From the GW2 Twitterverse:

We've got a stress test coming up tomorrow. Here are all the details: http://ow.ly/cFxlE

We will be conducting a stress test on Thursday, August 2 from 12:00 Noon PACIFIC Time to 4:00 PM PACIFIC Time.

Unlike previous stress tests, we will be actively working on the game during the event, so you might experience connectivity problems or discover features that are not working as designed. Any issues you experience are a result of the rigorous conditions of the stress test, and are in no way representative of the state of the game at launch. By participating in this stress test, you’re helping us make Guild Wars 2 a better game. Thanks for your cooperation—we’ll see you in-game! ~RB2

on twitter:
Those of you looking forward to headstart, it will begin on August 25 at 00:00 PACIFIC Time. ~RB2 #GW2

for the rest of the world: http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?msg=headstart&iso=20120825T00&p1=137

Nine in the morning here in europe. Wonderful!

Not at all, but people have been really excited to donate to the event, and we're saturated with prizes! Depending on the turn-out, it looks as though everyone will be leaving with something, which is terrific, and is a testament to the generous spirit of everyone in the fleet!

Donated items that aren't given away during this event, will be returned to their donator or retained for future events, depending on the donator's wishes!

As far as the timing of the event, the next event that I'm planning on hosting will either be staggered throughout the day, or hosted at a time that's more convenient for our European and Australian fleet members :)

We'll miss those of you who can't make this event and will make a special effort to be more globally inclusive during the next one! Hope to see you all there!

I thought head start would be Midnight Friday, not sure why I thought that...

Quote by MMOWarrior

In hopes of easing some minds I'll relay my experience during BWE3.

I was one of the unlucky stiffs at work at the start, when I got home our server was full and locked. You could not even pick it. So I sat there spaming the server select and within 3min I got to the character creator. If the server is full keep trying!

It wasn't 15min later ANet changed the size of the full servers and they all changed to busy and were available. They know people want to be with friends and guilds, I think they will be all over this come release..

Thats good to hear, Im joining at the very beginning of the headstart so I hope I wont have to wait so I can grab my 5names at the headstart and play GW2 (not being stuck at server select until they expand it).

I tried and joined only the last BWE but I heard they added less servers and tried to expand em for testing on the last BWE.. Idk if its true or not.

In hopes of easing some minds I'll relay my experience during BWE3.

I was one of the unlucky stiffs at work at the start, when I got home our server was full and locked. You could not even pick it. So I sat there spaming the server select and within 3min I got to the character creator. If the server is full keep trying!

It wasn't 15min later ANet changed the size of the full servers and they all changed to busy and were available. They know people want to be with friends and guilds, I think they will be all over this come release..

You are correct in that it uses the pc clock - but what I didn't notice is that it's counting down to 12:00 local time.

24 days 2 hours 12 minutes from 9:48 ET = 12:00 Noon ET

Yet changing my clock to PT results in the website displaying:

24 days 5 hours 12 minutes from 6:48 ET = 12:00 Noon PT (3:00 ET)

If it truly is a 12:00 noon PT launch- then I would expect the countdown to use 12:00 noon PT - then adjust according to my local time.

Am I missing something?

** GW2 tweeted about the countdown timer confusion - no explanation yet though **

The countdown on the website is based on your computer's clock, so the countdown is different for everyone. I'm gonna guess that they're not going to do a rolling release by timezone and that they're gonna open the servers at noon PST, making the east coast's release 3pm.

According to the countdown clock on www.guildwars2.com there are 24 days, 3 hours, 28 minutes and some odd seconds to launch of headstart...

8:31 AM ET + 3 Hours and 28 minutes = 12:00 NOON!!!! That's going to be the longest saturday morning...

What time does it kick off in your TZ? Anyone have to 'wait' until the 26th?

Just goes to show what happens when the developers and producers willfully ignore what the community requests (and sometimes demands). I feel pretty strongly that they deserve this; it's just too bad it won't be more of an example to other producers and developers.

I would totally go, but 3am on a Monday is a bit rough for me. :P

I offered a mirror ship as a prize, but it is too low brow. lol

We can only hope they're that responsible lol.

ArenaNet haven't announced an official server list yet. It'll probably be in the week leading up to headstart.

I hope going by the F2P doesnt diminish quality over quantity...or have the game suffer cause of it :/

Hmm yeah, it's not really a surprise. Almost every MMO our there is going F2P now. :)

I think the guild should stress that whatever server we decide upon, for people to be patient with regards to full servers. I know when rift launched I was in a decent sized guild that chose a server that was one with the highest pop. Half the guild left and made new toons during the first 2 days. 2 days after that they increased server size and did some other easing. Needless to say we were left with a guild that was a shell of what it could have been.

Now that the betas are over, is there an official list of servers for launch? I think this would be great for when the game goes live. The only other lgbt guild I knew of was an EU guild.

Haha yeah.. personally I'm not surprised it was this soon.

Quote by Nova

Quote by Jasonmillard

Well this was certainly a surprise.

It was? A shed load of people have been predicting this for months.

I honestly expected them to wait at least a year.

Quote by Jasonmillard

Well this was certainly a surprise.

It was? A shed load of people have been predicting this for months.