Closed beta is so much more manageable. With open beta, you would have so many players, and so many whiners, and so many retards. And I've seen in the past too many times where certain features are wrongly "balanced" in betas where the retards begged and whined for a fix and they got what they wanted just so they could shut up.
And discount meaning not $25, like maybe $10. I didn't get a discount to see a sequel of a movie because it only costs around <$10, not $50-$60 (by 2008 prices will probably have to be matched up with Xbox 360 and ps3 so $60 could be the price). Also all the other games you mentioned have sort of an ending to them already, which means that you would not be playing them for a longer time than you would be playing gw.
Of course, probably a free part or open beta would come with GW2 later.
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