It is only viewed as launched, because they're not wiping characters afterwards. In every other respect, this is an open beta, not a launch. That is meant to be an incentive; a REWARD, not a reason for you to flame the developers constantly.
You, are clearly from the glory days of public beta testing. Gone are the days when beta tests were used by the community to better the eventual release. Gone are the days when beta tests were used to verify the game works and runs. Today, open betas are merely used as an opportunity to get a head start in the game, to get…
Yes, it was foolish of them to so openly accept money in the Zen store and other places for a game in beta, and yes, they should have known better from their past experiences, but at some point they HAD to turn on the real-money stuff, and better now under the covers of the 'Open Beta' title than after full release. At…