Participating in Closed Beta: Microsoft vs Blizzard
So I was interested in participating in the Age of Empires Online closed beta. In order to do this, I had to:
- Sign in with my Live Account (or create on if I didn’t have)
- Create a Connect account (or sign-in if I already had) — Fill out my information — Fill out my Live Gamertag
- Answer some questions — What games I have played — How many hours I play — Which hours I play
- Wait to get a confirmation IF I get accepted
About 3-4 months ago, I wanted to participate in the StarCraft II closed beta as well. In order to do this, I had to:
- Request a beta key using my Blizzard account (or create a blizzard account)
- Wait to get a confirmation IF I get accepted (which I did after about 2-3 weeks)
It’s fascinating how Microsoft is completely disconnected with there 21034823098 services (Windows Live, Microsoft Connect, Gamertags, etc.) even though you use the same credentials in every single one of them. For instance, even though I had a Live account, I STILL needed to fill out my information in Microsoft Connect. Similarly, even though I had Live and Connect, I still had to give my Gamertag username (and fill it twice, in case I made a spelling error).
