Personally, I was very surprised at the late August date. I really expected late July, mid August at most. With early access to consider, I think I'm going to have to reschedule my "staycation" plans for August. Initially scheduled the week of the 12th off. Going to move that to the 20th I think...especially considering the week of the 12th looks like complete downtime for anything (beta/early access)...
At this point I really only care about making sure Lumos gets on the correct server (with Vaughn, and our two LS's) and it not filling up before I/we do. Any other playtime I get is pure icing on the cake. Living in Florida, I worry about Hurricanes in the summertime, especially August, and I'm praying to The Twelve that I am not without power or internet on the fateful day that I need to get Lumos where she needs to be.
Pre-ordered the physical PC CE (NA) direct from SE Online Store, as apparently that's the only place we can for NA. I would rather have pre-ordered from Amazon or arranged for pick-up at my local GameStop, but ... oh well... had to order!!
Bob - the "key" members being Tony & Ariya? So ..... NA?!?! That would make things soooooooooooooooooooooo much easier for Vaughn and me!
Also, I posted on our LS thread over yonder..... would love for you to weigh in on all my spastic questions!
I'm really curious to know if our server selection in Phase 4 is our final server destination, or if final server is selected in Early Access, or on August 27.