as far as technology goes, i always just assumed it was something that was just standard, like in LOTR, technology seems to reamin at a standard level. perhaps its worth thinking of the technology like professional tennis techniques. the players only gradually improve, but certain techniques seem to be very popular until someone figures a counter to them, only for later on the old technique comes back around.

i must admit though the Exar Kun, Sith Empire and other old republic comics set as far back as KOTOR, did give an ancient feeling to STAR WARS. the spaceships were like submarines, and the lightsabers had power cords and looked much more fragile. the problem though, is artistically you want it to look like star wars i guess, and this era will allow alot more creativity to BioWare. Apparantly its going to have similar chunky graphics and gameplay to WOW, which would be better than the Galaxies format IMHO.