[Bob~Marley4004]

To go with what Killer said:

When you first login to the game, you might need to make sure that
you DO see the "loading screen info/news". This is the 1st thing
that most users see, and unless you have your game pre-cached,
you should see it every time. If for some reason you don't see the
screen (and the game just jumps into the intro), close the game down,
and try one more time.

If this does not help, try clearing your browser cache. In Internet Explorer
you can do this by going to "Tools" and "Internet Options", then clicking
on "Delete Files" button and restarting your computer one more time.

When you first join a chat channel, you will see words "Welcome back
VIP member" at the top of the chat screen. Also, every character you
pick will have his own color that can be seen by everyone (both in
practice mode and multiplayer games).