Way back when we had 40-60 regular players every weekend and at least 40 on the weekdays, we limited the number of players for sever space issues. Nowadays we have about a fourth of the playerbase active or less, many of us old timers who have ancient characters we loathe to delete out of nostalgia and sheer love of the concept. But we don't play them as much, since the interest level's always greener with the fresh and new.
Also, it helps with new player retention to have characters closer to their level to play with. Since our slots are full, many of us old timers are wary of kiting them quickly through the initial areas, or spending long amounts of time getting 3xp a kill. Opening more slots would allow a better range of levels, and make the new players feel on an equal level a bit more. Grow together.
I have a few concepts brewing in my head that would be awesome here, but fell in love with every one of the characters I have, and can't bring myself to push the delete button.
I have a sorceress, a rogue, a defender, a skald, a weaponmaster and a druid. Nice spread... but still, I long to play a paladin, or an archer. totally different concepts, but no more space. Like a glutton being cast away from the all you can eat chinese buffet table, I am left... hungry! Maybe a cleric. But I love my old characters too much! And I even use them time to time!
Maybe we could do this on a rolling out rate? like 1 new one every 4 months for a year or so? It would certainly help with recruitment if I could make the brother of a new player I want to introduce, a wizard to somebody's fighter, a cleric to somebody's paladin, etc. It would help keep more players gaming since more characters means more flexibility for group dynamics.
