I'll toss in another yes.  (YES!)  But I'll be disappointed if Elemental isn't a classic. 

Perhaps they might just skip alpha and go straight to beta this month.

If you can afford it, it's brilliant.  Here's why:  Free QA from beta testers, when the NDA is lifted you get player buzz that nets additional pre-orders, pre-orders net more installs of Impulse which equals sales of other products, and prehaps most important of all Gamespot can't review the game until it's is a polished gem!  You may be the smartest guy in the biz.

I am sure this post is going to get lost somewhere among the mess of responses to this question but just had to weigh in on this a little bit.  It is very rare that I find a game that I am as interested in as I am for Elemental so I want to see this become the best game possible.  It seems like by doing a long beta you will be relying heavily on community input.  That has potential to be great but remember that Master of Orion 3 did something similar to that and in the end that didn't work out too well for them. 

I think the big thing with the beta is not just how long it is but who you give the beta to.  It is often the most hardcore gamers/modders that try to get in on those beta programs which is nice because they are going to push the game to its limits.  The problem is that they often prefer a more complex game than the average or casual gamer.  I think you would be much better served if you looked for the serious gamer to test the limits of the game, find issues and help make the modding work while allowing a lot of the gameplay input to come from the more casual gamer.  Not to say the game should be over simplified either.  I guess just realize that who you gather your information from is probably more important than how much of it you have. 

More like changing publishers 3 times, with 3 different visions for the game, and a way overambitious design idea didn't work well for them

That's more or less my impression as well. I lurked on the MoO3 boards for the forever-time it took them to move through those three publishers and eventually ship a 'product.' What I got right after RTM didn't seem at all like a masses-hate-complexity version of 'the game' I'd been expecting. It seemed much more like a crippled cross-breed of a few entirely different games that marketing twits had dressed up in some very sheer MoO drag.

So very true.

He has a fair point. Vanguard also suffered from listening too much to a community that was too slanted in one direction.

Player feedback is invaluable in the beta. But designers have to design, not just do what the community wants. Sometimes for the good of the game, you have to say "no, you're wrong" to your fans. It's a hard thing to do correctly. If they're up to it (and I really believe Brad is), this could really be something special.

Hadberz - They're doing the alpha, there's another dev journal about invites going out today.

Quoting Tyrion2001:

Don't worry about that, anyone who pre-orders is automatically in the beta. There really is no "getting in" in Stardock betas. There will be plenty of people like myself who are not the hardcore player. Stardock listens very well to all the players during the betas.

Hi,  I live in the UK and would like to help with the beta test, however i would also like the manual when the game comes out but the delivery chare on that is a killer. Is there a European/UK distributor that I can pre-order with and have access to the Beta?

If you will be doing this, I'll pre order straight away, been wanting a good kingdom running sim for years

I've been lurking on the journals here for quite some time, but it's rather daunting trying to get in on posting feedback to them given how many people are here and how any idea I come up with seems to either already have been presented by another person, or someone has already posted an even better idea than what I was going to suggest.

That said, I want to throw in my vote with the "extend the beta!" folks. This is the game I am by far more excited about than any other upcoming strategy title. I am hugely excited about the design ideas behind Elemental, and the more time spent honing the game, the better! I already preordered months ago, eager to get involved with the beta testing and the chance to hopefully help shape this game into an even better one than it would otherwise be.

Sure, I'm impatient for a fully released final edition, but extending the beta periods will likely result in an even stronger product in the end.

Extended development time seems to work for Blizzard.  If Stardock can afford to push back the release date, which they stated they can, then I see no reason not to take a little bit longer to make a perfect game.

Pushing the date back gets my vote.

Get out of my cave travitar! .....