Will I really want to be a part of the beta?

As of Thursday, it is now possible to opt in to the Cataclysm beta test, and though I jumped at the opportunity to do so, I have to wonder whether I really should. You see, I was involved in the Wrath of the Lich King beta, and though it was an enjoyable experience and I was glad to provide feedback before the expansion was released, after some time, I stopped playing on the beta servers. After some time in the Borean Tundra, I realized that I was really spoiling the leveling experience for myself, in more than one sense of the word: I was both showing myself content I wold rather have waited to see, and I was ruining my future enjoyment of the content by making it so that I would need to run it again once the expansion came out. As such, I quit leveling through Northrend, rolled a Death Knight to try them out (and decided against making one my main character when the expansion came out), and then ended my beta career.

Once Wrath of the Lich King came out, my predictions turned out to be true. I enjoyed the earlier quests in Borean Tundra significantly less than I enjoyed the later quests, and once I reached the point where I had stopped during the beta, my enjoyment of the expansion greatly increased. As such, I think you can see why I am hesitant to participate in the Cataclysm beta. As much as I would like to assist the developers of this amazing game and help make the expansion better, the allure of seeing the content before everyone else just doesn't do anything for me, and actually makes me less enthusiastic to participate.

Now, why would I write about these experiences, you may ask? I write about these experiences because I realized today that there is a middle-ground, a way that I can help the Cataclysm beta without spoiling content I will eventually see and ruining the experience for myself. You see, I play Alliance, and my plans for the expansion are two-fold: explore the new end-game zones and content with my Druid, and role a Worgen... something (I still haven't decided what class he'll be; I am leaning towards a priest or a warrior. I know I have a priest already, but hey, why not do it again?) to experience the newly revamped old-world with. This seems to negate all options I have for ways to participate in the Cataclysm beta, but there is another option: Goblins. After all, I have no plans to level a Horde alt any time in the future, so an easy way for me to help the Cataclysm beta without spoiling too much for myself is to roll a Goblin and level him. Sure, I may spoil any changes to the faction-neutral quests, but that's better than spoiling everything.

So let me leave you with this: If you want to take part in the Cataclysm beta but don't want to spoil the new content for yourself, consider rolling an alt of the opposite faction you usually play. And if you play both? Well, sorry, but I guess you're out of luck; maybe roll an alt of the faction you play less?