@ Jodou - I understand that gripe much more. Although I do believe (a very limited number of) beta keys were given out to other sites that have run some contests/giveaways. But not enough to make an impact.

I might also not feel some of the anger because I have been a fileplanet member for quite awhile. I'm not paying for this beta, just nice download speeds and the occasional free game.

The frustration is that this open beta was reserved to paying FilePlanet customers ONLY. No pre-order keys, no delayed access for non-paying FilePlanet members, and no mad-dash giveaway contests (so far).

I guarantee you not everyone who signed up will get a key, which would defeat the purpose of PAYING for an open beta. It's like buying a lottery ticket TBH.

Ummm... I'm really not sure why there is much fristration over this. A large number of games have gone through this same process at FilePlanet. they get a certain number of keys and tend to distribute them over time to subscribers.

They also clearly list on the actual key page if there are still keys available that day or not. This goes right along with there text stating very clearly there are a limited number of keys.

Funcom seems to want to really annoy their fans and they're doing a good job. There's a good blog thread on the subject on mmorpg.com in which Jason Stong (game director) chimes in claiming that they have nothing to do with the mess Fileplanet has going, but to tell people you MIGHT get a key if you pay money to fileplanet.. although you might not because you have to sit and refresh all day is just not good business practice, especially when you're dealing with finicky mmo players.

Frustrating and asinine.

Paying for beta testing? What's next, paying your neighbor so you can mow his lawn?

I urge people not to fall into this scheme. Fo-shame, Age of Conan.

I've been a fileplanet subscriber for two years now, but if I had paid them money on this expectation, I would be SOOOOOO ripped right now.

As it is, I'm not planning on holding any parties in their honor, let's say.

Thanks for the heads up I planned on paying to upgrade my subscription on fileplanet tomorrow just to try and snag a key before the beta begins but theres really no point it seems keys are going to be way to sparse. Looks like I'll be waiting until actual release of the game because I don't plan on pre-ordering the game only for 3 days jump start on the masses.

Yeah, paying for a 15-day open beta is pretty weak and there's no guarantee you will even attain 1 of the 50,000 keys. From the sounds of it, open beta really begins on May 20th (or 17th for some).