Path of Exile Beta Test is Live

The Path of Exile beta test has begun, and invites are flying. There’s even a nifty timer on their main page, counting down how long until the next invite goes out. Names of the lucky forum users are displayed with each, so you can look on and hope for yours, while cursing those who have already received one.

If you’ve not gotten lucky yet, don’t despair; I talked to lead developer Chris Wilson a few days ago, and he said the plan is to scale up the number of testers quite quickly. He also stressed that this isn’t one of those, “everything is perfect and we’re just polishing up a bit” type of betas. The game is still under heavy development, and beta testers can expect to see a lot of new features going in over time, such as additional levels, the sixth character class, a whole PvP system, and much more. The beta is the full game; nothing is held back, and user feedback is very much desired, so you’re a full partner in the game’s development; not just a tech support crash test dummy like the D3 beta testers will be.

If you want to get into the beta test, create an account on the Path of Exile forums. While you wait and hope you can talk with current testers, past Alpha testers (like me!) and catch up on the game content, which is well-detailed on the PoE website. Also, keep an eye out for beta key promotions, Chris said they had a lot of those coming up… like this one!

We’ve got 8 keys to give away, today. These will give you immediate access to the Path of Exile beta test, and all you’ve got to do is tell me, in 40 words or less, why you want one. Five are going to our site pals, and three to anyone with a forum account. Pals use this thread in the private Pal forum, and everyone else can post in this forum thread in our PoE sub-forum. Good luck and don’t delay, I’ll be selecting the winners later today and sending you your beta key via a forum PM

Update: As there was so much demand (over 100 replies in the open thread), Chris sent me 15 more beta keys. I picked more 5 more pals and 6 more people from the public thread, and with 4 keys left, here’s the deal. I will randomly pick one person who posts in a thread in our PoE subforum for a beta key the next four days; Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Good luck!