I posted this awhile ago and since I have yet to get an answer I figured I’d post it again :P.
Anyway, during the beta weekend event and for about the first day of the three day head start, my screen would always transition from color to black and white upon being defeated. I really liked this feature, because it gave the aesthetic of making it seen like my character had actually died, and was a little disappointed that it was all of a sudden gone. Now I have searched google and Guild Wars 2 Guru, but couldn’t find anything on the subject, so that’s why I’m here to report this as a bug/issue or to clarify that this was just removed from the game.
Best wishes to the very responsive moderator team,
Steve.