Frogboy

will you send out more invites if not all 100 choose to sign the NDA?

argh... now I wish I purchased the game earlier    Just did it today  ;

You'll still be in the beta about a month from now.   The alpha likely isn't going to that fun anyway.  I mean it isn't even "beta" yet.  Chances are it won't even run on half of the lucky 100's computers  

Of course not... The alpha won't be any fun at all. We can all just keep saying that...

From Questions for August 2009:

In either case, we plan to start making public to those interested in seeing the sausage factory that is game development our internal bug reports.

...

You'll be able to see all our foibles in the journals area starting next week as the good, bad, and ugly of the game's develpoment starts to come together.

Oh, yeah, it's time to see these things. ^^

For one, they satisfy my inner geek.  And for another, they serve as starting points for general discussions - allowing those not involved directly in closed testing to feel somewhat participatory in the development process.  Or just to create some rant posts - we've not had a truly decent rant topic in a while.

Awh, should have done it by forum member number. Stardock probably thinks I'm too decrepit and wrinkley. All guys want nowadays are the young tramps. *fist shake*

Good luck people. if you don't get in don't worry. Well all be jammin in the beta anyway.

[blofeld]

Greetings Stardock employees,

I hereby submit a formal demand for an invitation to the Elemental Alpha. Failure to comply with this demand will result in the immediate extermination of all amphibious life across the planet known as Earth, beginning with the humble and oft-forgotten tree frog.

The death of this species will begin a cataclysmic spiral of destruction through the food webs of their ecosystem, directly and indirectly causing the mass extinction of hundreds of species and animals culminating in the death of the entire human race leaving Earth as a barren rock devoid of life. The fate of the world is in your hands now, gentlemen. Act accordingly,
Good day

[/blofeld]

Based on Stardock's previous beta tests, my guess is that it means there will be a short window after beta 1 goes live for people to order the game and still get into it; preorders that come in after that window will have to wait until beta 2 comes around.

That's just a guess, though. If that is what he meant, he most definitely could've worded it better...

Spare some pity for the poor guy at Stardock who gets to check and countersign 100 contracts all at once. (contracts like these need to be signed by both parties to be valid under US law too, right?)

Bets on the odds of employees having been extra nice to Brad over the last couple of weeks to avoid being handed a case-specific power of attorney? 

So all the invites have been sent out already then?

Do you guys think Stardock will tell us how they chose that few 100 people? 

There´s a simple way to detect people who are under the NDA. You just ask then if they are! If they dont answer, you can be sure the NDA is under effect!

Cheers,

Katabroc

Clever.

Or they could lie.

From earlier posts: AFIK they based it on a random number generator lottery (for people who indicated interest), with the number generation slanted to favour people who have been useful in earlier betas, have high karma, have bought Galactic Civilisations 2 (and expansion packs), bought Demigod, bought Sins of a Solar Empire. (cumulative)

Also, I doubt there is anything in the NDA banning you from lying to deny being selected.