Invitations to the alpha test of World of Warcraft’s upcoming expansion pack, Warlords of Draenor, are being sent out en masse today. If you signed up for the alpha test this past April, you’ll have a chance to be one of the few players accepted into the event to experience the content in the expansion.
Like all alpha and beta tests, any progress you make within the test will not be extended to the retail version of the game, so don’t grind your way through the content unless you’ve good reason to do so and wish to help the developers fix bugs and address issues with the game prior to its release. There’s literally no other reason for signing up for an alpha test.
According to Blizzard, this testing phase of the game’s alpha test will focus on the Horde experience in Frostfire Ridge, "a harsh land of ceaseless winter and volcanic peaks.” To participate, you’ll have to create a brand new character on the Horde faction and Blizzard will provide gear and level it to 90.
Warlords of Draenor is being developed as a major overhaul of World of Warcraft, adding all new graphics and replacing existing player models with ones with a much higher polycount, improved textures, better animations, and facial emotes. Non-player characters and environments will also be getting beefy new improvements, details of which have been trickling out of Blizzard on the game’s official blog.
The game is currently available for pre-order and will be available this fall.
