Little did I know when I woke up this morning afternoon, that I would find something so precious in my inbox, as a beta key for the World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade closed beta phase! This has got to be the best mail I received in the last two years - that is, since the European beta phase for the original World of Warcraft began in late 2004. So I guess this means the start of The Burning Crusade beta is now as official as it gets. And if you'd rather hear that from a "blue", please, be my guest.

If you're hoping to receive a beta key as well, you need not dispair just yet: it could take a few days until Blizzard sends out all the mails, like it happened two years ago. Do note, however, that in order to participate in the beta test immediately, your retail World of Warcraft account must be active as of October 8, 2006.

For this beta phase, participants are entitled to copy up to four level 55+ characters to the expansion test realms. The option to copy premade characters (full of epixx sets) is not available yet, so you can only go with your normal characters for the time being. Once copied, you will finally be able to travel through the Dark Portal and discover the new Outland regions. Not to mention the new playable races, Draenei and Blood Elves, the flying mounts, and... well, loads of other things!

I won't keep you any longer right now; after all, the installer is a massive 2.13 GB download, and there's still plenty of things I need to do in the remaining 74%. Because once it's done, I'll be lost for humanity all over again... Good luck, and speedy download for all ye chosen ones!

(N.B. Archive text, links removed)