The next Alpha testing phase should be ready to go by the weekend of Jan 23/24 2009. This next phase will expand the map slightly, add a few NPC merchants and some creatures to throw down on using either weapons or spells.
Players with existing Characters will have some equipment added to your inventory when you login to play. New Characters will have the equipment added when the Character is created.
Some things I will be looking for with this round of testing will be:
Combat, specifically, too hard, too easy, just stupid, etc. (includes looting kills)
Spells, easy enough to use, outcome makes sense, spell actually works...
Equipping/Unequipping Items
Setting items to the Action bar (Bar right below chat panel, bunch of empty slots, can drag items into it to set them as actions, easier to execute attacks or spells)
Buying and selling items to and from NPCs
Buying services from NPCs (Priests sell healing...)
Targeting NPCs (Crossed swords icon under NPC name in room panel, under the map)
Experience and Level gain
UPDATE
The game will come back online around 11AM Eastern Time on January 24th, 2009 for the Alpha Phase II testing!