Edit: Developers fail to properly test their updates. This issue has caused many players to not be able to login. This issue occurs far to often for it to be considered minor. The game has completely turned to cash for success. Too many characters are being released too quickly for the free to play portion to be remotely successful. You want to keep up with the power creep of the new characters, pay up or be stuck in all the lower level alliances and lower level characters.