Cataclysm will be closed beta, meaning you can not play it without a key that Blizzard gives you. The beta will act like the PTR, but will be seperate.
For more information look at the site in the related links
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm was officially released on December 07, 2010.
You have to sign up for it on the world of warcraft website. beta testers are randomly chosen from people who sign up. currently they are not accepting beta testers yet as the next expansion, cataclysm, is not ready to be tested yet.
You learn it as a spell at level 16 from your class trainer. NOTE: In World of Warcraft: Cataclysm (in beta at the moment), they are mixing up the levels of cat and bear form....cat form will be at level 10.
Yes, in order to be eligible for the Closed Beta of Cataclysm, you need to have a currently active account. You also need to have your account flagged for participation, which you can do by "opting in" through your battle.net account page.
That is correct, there is only one World of Warcraft. However it has two, soon to be three, expansions (additional content added to the game). The expansions are called Burning Crusade, Wrath of the Lich King, and Cataclysm (not released yet, in beta).
The expansion packs "Burning Crusade" and "Wrath of the Lich King" are already released. The next expansion "Cataclysm" is due to be released in late 2010. It is currently (June 11, 2010) in beta (friends and family beta only so far).
You do not join per se, you are invited by Blizzard. To make yourself eligible for Beta invites, go into your Battle.net; there should be an option for "Opting in" to Beta invites for their games. Simply select them and download the little tool that will record your PC's technical specifications for them. Then all you can do is wait and see if you get lucky.
Blizzard Entertainment is notorius for not releasing too much information about future patches and expansions. The only expansion that is confirmed is Cataclysm, which is close to being released to closed beta (it's in Friends and Family Beta at the moment and is under a Non-Disclosure Agreement [NDA]). There has been speculation/conjecture/theories as to how many expansions there will be, but nothing is confirmed by Blizzard.
It is not quite clear yet what level this new ability will be trainable at. The beta for cataclysm is still under a NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) so details are sketchy at best.
World of Warcraft was announced in September of 2001 by Blizzard Entertainment. The beta testing did not start until its release of November 23rd 2004, which was launched in North america, Australia, and New Zealand.
World of Warcraft was in beta in early 2004 and released later as a full game in late 2004. Warcraft the game (not the MMORPG) - Warcraft: Orcs & Humans, was released in 1994.
Usually you resive a beta invite if you are a well known person within the game (such as wowhobbs) or if you are randomly selected due to how long (in years) you have been playing the game if you were to be invited to the beta blizzard would send and e-mail to your accounts e-mail telling you that you've been invited to join you would then make a separate account for the beta, download the client and play.