When a game starts in the HOI channel, the players and the game, disappear from the display. So you only see players who are waiting or games that are being rehosted after a crash. Existing, multi-session games often use other channels like Common and COTN to avoid gate-crashers and problem players.
There are quite a few players out there but you need to be patient and lurk in the HOI channel for a while to get familiar with them. Or check out the group threads here and make contact via the forum and/or ICQ.
Andrew