The issue wasn’t just support, it was also appeal. SWG was designed as complex layered game that required community for nearly every aspect (even crafting had an end game that required support from multiple players). It intentionally avoided delivering on the fantasy of the universe by making it impossible to become a jedi, and leaned into the reality of the universe by forcing players into becoming background characters like the cantina band and moisture farmers. SWG found the audience it sought, it was a niche game for players who wanted to live in a simulated version of the Star Wars universe. WoW was a mass market game that sanded off the rough edges of previous MMOs, getting rid of things like experience loss and naked corpse runs. It replaced vast open world that required arcane knowledge and research to navigate with optimized play sessions that layered easy to achieve short term goals with tons of direction through an overflowing amount of quests, neatly joined with a hub and spoke progression as you leveled up.

The game was amazing … until they turned it into a WoW clone in a Star Wars wrapper. I played from launch through the combat update and stopped sometime before they locked you into a class. The freeform do what you want with your skill points was great. Building hybrid classes - I was a smuggler musician so I could hang out at cantinas playing music while drumming up business for slicing - was way better than having to stick to a single job.

I checked out SWGEmu years ago and it was severely lacking. I might have to give this project a look.