The different levels of beta can be confusing. Luckily Grav has graced my thread with oodles of insightful wisdom. Depending how you look at it there are ~5 different WoW account classifications.

1. Regular buyers: People who will buy the game off the shelf release day or not

2. Pre-orders: People who Pre-order the game

3. Open Beta testers: What is coming next. (If they even bother with an Open Beta)

4. Stress testers: What we have been for 7 days

5. Alpha testers: The lucky few who got in to WoW from day 1. It’s the type of account the ebay guy is selling