Warhammer Online Prebuy question

I don't believe that you get to keep the characters. You'll have to make a new character, but you'll get a free item of some sort. It's probably worth pre-ordering the stupid thing just to sell it on ebay at a profit even if you don't like it. It is sad, but that is about the only use for those items generally.

You will not be able to. There is a head start for the game, not sure how many days it is but Conan was like a 2 day head start.

this is off website
OPEN BETA ACCESS
Experience the glory of battle and the thrill of WAR when open beta begins on September 7th, 2008.

The open beta will be level capped and content restricted. You will be allowed to choose any of the game's 20 unique careers and advance through rank 20. You will also be free to explore and battle across Tiers 1 and 2 of each army's homeland. Please note that any characters created during the open beta will NOT carry over into the live game as they will be wiped from the servers.

To register for Open Beta:
Visit the Mythic Entertainment Account Management website.
Create a new Warhammer Online game account.
When prompted, enter your Open Beta code.*
Download the open beta client from Fileplanet.com. You will be required to create a free FilePlanet account and input your open beta code to access the file.
* Your Open Beta code can be found on the card in your pre-order box or in your pre-order confirmation email. If you have previously entered your Open Beta code in the Beta Center, you will need to enter it again when you create your WAR game account at the new account management site.

sweet, will the direct to drive also work the same way?