I may sound like an idiot or whatever, but I'm not quite sure whats going on with this game. I want to give it a try, but I know it does not release in the US until Septemeber 22, 2009. Though a lot of people seem to be playing already. I have played games before on Chinese or Japanese servers or whatever, and I found al link to download the game just by googling it, but I"m not sure what version I'm downloading...and if I can download the game where would I purchases time for the game? I'm just confused on how to get in and started on this game, and would love for someone to take some time to explain. Thanks in advance to anyone that tried/does help me.

 You need to pre-order the game to play in the closed betas. You won't be able to play if you don't have a beta key. I would suggest you go to your local gamestop and pre-order a copy for yourself. It only costs 5 bucks and that 5 bucks goes towards your purchase in September. Inside the box will be a card with a key and instructions to download the game. I'm sure you could also do it online. I would post the link to download it, but I don't have it near me atm. 

If you want to play in another countries version of the game besides North America, I cannot help you. 

The game has been out for a while in China/Korea, so that is where some people are currently playing. Likewise we might be talking about the various beta event weekends NCSoft is doing for the western launch of the game.

I wouldn't bother playing on a Chinese server for a few reasons:

- Won't be able to transfer your character to a western server on launch (IIRC)
- The Chinese servers are only on patch 1.2, where as western servers will launch with 1.5, equal to what Korea has.

I would just wait patiently for the launch date, maybe preorder the western version of the game so you can get in on the remaining beta events.