It occured to me the other day that 2005 is, in fact, the 10th anniversary of the Birthright setting's publication. A further review on Amazon.com reveals that the boxed set was published on June 1, 1995 - the anniversary of which was a little over two weeks ago. Given that the last physical product was published all the way back in 1997, I think we've done remarkably well in keeping things alive and going.
As for myself, I was first introduced to the setting when in August 1995 I saw the boxed set on sale at the local toy/hobby store. Being quite the roleplaying geek and being rather interested in politics, strategy and war games and the like, I was immediately interested and picked it up - finding, much to my pleasure, that not only was there the chance to rule and direct the fate of a nation (as opposed to simply conquering everything like in a computer game) but the setting was the best I had seen come out of TSR. I started lurking around the online community in late 1996 and actively participating in it in the spring of 98.
As I recall, I bought the boxed set in the week before I started my freshman year of high school, back at the age of 14. In the ensuing decade, I've graduated from both high school and college - so from my point of view its been quite a long time and much has changed.

Just thought I'd make a little post to acknowledge it's been 10 years now since this all started...