I have been wondering this myself.

However, considering the way they handled the alpha/beta schedule there would be insufficient time for testing as it would only be open for one weekend the week before launch and only for a few hours at a convenient time for Asia/Australia. It would be treated as a preview instead of a test. Please look forward to it.

It should be open a month or two prior to launch 24 hours a day for a few weeks to gather meaningful feedback and bug reports from all regions.

Quote Originally Posted by Phe View Post
the idea isn't that bad, but with what characters?

i don't think you can easily switch with your normal character between beta and normal server.
also the progress you would make in the beta.

means you would have to level a new character only for beta purposes.
and more cost to service/maintain the servers.
Other games provide a service that would allow you to copy your character as-is onto the test server instead of starting from the bottom.