Bear in mind that the character list in the launchpad is a locally-stored file. The first time you log in on a computer, you have to go through the character select screen to download the current list of characters. Only after that first time can you launch directly to a character. Note that the lack of a character list doesn't prevent you from launching the game, it only affects bypassing the character select screen and going directly into a character.
Also, changes in the character list may not be reflected in the character select pull-down in the launchpad until you've gone through the character select screen. The game normally updates things OK, but occasionally a crash or /exit will result in updates being lost. Choosing "Character Select" from the pull-down on the launchpad and going into the character-select screen will always refresh the character list and fix the pull-down.
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