Trivia / Star Wars: Galaxies

• Christmas Rushed: For summer, not Christmas, and only after it had been delayed a few times. The CU and the NGE were also likely rushed to coincide with the expansions, which themselves had to be ready by Episode III's film and DVD releases. After the shutdown, SOE's CEO said this was probably the game's biggest problem and Galaxies' original creative director agreed with him.
  "Here's what I would have done differently...I would have given the game another year to develop and really polish it quite a bit...I would have really taken our time and polished combat right so we never had to do the NGE."
  - SOE CEO, John Smedley
• Dummied Out: The Gorax was a rare spawn on Endor that was removed in an early patch, and game code existed for an Imperial AT-AT from the game's beginning, but no in-game spawns for it were created. Many years later, both were formally introduced to the game.
• Executive Meddling:
  • The infamous NCE update was the result of this as Sony Online Entertainment wanted to compete with World of Warcraft by simplifying the classes, more focus on co-op dungeons and allowing newer players to create Jedi characters rather than Jedi being a rare prestige class.
  • Also a large part of the reason why the painting Victorious Reign got second place in the contest and thus banned from the live servers. To put it simply, the poster depicted a Stormtrooper giving a pose that's too similar to the "Heil Hitler salute" and having a red background with a black thunderbolt that resembled the logo for the SS (even though the Empire was created as a Nazi allegory in the first place).
• Follow the Leader: After World of Warcraft redefined what success meant for an MMORPG, SOE decided they wanted in on that. Future patches and expansions saw the introduction of numerous WoW-style elements to the game including instanced dungeons, Puzzle Bosses and even an interface heavily reminiscent of WoW's. This became a common complaint in the game's later years.
• Screwed by the Lawyers: Possibly why the game was shut down. SOE said they were interested in keeping Galaxies going, but allegedly EA demanded the exclusive rights to run a Star Wars MMO from LucasArts, or LucasArts decided to shutdown Galaxies to avoid competing with EA's MMO. Despite this, Clone Wars Adventures (a browser-based Star Wars MMO that SOE also maintained) continued to operate concurrently with Star Wars: The Old Republic for almost three years.
• Troubled Production: SWG was a poster child for this trope more or less throughout its entire lifespan from initial development through shutdown. A large amount of the reason for this is attributed to being forced to release the game before Christmas and the rush to include Jedi.
• Urban Legend of Zelda:
  • Exar Kun's Tomb, an eerie empty location with little significance spawned a rumor if you examined the crystals on the bottom floor enough you could hear or see Exar Kun briefly. He was later added to the game as instance dungeon, and his tomb suddenly became infested with brainwashed Rebels he controlled. ** Also the Meatlump gang members who came in different ranks but with no leader led some players to believe there was a Meatlump King. Sure enough he and an entire Meatlump city was added later on.
• What Could Have Been: Raph Koster, the game's original creative director, has posted a series of articles on his blog detailing his original vision for Galaxies. This included a more in-depth skill tree system, various alterations to combat, and - most notably - a much different system for unlocking Jedi that rewarded players that sought out a broad-range of in-game experiences rather than promoting power-gaming. Amongst the most notable changes:
  • There were several classes that were dropped or which never got beyond the conceptual stage. These included "Miner", "Storyteller", and "Writer".
  • Each profession was supposed to have a different number of skill trees, which could have a different number of skills in them. Some, like Image Designer, were meant to be small and require few skill points, while others were supposed to be longer or have more branches.
  • The requirements to unlock Jedi originally involved more than just mastering professions, with requirements including killing certain rare monsters, visiting certain locations, performing certain actions, etc.
  • Players were originally supposed to be able to give one another quests using a "Player Contract".
  • The first concept for Jedi involved it being a pseudo-hardcore mode with permadeath. The idea was that the player would start out very weak - weaker than a starter of any other profession - and slowly build their strength. However, any time they used their lightsabers or Force powers in view of another player or human NPC, they would be reported to the Empire (similar to the "Visibility" system Jedi used in the pre-CU days). The Empire would then start sending task forces to attempt to kill the player - first low-level Mooks, like stormtroopers, then eventually bounty hunters and Inquisitors. If the player continued, they would eventually face off with high-end NPCs like Mara Jade or Boba Fett. Eventually, if they lasted long enough, Darth Vader himself would attack the player and it would be impossible for the player to win. If a player died, they would lose all progress in the Jedi profession, but their main character would get access to a "Blue Glowie" power that could summon the ghosts of all previous Jedi players that had made it to the "Master" rank.