Fascinating bit here:
AFK Gamer: Legends
Foton coves all the bases there, so I won't requote extensively, but it is interesting.
I was a very passionate Everquest player back in 2002 and I remember the aformentioned 'Legends' server causing a bit of a fuss, becoming a kind of proto-RMT flame-beacon of it's time. The whole concept of there being 'one server for the rich kids, and second class servers for everyone else' got everyone, myself included, into a bit of a strop, and the boards erupted with all manner of socio-political hyperbole; mostly comparisons to Russian revolutions if I recall. It seemed the thin end of the wedge, at a time when most of us were still getting used to the idea of a monthly fee at all, to play a game we thought we already owned.
Of course no storming of the Winter Palace materialised, and it all died down very quickly. Life continued as usual from then on. We'd see Stormhammer listed at log in, chuckle briefly, and think no more of it, and a month after it's inception, we never heard any more about it. In all my MMO meanderings, and these are extensive, I think Foton is the only person I've ever seen even mention having been a passenger in that First Class EQ Carriage, although clearly he's long since gotten off that particular gravy train.
A sample population of one is no basis for statistcal analysis, but it would seem that he's not the only one to have gotten off, as the server is now slated for destruction. Clearly a service that promises so much, must cost a lot more than the usual servers to run - mostly in extra CS-GM staff to run all these events. Assuming the Stormhammer server was to pay it's own way, rather than just be covered by the big old wash of floating SOE money, then a certain number of subscribers must be needed. I guess, as Foton seems to confirm, most of the Legendeers have had quite enough by now.
Of course things all over SOE seem to be in flux these days; Planetside and Matrix Online in-game ads, Star Wars: Galaxies CU and NGE, the Station Exchange and a progressive series of 'dumbing down' patches for Everquest 2 (see Aggro Me for details on that), and the normal Everquest 1 servers have been merging at a fair old rate over the last year or so.
To the casual observer, it seems a lot like an anthill that's just been poked with a big stick, and my guess is that big stick is in the form of someone very high up at the Sony Hollowed-Out Volcano Lair, pointing at World of Warcraft and saying "Make it that successful, or you're all fired." The closure of the Stormhammer must be small savings by comparison, but must make the accountant feel a little bit better.
Still, the whole four year long experiment seems to have been a bit of a win for us gaming proles; it seems that people are cheapskates, and won't bother with a premium service if they can blag a less expensive ride...