Can you clarify the way the Prelude works for people who are unfamiliar with the game? Are there a limited number of pre-orders? Is the release limited to a certain number of players? If so, what are the post-release expansion plans?

The Prelude is basically a simple version of what I originally designed many years ago. A lot of features are in a simple form, intended to get better with time as we grow the company and the game. It serves as a base for players to construct a virtual world that can then expand to support a lot of unique features I have planned. For those, you will have to stay tuned!
I'm interested in this game, looks great. But when I read this over at http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/01...syon-question/, it seems Prelude would simply be the beta state of the game which we pay for until they release more or all of the features this game should have?

What am I missing, it seems there's alot of happy players with this game and I'm very tempted to try it, but having a simple version of the game with basic features for the next 6 months or whatever until they flesh the game out seems kind of pointless paying for it right now ?

Cheers.