Honestly, the whole "new WoW challenger MMO" game seems like a very "between a rock and a hard place" kind of gamble and I honestly can't blame a lot of good developers from feeling like they're in a tight spot.

Rock: being enough like WoW to be recognizable and stable, WoW has done a lot of things that attract and keep casual and hardcore gamers.
Hard Place: trying to be different enough to catch and keep people's interest, if you're too close you're quickly labeled as a WoWclone and forgotten.

Rock: Generating enough hype to reasonably promote your game and get the word out, after all its not really an MMO without the Massive and the Multiplayer.
Hard Place: Being labeled as the latest surefire "WoW-Killer" and likely being crushed under the weight of everyone's expectations (both good and bad).

On top of this, a designer has to choose whether to create his own world/story and therefore have the issue of attracting and engaging players into an unfamiliar world, or base their game off something already set, like Star Wars, and trade unfamiliarity for bias. Someone who already likes Star Wars will buy this game, even if its only decent, while someone who doesn't probably won't buy the game, even if its stellar.

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