Thanks for the post from NCSoft.
I think they are right in not announcing a release date until the game is properly ready for release, sure any MMO player will still expect a few bugs on release but at least we won't have the situation players currently have with AoC, Funcom may not have done themselves any big favour by releasing too early without content and so many bugs and character balancing issues still to be resolved. Personally I don't mind flaws in an early release but watch any community forum and you will see how quickly the moaning spreads and your often left wondering 'why are you still posting and playing?', it gets to the point where that if you want to enjoy the game you must make a conscious decision to stay away from the forums.
I give NCSoft a thumbs up for their approach, the sad thing for most of us is that at the moment theres precious little else to play while we wait. AoC has too many problems to warrent a significant time investment and GW is a place (which I spent many a happy hour- thousands infact ) but is not recieving fresh content while fans of the game wait for news and info about GW2.
I would love it if there was a closed beta for the US/EU and I'd be happy to play along with pen and paper at hand, theres something special about that opportunity. An open beta would be fantastic but again patience is something we need if we want this game to be as awesome as it looks and we think its going to be.
I've only been aware of this game for around 6 months but from everything I've seen this and GW2 (honest I'm not an NCSoft fanboy !
it's just coincidence those 2 titles are what intrigue me the most) are the 2 MMO titles i am most eagerly anticipating.