For me this Beta weekend had been an absolute desaster. Out of two days trying to get into the game I have managed to actually play for a full hour, and that happened to be at 4am this morning.

The forums are full of people suffering a wide variety of technical problems. In other betas you may have had 2 or 3 main technical problems which the dev team can concentrate on, here there seem to be dozens of different problems going on at the same time.

Technically this game is not even at an acceptable beta stage and I regret having given Anet my money already now as the inability of the tech team to deal with all those problems does not bode well for release.

I did not pay for the beta, it was extra, I paid for a game.

If you bought it for the beta... well.

Originally posted by RizelStar
I hope he isn't talking about this closed beta lol.

The beta is open. ArenaNet has publicly detailed its cashshop. There is vanity stuff there. But basically you can use your credit card to obveiate gameplay (grind) to items and currency.

Originally posted by Ulorik

For me this Beta weekend had been an absolute desaster. Out of two days trying to get into the game I have managed to actually play for a full hour, and that happened to be at 4am this morning.

The forums are full of people suffering a wide variety of technical problems. In other betas you may have had 2 or 3 main technical problems which the dev team can concentrate on, here there seem to be dozens of different problems going on at the same time.

Technically this game is not even at an acceptable beta stage and I regret having given Anet my money already now as the inability of the tech team to deal with all those problems does not bode well for release.

People saw this as a pay for beta.

I see it as a kickstarter donation, a very sucessful one.

Well, there have been warnings from people speaking their mind about the unknowns and people being very critical about this practice in general.

NDA + no release date set, yet asking for your money = there is a risk involved.

Fun fact: we still don't know most of those unknowns as we just got to play a little starter content.

Keep in mind that if further beta's still are just weekend events and STILL just starter content, i.e. when high level content is being kept under wraps until launch, that this equals a huge alarm bell going off.

Like what other people said: You didn't paid for Beta, you paid for the game.

Beta is the bonus you get for pre ordering. 

People are mising the point of Beta it isnt FREE to play until Release, its to test the game and find bugs.

Originally posted by DarkPony

Well, there have been warnings from people speaking their mind about the unknowns and people being very critical about this practice in general.

NDA + no release date set, yet asking for your money = there is a risk involved.

Fun fact: we still don't know most of those unknowns as we just got to play a little starter content.

Keep in mind that if further beta's still are just weekend events and STILL just starter content, i.e. when high level content is being kept under wraps until launch, that this equals a huge alarm bell going off.

It has always been like that with guild wars. High level or "further content" than the starter area is never shown until actual release so people still have a reason to play the game. If there are problems with further content, I think they've proven they are quick to the fix.

What I find disturbing is the huge variety of different tech problems at the same time reported on the beta forums by frustrated people like myself. In other betas you have perhps 2 or 3 issues, here its dozens, and they seem to overwhelm the tech team, as they arent getting fixed.

Looks a bit as if the technical side wasn't even ready for beta yet

You even don't play the game or .. you are talking about the first 24 hours which of course were a pain in the ass. But since yesterday ( not to mentionate today ) things were back to normal. So stop complaining, else you may start selling your copy if you feel so .. sad/mad/crying about "pay to test".

I myself I am having a blast! I love this game.

Originally posted by Ulorik

What I find disturbing is the huge variety of different tech problems at the same time reported on the beta forums by frustrated people like myself. In other betas you have perhps 2 or 3 issues, here its dozens, and they seem to overwhelm the tech team, as they arent getting fixed.

Looks a bit as if the technical side wasn't even ready for beta yet

It's normal in my opinion. At least I'm not falling underground without any way to come back. (As it happened in Dragonica's beta.)

Originally posted by DarkPony

Well, there have been warnings from people speaking their mind about the unknowns and people being very critical about this practice in general.

NDA + no release date set, yet asking for your money = there is a risk involved.

Fun fact: we still don't know most of those unknowns as we just got to play a little starter content.

Keep in mind that if further beta's still are just weekend events and STILL just starter content, i.e. when high level content is being kept under wraps until launch, that this equals a huge alarm bell going off.

That's fine with me I wasn't paying for beta I was paying for the game and what I've seen from the beta I'm very happy with the purchase i've gotten to play every day since the start had one big burst of lag and that was when I was in an event with 20 or so aoe magic users on the first day after that i've seen little to no lag. Combat is fun animations are ok and  the content is fun. And i'm not to worried about post level 30 content i'm sure it will be good enough to entertain me.

Originally posted by Ulorik

For me this Beta weekend had been an absolute desaster. Out of two days trying to get into the game I have managed to actually play for a full hour, and that happened to be at 4am this morning.

The forums are full of people suffering a wide variety of technical problems. In other betas you may have had 2 or 3 main technical problems which the dev team can concentrate on, here there seem to be dozens of different problems going on at the same time.

Technically this game is not even at an acceptable beta stage and I regret having given Anet my money already now as the inability of the tech team to deal with all those problems does not bode well for release.

What is an acceptable beta stage? If it's a beta....then it's a beta, aka work in progress.