The reasons for playing an open beta are no doubt varied. Some people might be planning out their leveling route, some are trying out new specs to decide what they want for launch, others are simply trying the game out for the first time. Whatever your reason, betas are usually short lived. Depending on why you’re playing will determine the emotions you feel when the beta ends. I usually dive pretty hard into betas so for me it’s always sad when the good times end.
The Throne and Liberty open beta ended at 1pm EST on a Tuesday. I have no doubt that most players enjoyed the beta, logged out a day or two prior, and are happily waiting. Others, like me, are like someone on the Titanic who weren’t able to get on a life boat and are going down with the ship. We’re staying until the servers shut down.
As we get closer to the final moments of beta people want to have fun and make some final memories. It just so happened that the hour before the Throne and Liberty servers shut down there was going to be world events. So I suggest in world chat that anyone still around should head to the wolf hunting event for one last hoorah. The thinking being any level should be able to participate in this which would give us the largest turnout.
To my surprise, and excitement, a lot of people showed up. I’d say 30+ people decided to enjoy one last world event as a server. It was great having so much fun in the last hour the servers were up and I was lucky enough to place first in the wolf hunt.
With the world events ending and thirty minutes remaining most people headed to Kastleton. There were some last minute duels taking place but rarely was there an even match given the wide range of levels there. Even so, it was enjoyable. Eventually it turned into us all morphed as the little knights you see in the image jumping around. With the time ticking to zero I decided to go view the fireworks in the town square where I figured most others would be.
If you’ve never stuck around to see the servers go down it’s usually the same. The main group of players still on mass around the main city. In Throne and Liberty it was the town square, in New World it was outside the town gates, in Palia it was also the town square. Throne and Liberty does stand out from other games though because the developers gave us hundreds of fireworks. So now it was time to watch the fireworks, shoot some off myself, and read through world (e.g. global) chat as these were to be our final moments together.
Reading through the chat it was filled with players excited for the release and wishing everyone well until they could return to the world of Solisium. It’s one of those rare moments in the gaming community that is filled with nothing but positivity. Then, in an instant, it’s all gone.