I tried to start the beta 12/14 but it didn't go well. First, our server cluster went nuts. We've been running those exact same servers (sorta) on the exact same hardware (sorta) with no problems whatsoever for the Asian Evaluation so this was an unpleasant surprise. I managed to get the servers under control, I thought, but when I logged into the game, I couldn't chat. At all. In any way. Which is very strange because local chat works differently than group or society chat but none of it was working for me. I kept rebooting the servers trying to solve the problem which was, I'm sure, a little frustrating to the beta testers. They were very gracious and patient with me though, and when I finally gave up and told them to come back tomorrow, they were very reassuring – claimed they really didn't expect much the first night anyway.