There has been a lot of discussion lately in league chat (and whisper) about "alternate characters". I think it's fair to say that we have a lot of them. Most of our active players have 3 characters and many of our active players have all 3 characters in the league. I don't have anything against alternate characters, but I think everyone agrees that we would like to have more active players in the league, rather than a league stuffed full with alternates.

Most of our bands aren't actually full at the moment, so this "problem" isn't much of a problem. It's really just a thunderstorm in a teacup. I've talked to a couple of other League Masters and experienced players and it would seem that all leagues go through this stage. We just have to do a better job of recruiting, that's all.

In order to gain new and active players, I would like ask all of you to do your best at recruiting. I know it's not easy. Where I'm grinding all but one player has a league and I've asked him if he would like to join us. He doesn't speak a word of English.

The sweet spot for recruiting seems to be the Datong map, and the RL/FD levels. Any new player that gets beyond that point usually stays in the game, and those are the players we would like to have. If you've got a character in that range, please look around in the parties that you are grinding in and please invite the good grinders. We're mostly a PvE league, so good karma players are preferred.

The one thing I'm not going to do is to tell the other bandmasters how to run their band. We are equals in this League. All of us. Player, bandmaster, or league master. We're players first, here to have fun and play the game. I'm not going to demand that anyone be kicked unless of course they aren't playing the game anymore. In the Disconnected band I usually give a player 5 to 6 weeks before I remove them from the list. If they haven't played for that long, they've probably given up the game.

If you have any ideas, or a point of view, please share it with us. One of our older players has said that this league isn't what it used to be, and I agree. We used to be all around the same level, and we used to grind together and play together almost every day. We were doing dungeon runs and we didn't have EC/FC/CS level players to help out, but it was still fun because we were playing with our friends.

These days we're a little spread out, but all things grow and change over time even a league of players. The one thing that doesn't change is the fun that we're having. It is a game after all, so let's have fun playing it.

- SpearDriver