Okay, this may seem absurd but it's the only thing I could think of other than UO is dying.

I reactivated my account a couple of weeks ago and created a new char on Chessy. Everything fun and games until the emptyness starts to worry me.
I've played for about 20hrs and haven't seen more than 5 other players...
Today, to confirm the lack of players I decided to go to the Brit bank, and there wasn't a single character there. None.

Any Chesapeake player to confirm?

Beucause I've noticed that on the login screen, when you chose your shard, I get latency readings from all shard except Chesapeake and one other. This reminded me that during some AoEII online playing, and in a lan party while playing commandos, some players would connect but couldn't see other players, and the other players could see him but he didn't move or said anything....
As if the guy was connecting in a separate instance of the game, you know?
So, is it possible that Im not beeing able to connect correctly to Chessy and thus playing separately or is Chessy really this empty and I should change my shard?

Try a different shard. Or try going to Luna bank. There are others there, you just have to find them.

Luna bank is the best bet. Or go to Swoops, always bound to be someone there. WOrse comes to worse, try the fell yew gate area. but be careful.

Luna bank seems to be the most popular gathering place for lower populated shards. I'd check there before you give up!

Just got to the Luna bank and... yes, tons of people.

Could someone explain to me when and why this migration happened? I'm lost now

I believe EA did an invasion of Brit with a bunch of lizardmen and other monsters
Ever since, people have used Luna as the "hangout" spot, or banksitting spot

I did find it ironic in some ways, because during the newbie tour, it takes you to britain bank and says it's "The" place to find people, and it was dead, lol

Oh, so that's what the lizardman statue is about....
But I still think chesa is empty as hell.