SOE BETA secrets of SWG - something strange

Nive11en

Today, I was kinda bored and inspected my @Yahoo email archives. I went to the last page of my email archives and noticed that I still had the SWG Beta invite lying there, I went in and checked its date:

X-Apparently-To: *****@yahoo.com via web10402.mail.yahoo.com; 28 May 2002 09:36:04 -0700 (PDT)
Return-Path: <starwarsbeta@soe.sony.com>
Received: from monitor-west.station.sony.com (64.37.132.11) by mta585.mail.yahoo.com with SMTP; 28 May 2002 09:36:04 -0700 (PDT)
Received: from sdc02.station.sony.com (sdc02.station.sony.com [64.37.156.40]) by monitor-west.station.sony.com (8.9.3/8.8.5) with ESMTP id JAA12305 for <*****@yahoo.com>; Tue, 28 May 2002 09:35:03 -0700 (PDT)
Date: Tue, 28 May 2002 09:35:03 -0700 (PDT)
From: StarWarsBeta@soe.sony.com Add to Address Book
To: *****
Subject: Thank you for applying to the Star Wars Galaxies Beta

Thank you for completing the Star Wars Galaxies Beta Questionnaire.
We greatly appreciate your interest in helping us test our product.
We will be evaluating your entry based on what we are looking for to best test our product in this stage of development.

If chosen to participate in the current beta phase, you will receive
further information by email when we are ready to begin testing.
Please note that you will not receive an email unless you are accepted.
However, you do not have to reapply for a chance to participate in future phases of beta; you will automatically be considered and notified if you are chosen.

We are very excited to be entering this phase of Star Wars Galaxies development and are looking forward to completing such a great game!

Regards,
The Star Wars Team

P.S. Don't forget to stay abreast of the latest news, screenshots,
and information on the game and to keep in touch with the growing SWG community by visiting the official website at
http://www.starwarsgalaxies.com!

Then I proceeded to look for my SWG Beta 3 invite email, luckily found it on some other page and checked its date:

X-Apparently-To: *****@yahoo.com via 216.136.130.96; 28 May 2003 09:39:54 -0700 (PDT)
Return-Path: <station-mailer@sony-online.com>
Received: from 64.37.148.132 (HELO gandalf.sony-online.com) (64.37.148.132) by mta434.mail.yahoo.com with SMTP; 28 May 2003 09:39:54 -0700 (PDT)
To: *****@yahoo.com
From: "The Station@sony.com" <station-mailer@sony-online.com> Add to Address Book
Subject: Star Wars Galaxies Beta 3 Invite
Reply-to: station-mailer@sony-online.com
Content-Length: 2350

nive11en,

Star Wars Galaxies (tm): An Empire Divided (tm) team would like to inform you that you have been selected to participate in the beta-testing process. This e-mail will contain all the information you'll need to complete your registration for the beta test, so please be sure to review it carefully. You have 2 weeks to respond to this email by starting the beta process, or you may lose your opportunity to participate in this beta.

Before we get to that, however, we just want to take a few minutes to discuss beta testing in general. Being part of the beta test is a huge responsibility. Our development team is extremely busy finishing up the game and pulling it all together, and we'll need all the help we can get tracking down bugs, and testing various aspects of the game.

Things won't always work the way you expect them to. Servers will be coming up and down, and you can expect frequent downloads as we patch the game and add new content. Some of these downloads may be quite large (well over ten megabytes, in many cases), especially in early phases of beta. Our beta is a bit different from what you may be used to. We can not promise that our testing servers will be functional 24 hours per day, 7 days a week due to our intensive focus on certain testing milestones. During this time we'd like to ask for the patience of all our testers, and we'll do our best to keep the game up and running as much as we possibly can.

Please take some time to be sure of your commitment to participating in the Star Wars Galaxies (tm): An Empire Divided (tm) beta test. If you have concerns that you may get frustrated with unstable servers, large downloads, or game systems that are broken, then you should consider joining us in a later stage of beta as our product gets closer to completion.

It is important to understand that even though you have been accepted into this beta, you must still meet the minimum system requirements for testing. If you can not meet these requirements at this time, we will hold a spot for you until you are able to upgrade your system to meet the requirements. At that time, you will be required to submit an updated DxDiag.txt file, which will allow us to confirm that you have met the minimum system requirements. For more information about DxDiag:

http://starwarsgalaxies.station.sony.com/betareg_dxdiag_info.jsp

The information we gather through DxDiag will allow our testing
department to ensure that the game is being tested on a wide range of different hardware and software configurations, and help track down compatibility problems more easily.

The minimum system requirements to participate in this beta are as follows:

* Pentium III, 1 GHz processor or higher
* Hard drive: 1.5GB free space
* 256 MB RAM or higher
* Windows 98/2000/XP
* ISDN or broadband connection (DSL, cable modem)
* GeForce2 or higher, or ATI Radeon 7000 or higher
* DirectSound compatible sound card

*Please note that your application will not be fully accepted until all the requirements are met and the Dxdiag is submitted verifying your system specifications.

If you wish to complete your registration and join the Star Wars
Galaxies (tm): An Empire Divided (tm) beta test, there are several steps you'll need to complete. First, you'll need to accept the TERMS OF USE, LICENSE, AND NON-DISCLOSURE AGREEMENT (the "Beta Agreement"), which is very important. As much as we'd love you to be able to go out and share information about the game with all your friends, we're not quite at the stage where we want certain information about the game discussed, and as a beta tester, it's important that you keep all information about the
game to yourself pursuant to the terms of the Beta Agreement. The Star Wars Galaxies (tm): An Empire Divided (tm) team takes this Beta Agreement very seriously, and will be monitoring the community closely during the testing period. There will be severe consequences for anyone caught breaking the terms of the Beta Agreement.

When both of these steps are complete, a Community Manager will review your application, and then upgrade your account to beta status. At that point, you'll receive another e-mail containing instructions on how to order your Star Wars Galaxies (tm): An Empire Divided (tm) Beta CD, and how to login to the Star Wars Galaxies (tm): An Empire Divided (tm) Beta Center.

To complete your registration, please click the link below:

http://starwarsgalaxies.station.sony.com/betareg_nda.jsp

Once all these steps have been completed, you'll be able to access the beta site at http://www.starwarsgalaxies.com/beta here you'll find the most up to date information regarding the state of the game. You'll also find the online community of testers on our beta forums.

Thanks again for your enthusiastic support, and we're looking forward to seeing you in the game.

You can also view the status of your beta testing application online at:

http://starwarsgalaxies.station.sony.com/beta_status.jsp

Sincerely,

-The Star Wars Galaxies Team

** This is an automated email. Please do not reply to this email.
Instead, please email starwarsbeta@soe.sony.com **

I cannot help wondering how much more other people received their invites EXACTLY after one year, as I did:
28 May 2002 09:36:04 my beta application
28 May 2003 09:39:54 my beta invite

So whoever got accepted get out their email archives and check if they have something similar. I wanna know
My bet is that 1 year is the limit of the waiting list for losers who have nothing interesting in their "story" and didn't get accepted beforehand. Or the devs are very bored people, with weird ideas