by JR Cook - 10 years ago     show comments

Folks might recall that one of the previously-unknown perks at last weekend’s PAX East was the part where anyone who stood in line to try out the Warlords Alpha got to take home a beta key. Some eager players linked up their keys as soon as they could, and then discovered that they had access to the actual currently-ongoing alpha environment.

Blizzard has stepped in to quash that access by unbinding the keys and setting it up so that keys handed out expressly for the game’s beta test don’t grant access to the alpha, but while they were working to fix that, some folks were streaming their access to the alpha build. All things considered, it doesn’t appear that any harm has really been done, since the PAX attendees didn’t really do anything wrong, because there’s no NDA on the alpha. And all of the people whose keys got quashed will be able to use them later, when the beta actually starts.

Meanwhile, some other enterprising PAX attendees are attempting to sell their keys on eBay, something that is actually against the auction house’s terms of service. Obviously an auction in violation has to get reported before it can be taken down, but the big takeaway is that the window to get those keys legitimately is already closed, and we’ll all have to wait until some other avenue opens up.

See CM Bashiok’s official statement on the matter from the forums, and tell us what you think of the development in the comments.

At PAX East in Boston this weekend we’re handing out Beta keys to those who wait in line and play the Warlords of Draenor demo at the show. As the expansion is still in an internal Alpha, the keys we’re handing out are inactive, with the intention that they are redeemable for a future test phase. However, yesterday we discovered that a small amount of people were actually able to claim their keys and log in to the Alpha.

We’ve resolved the key claim issue and no further key claims should be possible. Those who were able to claim a key will need to redeem it again once the proper Beta phase begins.

We’re not looking to take action against accounts or content involved in this unintended access. We know everyone is excited to play Warlords of Draenor, is looking forward to additional information about the expansion, and we hope you’ve enjoyed what you’ve seen thus far—keeping in mind, of course, that we are still at an early testing phase.