Warhammer Online: really closed beta

So, a lovely friend threw me a code for the Warhammer Online closed beta, once it kicked off in Australia. Unfortunately, the download took several days to complete, not aided by the fact that it clocked in at a whopping 9.4GB, so it had to be largely downloaded during my off-peak period to avoid capping (see previous rant). I also have the fact that I'm running on Mac OS X at home, so for me to play I need to reboot into Windows. Not hard, and I'm all set up for it, but it requires me to actively disconnect from everything I'm doing, so takes that much more effort.

Long story short, I've only managed to get in to the game for about an hour so far, and this weekend the Closed Beta makes way for the "Preview weekend", followed by the "Open Beta." Of course, I'll be in both, but it seems like I've missed a large part of the beta program. Oh well, it happens.

Today, thanks to a delightful ear infection, I'm at home, so have some free time to have a look around. I decided to try and read up, see what the already active Beta Community was saying, only to be met with the following message:

Collectors Edition and Australian Beta Testers do not have a forum. Please use in game bug, feedback, and appeals tools.

Well that sucks. I can't quite understand what the reasoning is behind that, but it seems to be a really good way to annoy people that are beta testing your product for you. Thankfully, there are a few good unofficial forums around, that have very large populations, including many beta testers and even some developers, and since the NDA has now been lifted, free discussion can be had.

Still, seems like a fairly poor move on the part of EA Mythic for no real discernable reason.