[softwillow]

SWG is not going to go away anytime soon. They have a few things going for them: the first being a massive amount of people new to the MMORPG genre. These people don't realise how terrible a game it is, so think it is the best game on the market. Secondly, graphics that are overwhelming praised, and rightly so. As much as people say you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, alot of people do. Lastly, the fan base is overwhelmingly strong...even after redoing the original movies to make them worse and putting out two lackluster prequels, the movie and anything assosciated with it is still considered an instant hit.

The one thing going against it is that it is a terrible MMORPG, which is what we all here value. Our customer profile is very different then that of the typical SWG player, so what we think about the game really doesn't matter. If the game had to stand on its own merits as a MMORPG, it would be also going into its "sunset" along with Earth & Beyond. But the "living and breathing in the Star Wars Universe" factor will keep the game laboring on for at least 2 more years.

If rumors of the expansion being a twitch game are true, they are kicking themselves in the ass again, as they are switching the targeted market to something different once more, alienating the older fans of the original trilogy this time. Since SOE has some of the worst corporate strategists I have ever heard of, it wouldn't surprise me.

You probably will see server consolidations a few times before they close their servers down.