Mechanist Games sends word they've been rethinking their recent announcement about beta testing of City of Steam starting next week, saying while this was announced as an "early access" testing, it will be an open beta, as they say "we’ve dropped the early access part with keys and all that for a few different reasons," the most significant being the need for a proper stress-test of the steampunk online RPG's infrastructure. They say the beta will begin at 10:00 pm EDT on May 10th, and those interested should register on this page. Here's word on where this all stands:

So, now that you’ve heard about what we’ve changed, we’d like to talk about a few things. As you may already know, this Beta will start off with 3 classes and 4 (human) races and we’ll continuously release more races and the 4th class (Channeler) over time when we’re closer to the actual release of the game. As for the energy system, it’s to incentivize people to look at all the content and to counteract botters/farmers. As Dave has already mentioned in the forums, we’ll also be implementing PVP to Wilderness zones soon, so people who want to get their open world PVP groove on will be able to do that soon as well.

All in all a lot has changed since Closed Beta. We’re looking forward to you all playing the game and giving us feedback on what you like and dislike and all the new features. We’ve also got quite an aggressive development schedule, with continuous updates over the following weeks. As this is still Beta we’re of course also still in the process of balancing combat and the games’ difficulty, so please tell us if you think the game “feels right” in both PVE and PVP!