It appears that most people talking negatively about the beta are those that missed the memo stating that this game was going to be an MMORPG.
They were all expecting a massively multi-player Skyrim and it was never going to be that. The tech isn't there for a start. It has been suggested that the most you could get whilst still allowing it to run on consoles would be something akin to Borderlands 2's multiplayer mode.
As far as MMORPG's go, I've played all the major ones and I'd say that this game compares favourably. It suffers exactly the same failings versus a single player game like Skyrim that all MMORPG's suffer from.
Unfortunately a lot of the traditional World of Warcraft type audience also have major difficulties with handling the control scheme as we found out with Tera.
This puts the game in a difficult position. The people dumb enough to expect Skyrim online are going to complain and the people who like traditional MMORPG's where your character auto dodges and auto aims are also going to complain. The question is how many people are in the middle.
As for Angry Joe, I'm a big fan of his but he totally over rated GW2. There was a lot of stuff wrong with that game that he didn't mention in his review and the fact that it never lived up to its "WoW Killer" hype says a lot. 7.8million WoW subscribers and a rumoured 1.8 Million FFXIV subscribers are happily handing over subs every month instead of playing it where a couple of years back everyone said it will kill off sub based MMO's.
The Skyrim fans might b*tch about "no one will pay a sub in this day and age of free to play games" but the reality says something else.
I'm only low level but I'm finding the combat not to my liking nor the limited 5 skills bar (ten if weapon swap). But it looks nice and the quests are good. Maybe it'll grow on me.
I doubt I'd ever really go for a subscription based game, but I'd like to hear that this is doing well. My biggest 'wish' that they would address from Skyrim, is with the character development. I'd like to create a character that had a dedicated skill-set - something which I could develop and pursue and make him/her the best that they could be in that field. What I wouldn't like (a la Skyrim) is to find that within 10 hours, my seemingly focused orc barbarian who is nothing more than a meat-head and bashes things - has slowly developed skills in magic, crafting, pick-locking, stealth, archery and creating fireballs - without any direct involvement from myself.
Picking said orc barbarian - I should have a progress tree that started with clubs, then maces, swords, duel-wielding abilities, shields, armour, stun ability, thick skin, poison resistances, etc. As part of an MMO, you would want to be 'recruited' on the fact that your character could steam ahead and dish out damage, or hold back and absorb attacks while protecting your weaker, ranged party members. Having four or five players, apart from looking physically different, who have all got similar skills within several hours (again, like Skyrim) - just makes the idea of the MMO a little pointless.
Will be interesting to see how this game develops
D.