[PvK]

Ya, I don't think there is any founded concern about SE dying away! Shrapnel had a major job just to mail out all the pre-orders. PBW seemed to be going very strong even before the Gold release. There are still quite a few people playing SE _III_ (I have a 5-player PBEM SE3 game still running!) even! Gold has added a lot of cool new things that can be done with modding, and the upgrade in the works adds even more. No end to SE IV in sight!

Gold is a big improvement - I'd really recommend it to new and old players alike!

PvK