Open Beta - Want or Not?

[kasiraghi]

Agree with most comments, but it's kind of dependant.

How many people are going to be in closed beta? If it's a lot then it should be a short open because most issues should be sorted out.

If only a (relatively) small number of people are in the closed beta this can be somewhat disastous. T:A made a huge error with their 'gradual' beta progression because a lot of their initial testers were in-house and (imho) must have been a poor representation of the overall gamers who were interested in the game. But in this case the open beta would have to be longer in order to identify 'issues'.

Open beta really should be, as others have said, a short final polish.