Star Wars Galaxies

Star Wars Galaxies
Cover art
Developer(s)	Sony Online Entertainment
Publisher(s)	LucasArts
Director(s)	Raph Koster
Producer(s)	John Donham
Designer(s)	Cinco Barnes
Programmer(s)	Jeff Grills
Artist(s)	Jake Rodgers
Composer(s)	Anna Karney
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows
Release	NA: 26 June 2003 EU: 7 November 2003 JP: 23 December 2004 AU: 2006
Genre(s)	Massively multiplayer online role-playing
Mode(s)	Multiplayer

Star Wars Galaxies (Galaxies) was a Star Wars- themed massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) for Microsoft Windows, developed by Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) and published by LucasArts.^[1]

The open world Star Wars game was released in stores on 26 June 2003.^[2] Galaxies spawned several expansions and updates through 2005.^[3]

The servers shut down on 15 December 2011^[4] due to contract expiration.^[5] There are several private emulator projects in various stages of development that intend to allow users to experience Galaxies in different incarnations of the game's existence.^[6][7][8][9]

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The ten species that were available to players included: Human, Twi'lek, Zabrak, Wookiee, Trandoshan, Rodian, Mon Calamari, Bothan, Sullustan and Ithorian.

Players could hire Entertainers to change their appearance in-game, with even more options than those available at creation. Many visual aspects of a character were changeable after character creation except species and gender.

Before the New Game Enhancements (commonly referred to as the "NGE"), players had access to 34 professions, with six basic professions: Artisan, Brawler, Entertainer, Marksman, Medic, and Scout. There were a total of 24 advanced professions.

Each profession had advanced tier options, including hybrids that combined traits of two professions. Each profession consisted of a tree-like structure of skills, with a single Novice level, four independent branches with four levels, and a Master level which required completion of all four branches. Characters purchased these skills with experience points gained through a related activity. After the NGE, the developers added nine new professions: Jedi, Bounty Hunter, Smuggler, Commando, Spy, Officer, Medic, Entertainer, and Trader. Progress in these professions was divided into three separate experience source groups: combat, crafting, and entertaining. In addition to these professions, a character could also pursue three optional side professions: Pilot, Chronicler, and Politician.

Players could specialize in three different areas of their primary professions by selecting "expertise" options, including Beast Mastery (BM). The Trader profession shared not only BM expertise but also general expertise. All professions could specialize through expertise and items. The only role requiring a single profession was healer.

The Jump to Lightspeed expansion made individual ships attainable by players for the first time. This allowed players to acquire and pilot ships of various sizes. Ships ranged in size from fighter crafts to gunships with up to three decks. This gave players the option between space-based or planet-based gameplay.

Each character and creature possessed three "pools" (called Health, Action, and Mind; or "HAM") that represented his or her physical and mental reserves. When any one of those pools was fully depleted, the character would faint. Combat required the player to carefully manage his or her actions to avoid depleting a pool.

With the NGE, ground combat was changed to real-time and similar to a first-person shooter. The player would aim a targeting reticule and left-click the mouse to fire. Auto-aim and auto-fire features were available, but players who eschewed those options were rewarded with an increased chance of maximum damage. As characters' levels increased, they gained access to additional combat abilities called "specials" which were activated by the right mouse button or by accessing the ability on a toolbar. In addition to providing high-damage attacks, specials were also used to heal, buff, debuff, and crowd control enemies. Players gained the ability to use more powerful weapons as they advanced in level. Players also earned "Expertise Points" as they leveled up, which were used to advance their professions. The player could allot 45 points to various abilities and attributes, from weapons specialties to healing and armor proficiency. Once a character reached level 90, they would gain access to collaborative "Heroic" missions. The five heroic missions were: Tusken Invasion, IG88, Axkva Min, Imperial Star Destroyer, and Exar Kun.

Characters could erect, own, and decorate a variety of communal, personal, and governmental buildings. These buildings, when grouped, could be organized into cities. Players held elections via ballot box for Mayor. Elected mayors granted city members permission to place structures within the city. Elections were held every three weeks. If another player wished to run for mayor, they would add their name to the ballot box to run against the incumbent. As cities grew in population, they became eligible to add services and facilities such as vehicle repair garages, shuttle ports, cloning facilities, hospitals, cantinas, and garden displays. They could show up on planet maps alongside canonical cities such as Theed and Mos Eisley.

The gameplay design aimed towards realistic social institutions like a dynamic virtual economy and other real-life social phenomena like a complicated division of labor. In this virtual economy, players were responsible for creating many in-game items including blasters, starships, clothing, armor, food, housing, furniture and even a wide variety of droids. According to Star Wars Galaxies and the Division of Labor,^[10] the division of labor in Star Wars Galaxies produced in-game results similar to those in real life.

The game events were set following the destruction of the Death Star in Episode IV: A New Hope, but before the beginning of The Empire Strikes Back.

The game launched with 10 planets: Tatooine, Naboo, Corellia, Talus, Rori, Dantooine, Lok, Yavin 4, the Forest Moon of Endor, and Dathomir. The paid expansions added Kashyyyk and Mustafar.^[11][12] There were 12 space zones, encompassing approximately 3400 cubic kilometers of navigable space. Nine space zones were associated with one or more of the playable planets, but Kessel, Ord Mantell, and Deep Space were solely used for space gameplay and player-versus-player combat. The planet Hoth was added in November 2008, but could only be explored during the events of the Battle of Echo Base.

Players could meet many characters from the main and expanded universe of Star Wars.

The main characters include: Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Princess Leia Organa, Darth Vader, Chewbacca, Emperor Palpatine, Admiral Ackbar, Jan Dodonna, Boba Fett, Jabba, Borvo the Hutt, Bib Fortuna, Salacious Crumb, General Otto, Captain Panaka (appears as Colonel Panaka), Max Rebo, Wedge Antilles, Gavyn Sykes, Watto, Boss Nass, Grand Inquisitor Ja'ce Yiaso, the "reincarnation" of General Grievous as NK-Necrosis, Taga Olak, Jefa Bowa, and the Force ghost of Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Other characters and locations that players could visit within the game include: R2-D2, C-3PO, their escape pod on Tatooine, the Naboo Royal Palace, the abandoned Rebel bases on Dantooine and Yavin 4, Ewoks, and Rancors.

The game was announced in 2000, when LucasArts Entertainment began a partnership with EverQuest creators Verant Interactive Inc. and Sony Online Entertainment to create a massively multiplayer Star Wars online role-playing game.^[1][13] The announcement included an expected release date of 2001 and that the game would take place during the original trilogy era.

On 17 May 2001, before the game went into public beta testing, the first expansion's development was announced.^[14] The release date of the base game was delayed to the second half of 2002. The creators announced a staggered released schedule for the space-based gameplay^[15] A new official website was also released on the same day. It included screenshots, movies, an updated frequently-asked questions section, concept art, development team member's profiles, features about the game, and a forum.^[16] The site reached 100,001 users by December 2001.^[17] Throughout the next year, new content would be posted on the website. This content included information on species and locations, new images and movies of game elements, and 360-degree QuickTime VR panoramas of different in-game locations.

The closed beta test began in July 2002.^[18] SOE shared information about the game on the website as the beta progressed.^[19] LucasArts also stated in 2002 that both the Xbox^[20] and PlayStation 2^[21] would get a version of the game; however, both versions were cancelled.

The game was intended to be released on 15 April 2003.^[22][23] The creators announced on 20 December 2002, that the base game of Galaxies would be called An Empire Divided and that the game's online community had grown to over 400,000 users since its inception in November 2000. At the time, this represented one of the largest ever fan communities amassed for any game prior to retail availability.^[22]

The base game, titled Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided, was released on 26 June 2003, in the US and on 7 November 2003, in Europe. A localized version for the Japanese market was published by EA Japan on 23 December 2004. Japanese acceptance of the game was low, and in November 2005 the servers were shut down and existing accounts migrated to US servers.

On 16 September 2009, SOE informed all current and past account holders of the forthcoming closure of 12 servers (galaxies): Corbantis, Europe-Infinity, Intrepid, Kauri, Kettemoor, Lowca, Naritus, Scylla, Tarquinas, Tempest, Valcyn and Wanderhome. Character creation on these servers was disabled on 15 September 2009, with the final closure of the servers on 15 October 2009. Players with characters on the affected servers were offered free character transfer to one of the 13 remaining servers.

On 3 May 2011, SOE issued a press release stating that all SOE had been isolated from the Internet, due to massive and widespread security infiltrations of various games, servers, and databases. Security teams (and the FBI) were called. Initial reports indicated personal data and of 20-30 million customers outside of the United States from 2007 had potentially been compromised.^[24] On 14 May 2011, SOE declared data was safe and reopened all servers. SOE offered a free 30-day membership for established members, an in-game decoration, and a 1:1 ratio of days lost.

On 24 June 2011, SOE and LucasArts announced that they had mutually agreed to shut down Galaxies on 15 December 2011.^[25] According to the SOE announcement, "If you are an active subscriber in good standing as of September 15, 2011, then you can play for free for the final months. Players wishing to play through the end of the game and participate in the galaxy-ending event planned for the last week of live service in December will need to re-activate or join the game on or before September 15. No new or reactivated accounts will be accepted after September 15, 2011."^[26]

On 15 December 2011, at 9:01 PM Pacific time, the servers of Star Wars Galaxies shut down, disconnecting those still playing and preventing entry into the game. The final five hours were broadcast in a live stream by Giant Bomb, with Kotaku reporting events as they happened. The final in-game events included a final player versus player finale between the Galactic Empire and The Rebels, as well as an appearance from the Force Ghost of Obi-Wan Kenobi as depicted in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.^[27][28]

In the United States, Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided sold 370,000 copies ($16.1 million) by August 2006, after its release in June 2003. It was the country's 43rd best-selling computer game between January 2000 and August 2006. Combined sales of all Star Wars Galaxies-related games released between January 2000 and August 2006 had reached 720,000 units in the United States.^[31]

Reviews for the initial launch of the game in 2003 were mostly positive. The game was praised for its graphics,^[32][33][34] use of the movie soundtracks, massive world size, character customization, creative creature ecology, complex skill system, player economy interdependencies, and its sandbox approach. Reviewers criticized the overwhelming complexity of the game, combat imbalances of the professions, bugginess, and lack of quest content.^[35]

The first player to unlock a 'Jedi slot' did so on 7 November 2003,^[36] four months after the release of the game. Players criticized SOE for the substantial time commitment to unlock a Jedi, penalties for in-game death of a Jedi character (permanent character death after three in-game deaths), and monotonous game play required to acquire the Jedi.^[37] Developers responded by changing the penalty for death to skill loss in January 2004^[38] and creating a quest system to unlock the character.^[39][40]

Media outlets criticized the changes of the "Combat Upgrade"^[41][42] while subscription cancellations rose.^[43] After the New Game Enhancements were implemented in November 2005,^[44] various media outlets criticized the reduced depth and complexity of the game.^[45] John Smedley, president of Sony Online Entertainment, defended the decision claiming it necessary to revamp the game in order to reverse the deterioration they were seeing in the subscriber base.^[46] SOE offered refunds on the Trials of Obi-Wan expansion due to it being released two days before the New Game Enhancement was announced.^[47][48][49]

Subscriber numbers were originally expected to exceed 1,000,000.^[50] In August 2005, SOE reported that they had sold 1,000,000 boxed copies of the game.^[51] In early 2006, unconfirmed reports showed that only 10,363 subscribers were playing on a particular Friday night, but Smedley denied that subscriptions had fallen this low.^[52]

In an online interview with Reddit in July 2012, John Smedley admitted to "stupid decisions" regarding Galaxies' combat upgrade and new gaming enhancement policies.^[53] He acknowledged player led emulator projects seeking to restore a free-to-play Galaxies circa April 2005, Publish 14.1, pre-Combat Upgrade, such as the SWGEmu project or Project SWG.^[53]

This first expansion, Jump to Lightspeed, was released on 27 October 2004. In many ways, this is the spiritual successor to the hit LucasArt's space combat flight simulation game Star Wars: X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter, as the theme, interface and objectives are quite similar.

The reviews for the first expansion, Jump to Lightspeed, praised the new space combat but criticized the base game for its lack of sufficient improvement.^[54]

The second expansion, Episode III Rage of the Wookiees, was announced on 9 March 2005, and released on 5 May 2005. It added the Wookiee planet of Kashyyyk and its corresponding space sector. Kashyyyk is different from the previous 10 planets: rather than being 16 square kilometers of openly navigable area, it is divided into a small central area with several instanced "dungeon" areas. Other content added in this expansion included: the ability to add cybernetic limbs to a character, resource mining in space, quests for two new creature mounts, and three new starships. A substantial portion of the content for this expansion was adapted from the film Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith which was released to theaters in the U.S. on 19 May 2005, two weeks after the expansion release.

Customers who purchased the expansion also received a limited-edition Varactyl pet as a player mount. Rage of the Wookiees expansion also added a few quests, one allowed the player to obtain a pet Bolotaur after going through several tasks. The Bolotaur is similar to the Veractyl but larger and brown.

The reviews for the second expansion, Rage of the Wookiees, lauded the new quest content for current subscribers, but lamented the combat gameplay updates and the continued bugginess of the game.^[55]

The third expansion, Star Wars Galaxies: Trials of Obi-Wan, was announced on 19 August 2005, and released on 1 November 2005. This expansion added the ground planet of Mustafar to the game. Like the previous expansion, the content is related to Revenge of the Sith, which was released to DVD on the same day as the expansion was released. Additional content, including the presence of the droid HK-47, is based on the Knights of the Old Republic games.

One week after its release, the character development process was revamped through the New Game Enhancements (NGE). This led to a number of players demanding their money back for the expansion. After a week or two of protests, Sony offered refunds to anyone who asked for it, but many players left the game.

Star Wars Galaxies after the Combat Upgrade

Star Wars Galaxies after the NGE

On top of the expansions, SOE released several compilations of their games:

Star Wars Galaxies - The Total Experience

This pack included the original Star Wars Galaxies (An Empire Divided), Jump to Lightspeed and the Rage of the Wookiees expansion packs. Customers who bought this pack also received a BARC speeder as a gift.

Star Wars Galaxies - Starter Kit

The kit was the first version of the New Game Enhancement (NGE). It contained An Empire Divided and Jump to Lightspeed. Customers who bought this pack also received an X-wing or TIE fighter instant transport vehicle as a gift.^[56]

Star Wars Galaxies - The Complete Online Adventures

This included the original game with the first three expansion packs, a DVD of never-before released bonus features, a slide show of more than 800 pieces of Star Wars Galaxies concept art, screenshots, excerpts from the popular From Pencil to Pixel book that chronicles the art of Star Wars Galaxies and interviews with the producers, and all the cinematic trailers for the game. It also included an exclusive in-game item for use while playing: a personal AT-RT vehicle as seen in Revenge of the Sith.^[57] This version was the first to be released in Australia, instead of An Empire Divided.^{[citation needed]}

Star Wars Galaxies - The Complete Online Adventures Premium Digital Download

This included An Empire Divided, Jump to Lightspeed, Rage of the Wookiees, Trials of Obi-Wan, and players who purchase it also receive a bonus instant travel vehicle, the Queen Amidala Transport Ship and an AT-RT walker. No disc media is provided as it is an Internet download, which later came with a Queen Amidala Transport Ship (one per character), a General Grievous Wheel Bike, a Double seated Bike for the player and a friend (one per character), a Lava Flea mount (one per account), an Underground Mustafar Bunker player house (one per account), an AT-RT walker mount (one per account), a Varactyl mount (one per account).^{[citation needed]}

Star Wars Galaxies: The Ruins of Dantooine is a novel based in part on places and events in the game. It was authored by Voronica Whitney-Robinson and Haden Blackman, the LucasArts producer of the game.^[58] It was released in December 2003.^[59]

On 27 August 2008, following the success of SOE's Legends of Norrath, LucasArts and SOE released Champions of the Force, an online trading card game based on Galaxies. In the game, players could collect, battle, and trade with each other they could also buy new cards and get in-game items. Over one hundred cards were created for players to find and play against others with new artwork featured on each card.

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In 2004, the SWGEmu project was founded with the intention of re-creating the Pre-Combat Upgrade version of Galaxies from scratch through emulation.^[60] The goal of SWGEmu is to emulate the game to its entirety as it was on the live servers through patch 14.1.^[61][62] In 2020, the SWGEmu project announced it was near completion of the base game (colloquially referred to as version 1.0).^[63][64] They also announced that Jump to Lightspeed may no longer be included in version 1.0 due to the complexities of implementing the system.^[65] SWGEmu is an open source project distributed under the GNU Affero General Public License. The server code base, known as Core3, has been open source since before 2010, allowing for volunteers to easily contribute to its development. In 2019, SWGEmu also open sourced its engine, known as Engine3.^[66] Because SWGEmu is open source, any members are able to easily launch their own server for their own community. There are several community-run servers which develop content beyond the 14.1 publish goal of SWGEmu, such as Awakening, Dark Rebellion, Empire in Flames, Infinity and Reckoning. Other projects like CUEmu look to use SWGEmu's Core3 code base to emulate the publish 15 era of Galaxies, also known as the Combat Upgrade.

In 2011, after SOE announced the intention of shutting down Star Wars Galaxies, Project SWG was founded to emulate the NGE version of Star Wars Galaxies.^[67] Project SWG has not been as objectively successful as SWGEmu and has undergone multiple refactors of their code since conception. Their current server, Holocore, is still under development by a small team and is several years away from completion.^[68]

Both SWGEmu and Project SWG are regarded as the primary emulation projects for Galaxies with other communities utilizing their source code to run their own server, sometimes contributing specific code to create their own content or by using shared content from resources such as ModTheGalaxy, a game modification distribution forum. Some player-made tools created while Galaxies was live, such as SWGCraft and GalaxyHarvester, and are running with connections to hosted servers.^{[citation needed]}

In 2013, a former SOE employee leaked a copy of the 2010 production release source code for the Galaxies client, server, 3rd party libraries, and development tools to a few former players involved with the NGE Galaxies emulator Project SWG. The code was later leaked beyond its intended recipients and made available online.^[69]

• Official website at the Wayback Machine (archived 6 February 2010)
• Star Wars Galaxies at MobyGames
• Star Wars Galaxies on Wookieepedia, a Star Wars wiki