I've got one Closed beta key available for a lucky reader. Will be posting it here in about 5.5 hours.

This should give you enough time to register a new account if you haven't already. Check back here later, first person to use the key gets it. (You'll need to move fast to register it.) :)

And if I get any more, I'll keep posting them on the blog.

* UPDATE:

Here it is: FRAAU-US83A-WQCXK-7GV68

GO GO GO! (Please post a comment back here if you managed to get it by the way.) :)

I'll post more if I get any.

* UPDATE:

And we have a winner! (Guy who predicted his future incorrectly.) :)

Thanks for letting us know you got in.

Next time I do this, I might make up another puzzle.. make it a little more challenging.

Yesterday, the Path of Exile Reddit held a competition where users would post the most funny, witty, or insightful comment. It was not a random give-a-way, but rather a competition.

Everyone competed with each other, and downvoted everyone else. It was like watching 300 vultures fighting and tearing at each other for a morsel of food that was, in fact, just a piece of plastic.

Seeing as how Reddit is pretty much an angry atheist comedy site, I knew that everyone was going to post a "funny" comment because those are the only comments that get upvoted.

So, I decided to put in the one and only "insightful" comment. I figured, there were 3 keys for 3 topics, and everyone would be doing funny/witty.

Apparently, though, posting a deeply insightful post on Reddit will only reward you with very angry downvotes.

Every moment your brain chemistry changes, new synaptic connections are formed, old ones are lost, your cellular structure decays, and your DNA mutates due to the persistent exposure of sunlight, carcinogens, electromagnetics, and radiation. You are in a constant state of change and evolution. So much so, in fact, that the person you were moments ago is literally not the same person you are now. You can't call this "your life" since every moment you essentially die and then you are reborn.

What you perceive as memories were merely experienced by another individual and your mind tricks you into believing that you are that same person. Memories of deep regret, emotion, foolishness, or long lost loves were all something that, in fact, happened to a completely different person. That person no longer exists, and you are not them. You just happen to the unfortunate individual to have inherited their memories, but it's just another deception of the mind.

Remember this always: none of that happened to you. It happened to that other person. You are not them. Keep telling yourself that so that your future inheritors can release their burdens and finally move forwards in life. Your "life" will be ending soon, but you can leave it knowing that you rescued someone who is very important to you.

If my contribution was not 'insightful' enough, please let me know and I can go deeper.

In the end, here were the chosen winners:

1. "Hopefully I will be playing PoE at 21:01 GMT!! [gives bot $5]"
2. "Crossin' my fingers!"
3. "Beta keys = Women Sexed. True Story!"

The very first post automatically won apparently, but the other two were absolutely hilarious and they deserved to win.

Guess I'll just wait for a random invite, I give up with these competitions.

This might be a little late with the Diablo 3 beta starting soon, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

If you're not a Blizzard Employee, a Friend & Family member, or have any inside connections, but you desperately want to increase your chances of winning a Diablo 3 Beta invite, I have couple suggestions.

Most of the guides out there suggest that you join a top end guild, have a high end gaming PC, or get in good with a Blizzard employee. If you're a past beta tester, chances are also higher for you to be invited back too.

Now, in order to opt-in to the Beta Invite, you need an active Battle.net account with any Blizzard game title attached to it. Then, "Beta testers are chosen according to their system specifications and other factors, including an element of luck."

You can't just create hundreds of B.Net accounts and create Free Starter packs to opt-in, unfortunately, it has to be a full version game attached.

Here are my suggestions;

* Use your classic games. If you're lucky and still have Diablo 2, WC3, or Starcraft CD keys (or any expansion packs) lying around that haven't been registered to your main B.Net account, simply create new B.Net account names (register them to your family members if you want) and use each of those CD-Keys individually for each B.Net account. If you have WoW, D2, D2:LOD, WC3, SC, and SC:BW you can have 6 Active B.Net accounts that are all eligible for the beta.

* If you're more desperate, and have the cash, all of the classic games can be obtained from pawnshops, EBay, Amazon, etc. for $3-10 per game.

* Check with friends or family members with old CD-Keys that they don't use anymore. All you need is the CD-Key to register it to your B.Net account. You never know who out there hasn't played the game for years, but still have the CD case or box lying around.

* Even if you only have 3 CD-Keys.. at least you're 3 times closer to win than before. :)

* Blizzard can replace a lost CD-Key, if you turn in your CD case or manual as a replacement. However, there's a fee of $10 which is typically more expensive than what you can buy it for elsewhere.

* If you don't have the money, but have the time, you could attempt random CD-Key generators. This is rather insidious, but it is possible to generate random CD-Keys that can be authenticated on B.Net. They're extremely rare and will take a lot of time, but if you don't mind the risk, it's a viable option. This link, for example, generates Starcraft CD-Keys which are the most simple to create and authenticate. I'm not sure if it's randomly generated on the backend though, or displayed from a pre-made list. I tried a couple dozen, and ended up with 3 that were legit however they were claimed and in use by other users. Diablo 2 CD-Key generators also work, but are more difficult to get a real B.Net key. Just make sure you create a new B.Net account, a new email address, and do this through an anonymous VPN service.

* You don't want a high end gaming PC, if anything, submit system specifications for an average gaming PC. Blizzard wants to reach the widest audience possible, and the most invitations will be sent for average PC builds.

* Network and make friends with players with B.Net accounts (e.g. your guild mates). Convince them to opt-in. Many beta winners won't have time to play (too busy with school) and will offer the beta key (no "keys" for D3 Beta AFAIK, instead the account is flagged) or share their B.Net account.

It's called a beta, but it isn't so much a beta as it is a demo. There will be very little change between the D3 "beta" and the retail release. Just like WOTLK and Cataclysm. It's more of a stress test on their new servers and authentication systems. The D3 beta is supposed to be much shorter than previous Blizzard betas as well.. so, just hang on there and I hope this information helps out some of you that forget about your classic games and unregistered expansion packs. :)

A former Blizzard employee (kidr3volver on Reddit) has posted screenshots (and now a video) of the Diablo 3 beta.

Source of the information can be found here.

His IMGUR album is located here. And you can watch the Beta Player Character Screen video here.
ForceStrategy Gaming called it all fake photoshop work, but it looks pretty real to me. :)

According to his IAMA, "the majority of my life in blizzard was under the account and billing/tech department but have some general GM experience as well".

I don't think kidr3volver was too serious about protecting his identity though. According to previous Reddit posts, he publicly revealed his name and date of birth: Joshua Shields, 1986 (jshields1986). According to his public Google+ profile, he worked for Blizzard Entertainment in the Account and Tech Services department from 2010-2011.

Here's his LinkedIn Profile and a screenshot and here's my favorite part:

Learn and review departmental policies and procedures.
Maintain security and confidentiality of Blizzard Entertainment internal information and customer/account.

He probably received an earlier beta invite through the "Friends & Family Members" closed beta invite, considering that he's not currently employed by Blizzard.

His jshields1986 unique alias is all over the internet as well, and there are plenty of pictures of both him and his cat.

http://cheezburger.com/jshields1986/
http://www.quickmeme.com/user/jshields1986/oldest/
http://s634.photobucket.com/albums/uu64/jshields1986/
http://imgur.com/user/jshields1986
http://www.resumebucket.com/jshields
jshields1986@gmail.com, jshields1986@yahoo.com, etc. etc.

This is a really good example (and a warning) of how important it is to protect your identity and "internet footprint". Information about you is all over the web, and it just takes one slip up to link all of your aliases to one identity.

Unless this is all an elaborate conspiracy where someone borrowed this persons alias in an attempt to frame them. For example, he worked with Joshua at Blizzard, didn't like him, and now it's payback time. :)

** Update:

Kidr3volver has been going through and deleting all of his Reddit posts. I wouldn't be surprised if he pulled the images and YouTube video too. (It's already been reposted though.)

And, Blizzard has just deleted one of the Diablo 3 discussions on Battle.net. Never had a chance to read the entire thing and it was up for about 5-6 hours.

Here's the one that was deleted: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/3118271920

Interestingly enough, they still kept the original older posting (7 hours old now) that contains all of the personal information about the leaker: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/3118161991

I had thought it was against B.Net forum rules to post that sort of stuff there. I wonder why they deleted the newer post, but not the original?

It might have had something to do with the comments made by Sixen on the forum (he's a Community MVP.) They were talking about favoritism (i.e. friends that hooked them up with invites) for Beta selection: [Image 1] [Image 2] [Image 3]

Sixen was also originally telling everyone that there was no Diablo 3 Friends and Family "F&F" Alpha/Beta, then changed his tune when corrected by forum users:

"There will not be a Friends and Family Alpha or Beta. The game is going right from Internal Alpha to Public Beta."
"Nevermind, apparently I'm wrong, there will be an F&F."
"Nope, the info I had changed."

** Update:

Confirmed; he just pulled his YouTube video.

There's another copy here for your viewing pleasure.