I just found out that the “open beta” is not at all what I expected. And I suspect for a great many they feel the same.
The term “open beta” has historically been used to represent something people can try out for free who DO NOT own the game currently.
It was my guess that this meant that during this period I could invite a Steam friend who did not own the game, and they would be granted access during this “open beta” period to the shared world that was created. Apparently, I was wrong. They don’t show up in my invite list. And looking more closely at how it works I found the wording that says ‘invite a friend who also owns the game’.
It’s too late to reword the event, but please in the future simply use “experimental”. That works fine. That’s accurate. (Or “closed test.”) That’s something people who have been in tests before understand. Not being what people expect “open beta” to mean… well, I don’t follow many socials, but I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of people got really mad about assuming this meant they could invite friends to try out the game who don’t own it only to find out that’s not the case.