Are we allowed to be told how many players were chosen?
The broad strokes of whats being tested?
Such as:
Character building
Events
Monster combat
Quest chains
Expected length of alpha
Anyone?
50 were chosen for testing. If 50 do not sign the NDA, they will add more to reach 50. Then they may add a few more later.
That is all we know and will know unless someone breaks the NDA. UO has always been secretive and this is when they should be.
It is their game mechanics. They want us to feel like we enter a new world and learn as we go.
They gave many hints in newsletters for events.
Alpha will last as long as needed.
With the NDA in place and it being an alpha, you won't hear anything about what's being tested or what those systems look like. Once we get into the beta, I expect to hear more about specific systems unless the team decides to pivot and share their project roadmap and feature functionality goals. Given the lack of information shared regarding the roadmap and feature functionality to date, I would not expect that to change now.
Both are making sense.
I do understand the need for secrecy and the desire for players to walk into a new and fresh world.
It would be nice to have the road map