well fuck me, looks like i wont be playing 3 days earlier

You can still pre-purchase from shops as well. You get the same benefits. It differs from the pre-order version though.

I took the standard edition btw (from GW2 website), the €20 extra isn't worth the bonus material and the €95 extra sure isn't worth it for the CE.

Wrong.

There are select retailers which offer you the pre-purchase edition as well.

they sent me an email to register an account, which I have done. But I don't see anything to download the client?

they will first send those links a few days before the beta

when does beta start?

This post was edited by Kill3rClown on Apr 12 2012 05:19pm

20th or 27th

I imagine it's planned for the 20th, but there's some leniency if some suppliers fail to bring out the pre-purchases.

This post was edited by eekzie on Apr 12 2012 05:16pm

You can put 5 or 10$ down as a preorder at gamestop and they give you BETA code and 3 DAY HEAD START code, which is the same code.

doesnt the main website say preorder = 1 day head start, not 3 day?

Pre-order doesn't give you the pre-purchase benefits. Not sure if you even get Beta access with it. I am sure that you only get a 1-day head start for the game. Read the GW2 page please.