I too cannot seem to play without the use of a VPN. Tried all port forwarding/firewall/antivirus/blood-test/DNA tests but nothing so far. I cannot play through a VPN as it keeps disconnecting the service and end up kicking me out of the game. Beta 3 connected without issues. But Beta 4, Open Beta, Pre-release and release, always hit with a error 2002 15-20 seconds after logging into the game screen with a greyed out Start button. Sigh..