AC2 will kill Eq.
Well lets see...
AC was supposed to be EQ's death knell...
So was DAoC...
So was Diablo 2...
So was AO (is it out? I have heard precious little about it... but I haven't been interested enough to really care)
Sony/V.I. keeps coming out with more expansions, and while some of the older gaming community (such as some denizens of this board) may be getting tired and moving on to other games, no one has yet "knocked out" the champ. I'm not saying that I am V.I. fan, but with the Might of Sony (i.e. marketing know-how and muscle... the CS may suck but there is no denying these boys and girls can sell their product) behind them, they are a formidable force in the gaming world and its gonna take more than a little hype from a Beta of the sequel one of the "also-ran" crowd to convince me that the next thing is here.
Sure there are problems with EQ but the bottom line is it doesn't suck as bad as its competition has, AND it has a shitload of inertia on its side. The next champion will come, and it may not be far off, but it wil have to be something versatile/diverse to attract a wide user base, and its going to have to be free of many of the flaws that the other games have shown.
I honestly think (and in part this is because of the "name recognition" thing and in part because they HAVE shown with some expansions/AA skills/ new UI that they are willing to borrow ideas from other products) that SWG will be the game to "dethrone" EQ as number one. It'll be interesting to see who can come up with some worthy competition.