@Althalus Actually, you were greatly misinformed.
They have said from the very beginning that after every test phase there would be a wipe. Each Alpha had a wipe, and They have ALWAYS said, since the very beginning of the game that there would be a final wipe prior to release at the end of Beta and no beta progress would move into release.
Also, open Beta said that they would 'try' not to do any wipes before the final wipe, but that if the game necessitated it, they would do so, like for a major patch/bugfix/exploit correction. So far, they haven't done a Beta Wipe, but that doesn't preclude one.
Whomever told you there would be no wipes at all was not giving you the straight info that the Devs have always said.
As to plans for an Open Beta, none has ever been officially mentioned. We do occasionally get an open Beta period of like 5 days to stress test and tempt the public, but as of now, there hasn't been any official announcement of an open Beta phase, although several of us are kind of pushing for a final like open beta the last month before wipe/release.