I haven't played game betas ever.. Since they are very unfinished and would leave bad taste to mouth since bugs and such and I think thats why they are bad for games. Then again if game beta is well done, and is something very new but/or very similar (like Battlefield BC 2) it will most likely boost sales since fans love it and let us hear it. Any interesting betas now?

Betas are necessary for multiplayer to happen, you have to test servers make sure they don't die unexpectedly, also if the developer is worth their salt they'll use the beta to balance the game play like Blizzard does.

lbp2 beta is going to start soon, its 3 months until release so it should come up next week. all ac brotherhood beta is going to be announced at gamescom.

I've never played a beta and never play to

The problem with this question is that what kind of beta are you playing? 

Beta has sort of become a buzz word in a lot of cases and what you're really playing is an early demo just being called a beta.  There are betas actually out there, but most of those they just call it a beta because it sounds so much cooler to say I got into the beta than I just got the demo.

id play it just to try the game, but i wouldnt sink hours into it i dont like playing the game for hours just to have my stats reset when the game launches

Betas make games better since its like having 50,000 or more testers for your game.  If MW2 would have had a beta it would have been much less glitchy.

Ive never played a beta and I never plan to. However, I think they are a good thing. You never know what ever single person will come up with to do in a game, so it helps them fix it now instead of a mess of a game or years and years and years and years to find them all.

I played most betas this generation so far... and I must say it was a bad choice for me. I didn't really play the multi out of the full versions of the games I've tested.

I still wonder why Reach had a beta though. What did they seriously have to test? Funny thing is, the full game will probably have 80% of new content that wasn't even in the beta, how the heck they tested that!? I guess Bungie have access to Microsoft's Game Testers thingy... but still.

You know, there was a time when there were no public betas. Well, not many at least. I remember games working pretty well even then.

Anyway, they should be good but they aren't. People judge the game based on the beta, like the beta represented the finished game, like it had no bugs, balance issues or anything negative the final version will not have either. And while I personally enjoy betas, even with all the bugs, maybe even more with those bugs since I feel like I'm doing something important, I think there are too many betas. Besides, limited betas seem to replace completely public demos... Which is, of course, not good. Demos are good.

Then there's people who think the only purpose of betas is to fix the bugs. Well guess what!? WRONG! Betas exist to fix balance issues as well, as well as any other issues they possibly can.