Seems like its spread out a little long for a game thats been out for a year and a half. Everyone involved in the beta atm has already bought the game, so why not get this thing rolling? =)
The game did not see outstanding success over seas, but it s also a fact there is lows of frequent updates and more content from bluehole so they are making sure we north american players with our different wants see the best release possible, and the content that is being released in korea.
Even if it's already out overseas, I'd prefer to see changes in a prolonged beta then waiting on constant downtime.
That and EME has already said there will be a massive update after CB and before OB.
I don't doubt they're still actively working on the game.
But the reason cbt is so spread out and only on weekends is mostly for marketing.
Its there so people can test the game at each stage and they can fix the game in parts. Lets say they have 2 week long beta where lvl cap was 50 or 58. Its going to be hell for them for those 2 weeks because of bug and glitches for that huge of a content. And many lower lvl content issue will be missed because people speed to end game. The way they set it up now with the lvl cap is to ensure there is 60 hrs of testing done for each lvl cap. And 2 week time to fix everything with in that lvl cap. Very reasonable if you think about it.
rift isnt free, it only has the same free to level 20 gimmick as WoW.