January is a safe bet. There would be no point from a production perspective to do it this close to Christmas vacation. I would like to play it during the holidays, but that isn't a motivation for them. I would bet serious gift card that the random maps issue will take them the rest of the year to kick. 

We could always do Santa emails to Stardock, and be on good behavior on the forums.  Santa Brad may deliver, so I will put out the mana and shards, and go to bed early on xmas eve.

I totally agree.  The same logic from Thanksgiving is probably at work here.  Too little time, too much to do, and who wants to man the beta reponse forum for Christmas. 

It's pretty clear that Derek isn't going to let the beta out until he can look Brad in the eye & say: "We've cast out the E:WOM demon sir.  Even Lord Xia will be pleased once he gets done ranting about the lack of pink ponies!" 

Spear and Shield! Most common weapon/armor combo in history! Spear and Shield!

Most common weapon in history was pointed stick and stone axe, for long, long time. Metal weapons are only the latest, craziest fashion. In armor department it must be furs.

Why would it have to be written? Isn't any record a sign of history taking place? I guess it depends on what you mean by history - is history all the events that have taken place, or is history what people have written into books and believe happened?

It's not right, the actual definitions of what history means cover both eventualities that I wrote about. History can mean both what is written down, and what happened.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/history

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/history

Agreed.

I was hoping that the beta would hold me over until I get Skyrim (X-mas), but that ship has sailed.