I am so looking forward to this game! I've already pre-purchased the collector's edition via Steam. The game is absolutely beautiful. From the *many* charracter customizing choices to the world in general, it's very pretty. I had the opportunity to join the closed beta test this past weekend and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Now for a bit of ranting, though.

This is addressed at a small but vocal minority of the people participating in the beta:
Stop bitching and moaning.
Stop whining because you can't access all the profession stuff yet.
Stop whining because you can't visit every zone.
Stop whining that the level cap was not raised for this particular beta.
Stop whining that beta is "useless" because they're going to wipe your characters.
Stop bitching about petty shit!

I honestly think that you don't understand the purpose of beta testing!
The purpose is to help the developers catch bugs and oddities before the game goes live.
A secondary purpose is usually to "stress-test" the servers and see how they handle the load.

What beta testing is *NOT*:
It is not solely to let you play before everyone else.
It is not to let you get a "head-start" on people that didn't pre-order the game.
It is not a finished product. At all.

We are invited in to help the devs catch stuff before release to make the game better. That's it. Getting to play early is just a happy bonus!

Sorry about that. Needed to vent.
Most everyone I met in the beta was very nice and intelligent.
Unfortunately, the ones that weren't, were very vocal and very irritating.

All that said, I did enjoy the chance to get a feel for the different classes. I think I'll be playing a Scout/Ranger and a Mage/Sorceror on the Asmodean side when release rolls around in mid-September. What I got to experience of the flight mechanics was very smooth and fun. The mage is a standard glass cannon character, whereas the scout is more of a lightly armored agility fighter. Unfortunately, the servers shutdown very shortly after I got my first bow, so I didn't get to play the Ranger side of my scout very much. The early scout plays very much like the rogue class of many other games, stabby-stabby, sneak, stabby. The gameplay is supposed to change a bit after you get your bow at level ten, but I didn't get a chance to test this.

Sadly, this was the last beta event until the game launches mid-September, so I'm left feeling giddy with anticipation, but a little unfulfilled. Left 4 Dead is fun, but growing a bit stale with over-play and I refuse to go back to WoW right now. Maybe if all the "Cataclysm" expansion rumors are true I might try it out again, but Wrath of the Lich King just didn't hold my interest. Instead, I think I'm going to work on my backlog of console games. I have a great number of console games that I've never gotten around to finishing and it irks me every so often. They taunt me with their un-finished-ness.