Posted By Nagash at 5:20 PM - Mon Mar 06 2017
like as has been said, everything will be wiped before Expo and expo is technically "early access", but it won't be the same as the game upon launch. Expo is more about world building and replacing NPC's with real players.
Although it's not been updated upon recently, so this may have changed, but some players will be let ingame early, during Expo, even without the title based early access... it was said this will be IP based and will still be aimed at world building and not "playing" the game. This is so that all players aren't the same age when joining, and thus (on average) will die at the same time.
Technically, there will be 'playing' in the later stages of Expo. While there's no PvP in the first month, the second month allows for player combat and in the third month, all-out warfare becomes possible.