North America, Australia, and New Zealand, says Blizzard.
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