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The idea of a Collectible Card Game, is that players randomly buy cards within a set and play with what they buy. They got really popular because of their portability and potential low investment.

When magic first started you could buy packs at 2 dollars, for Pokemon because of the anime you were buying packs at 2.25-2.50. In the case of Pokemon the kids wanted the anime pokemon in a card frame that they "could" play a game with. However, I have never met a collector that knew how to play the game. I know gamers that learned and traded "chase" cards for what let them win tournaments however the actual tournament scene for Pokemon is dramatically smaller than that of Magic.

Magic on the other hand, stems from the fact that a lot of poker players also play magic. Magic is supported with its high pay out tournaments. Hence forth when you play to win, you buy a lot of product. Like wise players arent looking to collect sets as much as collect the cards they need to win a Pro Tour and go home with 40,000 Dollars. additionally, any person invited to the pro tour through a Pro Tour Qualifier has Free air fare to and from and Hotel stay.

So what happened, Collectible cards games were no longer really for the sake of collecting but for winning big tournaments. Eventually the "collector" phase came in, and so in around 2000-2003 we started to see people wanting to buy old cards from 93-95... and guess what, people always have a price. and so these cards end up racking anywhere from 400-1500 per card.

Star-Wars CCG was only SEMI popular, it had its following and many fans, However it wasnt making as much money as other top games. So the game was killed off. I've read around that many of the fans make "fan sets" to continue the game. but that is nothing more than just fans playing a game they like for the sake of it. You can also see this with Vs. System.

If it wasn't because Cryptozoic Picked up World of Warcraft. that game too would have been dead a long time ago. Also, these games dont just "flourish" in popular culture. Magic: The gathering is still semi Underground in actual pop culture. Go ask Paris Hilton if she knows what Magic: The Gathering is, im sure she wont know. However ask her what Pokemon are. and im sure she can remember the craze of those cute little animals. So with Pokemon it was more the cute factor of the show, combined with "Gotta have em all" (i know its Catch, but to the kids they had to HAVE them), and you have the recipe for success.

You are most likely to hear somebody say, "Oh like Pokemon" than "Oh like Magic"... In order to answer you question about the Magic's success... well let me just tell you this, When distributors pay upfront to receive product from wizards of the coast that should tell you that the ones holding the cards really is Wizards of the Coast and not the distributors.

Many times you can hear FLGS's say, "the Distributor cant get any more product from Wizards of the coast" And not "The distributors dont want to pick up more product"