Here is my take on it. (
Disclaimer: I did not get in) My problem was that the survey for the application had too few options, which meant that many applications ended up the same. Most likely ended up being a random drawing.
1st: To be honest, community members should have had priority. It's pretty easy to identify who is the most active just based on the forums here and on CoH.com. They should have done something like post something on the website here so community members would get first go.
2nd: Less randoms off the block, I would rather have someone actually play the hell out of the alpha (like HelpingHans) instead of the random person maybe playing it for a couple hours and finding out its not for them, its a waste of a slot. Someone that actually goes and provides feedback is preferable (At least I can count on you guys
).
3rd: This test must be in waves. If they are considering letting casuals into the initial alpha, they need to allow those you actually do care about final product in to provide their feedback at a later date.
4th: If you KNOW the demand to be in it is going to be high, allocate enough resources so for those who want to test get in, or make it open alpha.
5th: For those who didn't get in, do some sort of announcement to make those who didn't make the cut feel included, this Cold War secrecy crap when a new content alpha is going on is BS. This is the kind of NDA garbage that the community has issues with, even more of a problem when a sizable portion of the active community is in the alpha and and equally sizable portion is not. All this did was create drama.