One of the crappiest things to happen in MMOs over the past five years, or so, is the increasing propensity for beta keys to be given away like they’re some sort of competition prize.
This is maddening for people who take beta testing seriously as such giveaways are 99.9% going to people who just want to play the game for free, not actual beta testers.
Or, as we call them in the industry, cheap arses and tightwads.
The only time beta keys deserve to be tossed around at random is when a game goes into some sort of open beta a week or two out from release and it just doesn’t matter anymore.
Please, BioWare, don’t toss beta keys around like they’re nothing as the testing period opens up. And especially don’t give them to lame gaming sites to giveaway.
I disagree: Beta is also very important for creating a pre-release hype about the game. Game companies will try to give keys not only to skilled testers but also to ‘multiplicators’, people with lost of social contacts, so that many will be interested to buy the game as soon as it is released.