By lasting appeal, I mean anything that keeps the game from falling into the abyss of time. This is by no means associated to the company and not always linked to re-playability. Let me use a small example to demonstrate this:
How much fanart of ME2 is there per week? 10?
How much fanart of FF7 is there per week? 1000+
How much fanart of Touhou is there per week? 10,000+
Who do you think will survive the passage of time? Oh wait, the competition is at least 10 years older and still more alive.
I also doubt the people that got the game at release are still playing. I played it twice and I don't think I'll want to give it another run for a long long time.