At 11 AM Pacific Time today Blizzard Entertainment will begin accepting applications for its public beta test of Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, a forthcoming expansion pack for Blizzard’s hit game Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos.
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Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos returns players to the fantasy world of Azeroth, a war-torn land populated by Humans, Orcs, Night Elves and the legions of the Undead, all of whom vie for control. The game features an epic single-player mode along with multiplayer gaming capabilities handled online through Blizzard’s own, free proprietary Battle.net system.
The Frozen Throne is an add-on for the popular strategy game, and includes one new hero per race, many new units equipped with new abilities and spells, player-built shops with items selected to improve the capabilities of each race, “neutral” heroes, available for recruitment by any player, and expanded multiplayer options with new game modes over Battle.net, including clan and tournament support. The Frozen Throne is expected to ship this summer.
Unlike some past beta testing events held by Blizzard, this one’s open to Mac users who meet the system qualifications — this also answers a question that’s stood since the expansion pack was announced: Will Mac users be supported? The answer, based on this beta test news, is an unequivocal “Yes.”
You’ll need a valid registration key for Warcraft III to sign up and there are a few other qualifiers (you need to be old enough and you need to download about 100MB worth of data), so make sure to check out Blizzard’s info before submitting your credentials.
Blizzard is careful to note that 10,000 players will be selected from all applicants, and submissions to test are being culled over a 7-day period — so there’s no need to rush the Blizzard servers precisely at 11:00 am PST. This isn’t “first come, first served,” says Blizzard — it’ll be a random drawing, and folks who attempt to submit applications multiple times will be disqualified.