The Runes of Magic closed beta is coming to an end on Dec. 10 following an event involving an attack by evil demons, but as the old saying goes, when one door closes, another opens. And this one's a very big door.

The open beta will begin on Dec. 15 for every player interested in venturing into the world of Taborea. All you have to do is register on the official Web site. According to a press release, Frogster received more than 170,000 registrations for the closed beta, and each one will automatically have access to the open beta.

The open beta will likely conclude in the first quarter of 2009 with the release of the game. Any character created before that time will still be available to play after launch, so you can get a head start by participating in the open beta.

And for those of you who happen to be in the closed beta, expect that demonic attack to begin on Dec. 7. For more information on that event or the open beta, the press release can be found after the jump.

Frogster Interactive will open the Runes of Magic servers for all players on Monday, December 15th. With the start of the open beta, MMO interested players can explore the complete content that has been integrated so far into the fantasy-online-roleplay-game. Additionally, Frogster thanks all participants of the closed beta with a big farewell-event.

This version is open to all players after a short registration on the official website www.runesofmagic.com. All players that have registered so far, without being invited to the closed beta, will receive automatic access to the open beta. All players that are already active in the closed beta will keep their account. Right from the beta start the needed client software can be downloaded already on various websites and on www.runesofmagic.com.

Frogster thanks all closed beta participants for their help in optimizing the game with a special ingame event lasting several days, at the end of the three month long first test phase. Beginning December 7th, darkness will befall Taborea and evil demons will start terrorizing the game world. Accompanying the event, the official website will continuously report about the communities efforts to repel the evil forces. After the final of the event on December 10th, the servers will go offline for last tests.

Daniel Ullrich, Director of Product Management at Frogster is extremely pleased with the closed beta: “More than 170,000 registrations from players worldwide shortly before the start of the open beta show us, that we are on the right track with Runes of Magic.” This final test phase is likely to end in the first quarter of 2009 with the release of the title, but all characters that have been played until then will be available to the players after the game has been launched.