There were "tons" of players in the alpha and beta of Champions Online. Just not all at once. That place had more roll-over than a McDonalds. Alot of people quit, not liking it. Alot of people were banned for consitantly criticizing the direction of the game. Alot more people kept giving good ideas right up until the end, but I have to say that in the end, the beta population was pretty much made up of fan boys and whatever critics were left had been cowed into silence, given up, or had been banned.

I think Cryptic really wanted the game to be good, the developers were vocal and talked alot with the testing community, but they definately had their own idea on how the core gameplay and design should be, and they didn't take alot of suggestions in that area. In other areas I'd say that it was one of the best games to be a tester on, but those don't shine if players can't sit through the first couple weeks of playing.