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OK, so I'm curious now...Alpha 3 (what we are in now) is the "pre-Season" for Beta which is the "pre-season" of Pathfinder RPG? First and foremost is that correct? If not then disregard the rest.
Next if Beta is the "pre-season" for Pathfinder RPG, how is it they are listed as releasing in August 2008...both of them?
Pre-season could work as an analogy.
But Alpha/Beta are good descriptions. I know them from Software. When you get so far that parts of your project work - not pretty, but at least so that you can let have some people have a go at it, you do an alpha. You make everyone aware of the limitations up front, and present it as a very early demo for those interested in first looks as well as playing proof-reader and tester.
When you get to the point where you have basically everything, except maybe some details, but have to see how the programme as a whole holds up to users, you release it as beta. You release it, warning everyone it's not stable yet, and that there are probably lots of errors.
It works the same here:
The alpha versions were early drafts, containing only parts of the whole, and there was a lot of playing around with possibilities.
Beta will be a lot nearer to what the finished product will look like. We'll basically get a full game, but with the caveat that there can still be more than a few errors in there, and that it would be nice for you to report all errors. From here on, expect no big, sweeping changes, but a lot of fine-tuning.