So it was all fine and good for several hours. Then I got disconnected mid fight and as I try to re-log I am stuck at retrieving characters.

Yeah..sucks, and to think this isthe first MMO I bought.

Same problem here....finally get home from work.....log on and get DCed now this!!

Th3ey really need to pay their server techs better; or fire them and get new ones.

Same here. This happened to me earlier in the day. I logged off for most of the day, then tried to play again and was in an instance, was kicked, then stuck at retrieving characters.

yup, me too

So are the servers crashing again or do we just get to stare at the retrieving character screen until the game goes live?

Same here. Disconnected, retrieving character list takes forever.

this may be an issue only concerning certain hardware issues on our side, since it appears the servers still running for others, hopefully they figure it out soon

If you were in the middle of a mission when you lost connection to the server...do you lose everything you've done in that mission? Will the mission be aborted? Can you do it over? Because I am not amused...