Me neither. Fortunately, you don't actually HAVE to participate in the feedback process: you can just play the game. It's not like they have a limited number of downloads or anything.

I imagine it's a lot like being a good QA person to begin with. Look to exercise the corner cases. Don't always move, click, etc in the same way. If you can do something on a map or in a dialog, try both. Cast spells. Multi-select things that aren't alike and see what happens. If I select the city then try to multi-select a nearby army, is that legal?

Even if you don't take that kind of approach and instead just play the game and report any bugs, you'll want to stress the game by avoiding ruts. Go military one time, go spell caster another, go all research, or all explore. Choose play styles that make you try out different areas of the game each time. Played zoomed all the way out once, then zoomed way in another time. Do all the map elements show up correctly in both cases? And on, and on

There is. You need both people trying to find bugs, and people who just try to play the game and find the obvious things that someone really close to the game won't find.

Someone who has never seen it before is in the best position to spot obvious oddness, speaking as a software developer.

The perfect beta alpha tester:

D is for diligence to continue playing even when it is not fun.

E is for Enthusiasm when you are under the gun

N is for Nitpicky. and also for Nice

R is for Resourceful finding bugs in a trice.

Y is for Yippee! at final release.

U is for Understanding when the devs need some peace,

But seriously - anyone can be a good beta tester. From dedicated bug squishers to folks that just want to play as long as they report problems when they see them.

I would say that poor beta testers would be ones that are going to bitch about the art direction, or if something gets implemented that they didn;t like, or if something they REALLY REALLY wanted isn't put in, etc.

In short from when I betaed Heroes 5: "Try to crash the game any way you can!" That means shifting from zoomed in to zoomed out and rotating the camera as fast as you can while simultaneously moving troops (if that's possible) to playing in a window and alt-tabbing like crazy!

As mentioned above, you really need the skill and/or talent to not only discover bugs, but also how to explain a problem and how to reproduce it. Being aware of a bug is helpful and all, but being aware of what causes what helps to determine which lines of code to look at first and can greatly reduce the amount of testing the devs need to do.

Other stuff you would want to be good at is:
-Finding weird stuff
-Finding rare problems
-Figuring out how to break stuff

For instance, at one point in time back in GalCiv 2, the devs were adding in starbase repair modules (to quickly repair damaged starbases). I noticed that each repair added to a repair stat much like you would have for mining. Each repair would add to this number despite the fact the effects was a one time deal. A few screen shots with the stat circled help to explain the problem.

Here is a sample image of what I'm talking about

When you make your bug reports/feature requests/usability suggestions, a certain amount of precision is useful.

Once you find a bug, the first thing to do is to retrace your steps to reproduce the problem. Next, you should attempt to find the minimum set of actions necessary to trigger the bug (real-life example: do I have to fill out the form and click ok every time to make the program grind to a halt? Or will just opening this menu over and over do the same?). Lastly, report the steps you took and the problem as clearly as you can.

Finally, software testing can get really boring, but still takes some thought. If it starts to grind and you're just going through the same sequence of motions over and over again, then you probably won't find any bugs, so take a break. Or write/record an automated script to do it for you: there are some really good tools out there to do that sort of stuff these days.

A good beta tester is someone who can withstand the constant weekly if not daily downloads and STARTING OVER time and time again to test for old and new bugs and flaws. A good beta tester doesn't just play the game NORMALLY they actually TRY TO BREAK IT. They look for loop holes and exploits and they don't secretly not mention them so they can have or get unfair advantages after the game is released (this usually happens with mmorpgs). A good beta tester is someone willing to give at least 20 hours of their FREE time per week to the game. I've known many who've shouted that they would <begging to be in the beta>, but, never did. What many beta testers wanted was to be able to play the game first and get it for free at the end. I personally was always against this and recommended that testers only get a free game if they turned in so many feedback reports when I beta tested for SSI.

In this form of beta testing many are about to take part in it doesn't really matter or work like the days of old. You've paid for the game you're going to get. You aren't going to get a free version at the end and if you want it to work correctly then you'd better send in your feedback because you (yes the individual you) might be the only one to discover the bugs, exploits or flaws. I kind of like this idea of preorder get to play beta. But, on the other hand I could be the one that puts 110% effort to get the game to work properly and without bugs and flaws and exploits and I'll get no recognition out of it or a free game from my hard work and it IS HARD WORK if you're a GOOD BETA tester.

What Brad and Stardock might or could do is those that really put in a great effort of feedback throughout the beta period they give some kind of reward like perhaps a free game of choice out of their library now or the next game they make give it away for free as long as the person remains part of that beta program.

The best way to Beta Test is to play the game, LOTS.  And report everything odd that you find unless it is listed under some known issues area.  If you don't report something because you assume that everyone else is experiencing the problem then you are a useless Beta Tester.  Related obviously, but check known issues before reporting!

Also in terms of gameplay, try the extremes of things, attempt to do things quickly and see what happens, see if you can buy stupid amounts of one item, see what happens when you fill your inventory and then accept a reward for a quest item.  Save your game and check if everything is exactly how you would expect on Loading.

The best way to test something is to forget nothing, good or bad. If you don't like something but can't quantify WHY then mention it anyway. Its possible that someone else had the same problem, and only by discussing it between the two of you will you be able to give it a name.