It's not ClosedBeta vs OpenBeta. That's nonsense.

It's an OpenBeta additional to a ClosedBeta.

So? Given how this community is it would just elevate whining to a totally new level. Or have you perhaps missed the b*tchfest of the last few Friday updates? Why on earth would Oleg take it upon himself to give this whiny bunch of yet another chance to demonstrate just how impolite and aggressive they are? An Open Beta requires a mature community but here we have something that makes a kindergarten look very mature. :roll:

I personally think it could be a good idea if the feedback that is coming back is checked by (for objective view) qualified people or even better, real pilots.

And to be clear on something - IIRC Oleg clearly stated that there won't be any demo nor any beta testing, at least not any beta testing in the way purposed here. 'In the house beta testing' - yes.

EDIT:

I think you said it all with these two sentences.

+1

Real pilot of such planes is participating in this effort to get the best experience.
Oleg knows where to ask for help and he has it.

Edit: And I'm not talking on behalf of Oleg. Above information is well known to experienced people of our community.

I forgot to add one thing - the incident with hacking Oleg's own PC to get the SoW code justifies the decision to not go with an open beta IMO.

i voted 1, although i don't have much time to play but i like the idea of playing the game prior to release date. I did that with Men Of war Assault Squad and i had lots of fun, i didn't do it with ED because they dropped the ball on FC2.0 and i don't trust them anymore.

I love the idea of playing before release. For me, a demo/BETA has always put me off or on to the game I'm testing. BETA testing the new Medal of Honor game, I hated it and will definately need to test the demo in single-player before I try the real game. The same went for Il-2; the demo put me onto the game. I doubt I'd have bought the game if I hadn't tried the demo, as I had seen the game in shops and thought it would be some really bad Russian version of CFS1 :-P How wrong I was.
Anyway, going back to the idea of a BETA, I have always liked the idea, but then again I only buy a game once I've read some reviews, seen in-game pics (of the released game) and maybe watched videos on youtube. I've been stung buying games before seeing videos and reading reviews, and I don't want to be stung again.
In this case, I wouldn't buy the game online to just test the BETA.

I agree with you, I tried the demo of IL-2 and I loved it!!

I am ALL FOR being a beta, and will purchase the beta. :)