Star Wars Galaxies

"Experience the greatest saga ever told.....yours."

- Star Wars Galaxies tagline

Star Wars Galaxies (often abbreviated SWG) is a Star Wars-themed MMORPG developed by Sony Online Entertainment and published by LucasArts for Microsoft Windows PCs. The base game, titled Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided, was released on June 26, 2003 in the United States of America, November 7, 2003 in Europe, December 23, 2004 in Japan, and in 2006 in Australia. The base game has been upgraded with three major expansions since. In addition to the initial cost of the game software, SOE charges a monthly subscription fee (like most other MMORPGs) of $14.99USD (€11.15, £9.49), with discounts for 3-, 6-, and 12-month subscriptions.

Development and release


On March 16, 2000, LucasArts Entertainment announced a partnership with Verant Interactive Inc. and Sony Online Entertainment to create the first massively multiplayer Star Wars online role-playing game. The then unnamed game would be developed by Verant with online play supported by SOE. This was the same team responsible for creating and supporting the popular Everquest massively multiplayer online game. LucasArts would be responsible for all distribution of the Star Wars online game. The announcement included an expected release date some time in 2001 and that the game would take place during the classic trilogy Star Wars era.

LucasArts officially announced the brand name of the game to be title Star Wars Galaxies on November 29, 2000. The announcement claimed the first round of testing for Star Wars Galaxies was expected to start in late 2001 which would push back the official release date to an unknown time. The game's official information site was launched on November 30, 2000 in conjunction with SOE and featured frequently asked questions about the game and message boards fielded by members of the development team.

On May 17, 2001, even before the game went into public beta testing, the first expansion's development was announced. The yet unnamed add-on, which was expected to be available six months after the initial product release, would be a space simulation and enable players to own and fly starships which would allow interplanetary travel and space combat. The release date of the initial product, the ground-based component, was updated to the second half of 2002. The staggered release schedule of the space component of the Star Wars Galaxies series was said to benefit players because they would have time to establish their characters and explore different elements of the core game before adding the space layer. Traveling between planets would be accomplished through the use of public shuttles, which would ferry characters from world to world.

A new official site was also released on the same day that put more of an emphasis behind the community of the game. It included new screen shots, movies, an updated FAQ, concept art, development team member's profiles, features about the game, and a new forum. The site reached 100,000 users by December 2001. Throughout the next year after the release of the new site, new content would be revealed. This content included information on species and locations, new images and movies of different game elements, and 360 degree QuickTime VR panoramas of different locations.

Verant began accepting applications from users in May 2002 who were interested in participating in a closed beta test for SWG. The closed beta test would begin in July 2002. SOE would share more information on the game as the beta moved forward. This would include more screen shots, information on match making services, the fact that players would be permitted only one character per server, and skill trees and how the skill-based system would function. LucasArts also announced on May 20, 2002 that both the Xbox and PlayStation 2 would get a version of the game, but these would later be cancelled.

2002 ended with LucasArts officially confirming a release date of April 15, 2003. They also announced on December 20, 2002 that the ground-based component of Star Wars Galaxies would be called An Empire Divided and that the game's online community had grown to over 400,000 users since its original release in November 2000. This represented one of the largest ever fan communities amassed for any game prior to retail availability.

An Empire Divided would later be delayed to an unknown time, but on June 17, 2003, LucasArts confirmed Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided would be released on June 26, 2003.

With a Star Wars license and veteran designer Raph Koster at the helm, expectations among gamers ran high during the development of Galaxies. Many industry professionals expected that these forces would push the subscription numbers past the one million mark. As development wore on, the release date was pushed back, features were cut, and Sony canceled planned ports for the Xbox and PlayStation 2.

The base game, An Empire Divided, was released in the United States on June 26, 2003 to mixed reviews. Galaxies was most criticized for numerous bugs and broken features that plagued the game. After release, the developers continued working on the features cut during the delay. In November 2003, two of those most anticipated features, creature mounts and player-created cities were enabled. Also, on November 7, 2003 it was announced that the first player had unlocked a Force-sensitive character slot needed to become a Jedi.

On November 7, 2003, An Empire Divided was released in Europe. A localized version for the Japanese market was published by Electronic Arts Japan on 23 December 2004. However, Japanese acceptance of the game was low, and in November 2005 the servers were shut down and existing accounts migrated to US servers.

Timeline
The game events are set after Episode IV (ca. 1.5 years after the Battle of Yavin), which lets players choose what path the galaxy takes after Death Star I is destroyed.

With Chapter 11 in November 2008, the developers added the Battle of Hoth to the game. However this didn't advance the timeline of the game, as it is only meant as a "Star Wars Moment", to give players the opportunity to participate in this iconic movie event without any effects on the other parts of the game.

Geography


The game covers ten planets: Tatooine, Naboo, Corellia, Talus, Rori, Dantooine, Lok, Yavin 4, the forest moon of Endor, Dathomir and the newest chapter 8 update, the Nova Orion Space Station. In the second expansion, Rage of the Wookiees, the Wookiee planet Kashyyyk was added. In the third expansion, Trials of Obi-Wan, the planet Mustafar was added. Each of the original ten planets are represented by approximately 225 square kilometers (15 km x 15 km maps) of game space. In contrast, the expansion planets of Kashyyyk and Mustafar are smaller, constructed differently (e.g. instances) and in some cases imposed different rules than the original, such as terrain that is not traversable (i.e. mountains or hills that cannot be climbed over). With the realease of Chapter 11, planet Hoth was released as an Instance.

Graphics
The game is generally praised by reviewers for its realistic character models, detailed architecture and lush environments.

Points of interest and cameos
Examples of characters and points of interest that players can visit within the game include HK-47 from Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and its sequel, R2-D2, C-3PO, their escape pod on Tatooine, the Naboo Royal Palace, the abandoned Rebel bases on Dantooine and Yavin IV, the notorious pirate Nym in his stronghold on Lok, Ewoks and Rancors.

Species and professions
Players of the game create characters to navigate through these environments. Characters in Star Wars Galaxies can be one of ten species, again taken from the films and the Expanded Universe: Human, Twi'lek, Zabrak, Wookiee, Trandoshan, Rodian, Mon Calamari, Bothan, Sullustan, or Ithorian. A character can be either male or female, and he or she belongs to one of nine iconic professions: Jedi, Bounty Hunter, Smuggler, Commando, Spy, Officer, Medic, Entertainer, or Trader. Chapter 6 has introduced Beast Master, the NGE version of the pre-NGE Creature Handler, as a separate expertise tree. A character can also optionally advance in the Politician and Pilot professions, independent of his or her primary profession.

As with all MMORPGs, the feature set of Star Wars Galaxies is subject to change.

Combat mechanics
Ground combat is currently real-time and similar to a first-person shooter. The player must aim a targeting reticule at a target and left-click the mouse to fire. Auto-aim and auto-fire features are available, creating a more traditional combat experience, but players eschewing those options are rewarded with an increased chance to do maximum damage. As characters gain levels, they gain access to additional combat abilities called "specials" which are activated by using the right mouse button. These specials usually have a cool-down period. In addition to providing especially powerful damage attacks, specials are also used to heal, buff, debuff and crowd control. Players gain the ability to use more powerful weapons as they advance in level, and certain weapons are limited to certain professions, such as the KYD-21 blaster pistol being limited to the Spy profession.

Players also earn "Expertise Points" as they level up which they can use in their profession's expertise "tree". The player can allot 45 points into various abilities and attributes to make their characters more diverse, from weapons specialties to healing and armor proficiencies.

Player housing, guilds, and cities
Characters can erect, own and decorate a variety of buildings, including houses, cantinas, guild halls and city halls. These buildings, when grouped, can be organized into cities. Players hold elections via ballot box for Mayor. Elected mayors grant city members certain rights to place structures within the city and eject players from cities as needed. Reelections are held every two weeks. If another player wishes to run for mayor they can add their name at any time to the ballot box to run against the incumbent. As cities grow in population, they become eligible to add services and facilities such as vehicle repair garages, shuttleports, cloning facilities, hospitals, cantinas and garden displays. They can show up on the planetary maps alongside canonical cities such as Theed and Mos Eisley.

Other features of the basic game:

 * Single- and multi-passenger ground vehicles and starships: (landspeeders, speeder bikes, swoops, X-wings, TIE Fighters and even several of the YT series of ships)
 * An almost completely Player-run economy, wherein player characters are responsible for creating many (and nearly all) in-game items including blasters, starships, clothing, armor, food, housing, furniture and even a wide variety of droids. Items are created from player-collected raw materials and looted items&mdash;with other player characters as the only consumers. Recently, the developers have added more high-quality equipment to loot tables and as quest rewards, but player crafters remain an essential part of the economy.
 * An extensive set of emotes, moods, and associated animations, which affect not only an avatar's physical appearance but also the text used to describe a character's speech, and even the shape of the speech bubble displayed on-screen.
 * Standard MMORPG features such as player guilds, chat functionality, and other community features.
 * The ability for players to place bounties on opponents that defeat/kill them in PVP battle. Player character bounty hunters can then pick up another character's "bounty mission" on the terminals and track the character down. A bounty can be claimed at anytime, regardless of the target's PvP setting. Up to three bounty hunters can be tracking a character at any given time.
 * An extensive avatar/character-creation system. Characters can hire Entertainers to change their appearance in-game, with even more options than those available at creation. Every visual aspect of a character is thereby changeable at any time after character creation except species and gender.

"Galaxies" (servers)
There were twenty-five different "galaxies", or servers, in which players may choose to play the game. Most of them are named after obscure ships from the Expanded Universe. Twelve were shut down on October 15th, 2009, leaving thirteen still active. They are:


 * Ahazi
 * Bloodfin
 * Bria
 * Chilastra
 * Chimaera
 * Corbantis (removed)
 * Eclipse
 * Europe-Infinity (removed)
 * FarStar
 * Flurry
 * Gorath
 * Intrepid (removed)
 * Kauri (removed)
 * Kettemoor (removed)
 * Lowca (removed)
 * Naritus (removed)
 * Radiant
 * Scylla (removed)
 * Shadowfire
 * Starsider
 * Sunrunner
 * Tarquinas (removed)
 * Tempest (removed)
 * Valcyn (removed)
 * Wanderhome (removed)

Planets and explorable areas
The basic "game world" consists of simulated planetary surfaces and associated structures. The twelve different planets are taken from the Star Wars movies and the Expanded Universe: Tatooine, Naboo, Corellia, Talus, Rori, Dantooine, Lok, Yavin 4, the forest moon of Endor, and Dathomir. The games first expansion, Jump to Lightspeed, added explorable space sectors for every original planet. Two additional space sectors were also included, Deep Space and the Kessel sector. In the Rage of the Wookiees expansion the planet Kashyyyk was added, and the latest installment Trials of Obi-Wan has added the planet Mustafar (Mustafar is the only planet in-game without an explorable spacer sector). The ten original planets are represented by approximately 256 square kilometers (16 km x 16 km maps) of game space, with all established cities and locations compressed into that space. Kashyyyk is represented by several navigational zones that connect to each other via portals located throughout that planet. Many of these zones are instanced, meaning that only the player or group that selects that zone are the only inhabitants of that zone. Mustafar has a traditional layout similar to the original planets, but with many instanced dungeons scattered across the landscape. Further game updates added the space system of Ord Mantell, along with Hoth as an instance.

A player may explore any of the following planets, space sectors, and other areas:
 * Corellia
 * Corellian system
 * Dantooine
 * Dantooine system
 * Dathomir
 * Dathomir system
 * Forest moon of Endor
 * Endor system
 * Kashyyyk (requires Rage of the Wookiees.)
 * Kashyyyk system
 * Lok
 * Karthakk system
 * Mustafar (requires Trials of Obi-Wan.)
 * Naboo
 * Naboo system
 * Rori
 * Naboo system
 * Talus
 * Corellian system
 * Tatooine
 * Tatoo system
 * Yavin 4
 * Yavin system
 * Ord Mantell's space system (Bright Jewel system)
 * Hoth

Playable species
A player may create a male or female character of the following species:
 * Bothan
 * Human
 * Ithorian
 * Mon Calamari
 * Rodian
 * Sullustan
 * Trandoshan
 * Twi'lek
 * Wookiee
 * Zabrak

Professions

 * Jedi
 * Officer
 * Smuggler
 * Bounty Hunter
 * Commando
 * Trader (Munitions, Engineering, Domestics or Structures)
 * Medic
 * Entertainer
 * Spy
 * Pilot (through a parallel progression)
 * Beast Master (through the Expertise system)
 * Chronicle Master (through a parallel progression)

Playable ships
Players are able to pilot, purchase and build the following ships:

NPC species
There are a number of species that appear throughout the game as NPCs (non-player characters).

Pre-New Game Enhancements professions
Prior to the release of the New Game Enhancements on November 15, 2005, a player could choose from up to 34 professions to play. The player was limited in their choice of profession by set number of skill points. Taking advantage of the different skill and combat modifiers offered by different professions, players could customize their characters to match their playing styles. This meant that a character could have skills in more than one profession, unlike the current system which allows the player only one profession per character.

Story and gameplay
Star Wars Galaxies did not begin with any sort of over-arching story. Originally, as the original opening crawl states, after character creation, the player started out on an Imperial Star Destroyer after being captured on a passenger ship suspected of illegal activity. After being cleared of any wrong doing, the player was instructed to make their way through the ship towards the shuttle bay. Along the way, various obstacles were used to educate the player in the basics of game play. After reaching the shuttle bay, the player was allowed to choose a starting planet, then city. The planetary choices were Naboo, Tatooine, or Corellia. A majority of the already established cities on the planet of choice could be chosen as a starting point, such as Moenia, Theed, Coronet, Doaba Guerfel, Mos Eisley, or Anchorhead. After choosing, they were loaded up into their city of choice on the planet with nothing but a green and yellow R2 helper droid, a limited use 74-Z speeder bike and no real direction on what to do next.

After the release of the New Game Enhancements in late 2005 however, story elements became more important to the development of your character. The introductory sequence was changed. This time the player starts out on an Imperial space station. The player is quickly contacted by C-3PO, who familiarizes the player with the basics of the controls, and informs them that Han Solo will arrive shortly to rescue them. Han, Chewbacca, and R2-D2 arrive and escort the player to the hangar bay, where they are attacked by three stormtroopers. After killing the troopers, Han, the player and crew board the Millennium Falcon and escape the exploding station, with TIE fighters giving chase. The next sequence is meant to familiarize the player with the space combat game play. The player commands one of the Falcon's turrets and destroys several TIE fighters, after which the Millennium Falcon hyperjumps to Tansarii Point Station. After arriving on the station, the player is free to complete several story-driven quests on their quest for credits and experience (the player must reach level 5 before they may leave the station). Once the player is sufficiently experienced, the player must aid Han Solo in repairing the Falcon. Upon doing so, Han Solo drops the player off in front of the spaceport in Mos Eisley on Tatooine. Before leaving, Han Solo sets them up with a speeder, and a contact in Eisley. This leads the player to working for Jabba the Hutt, first through Bib Fortuna, then directly from Jabba's Palace. Further quests in this over-arching chain (known collectively as the Legacy quests) take the player to other planets, including Naboo, Corellia, and Talus. All throughout this quest chain, the player meets many familiar faces from Star Wars canon, including Watto, Ephant Mon, Jabba the Hutt, Boss Nass, and Panaka, just to name a few.

Opening crawls
From its release in June of 2003 until November of 2005, Star Wars Galaxies used an opening crawl much like the movies as an introduction during character creation. After the release of the New Game Enhancements in November of 2005, a slightly updated opening crawl was used, and is still in use as of 2010.

Original crawl

Second crawl

Story arcs

 * Cries of Alderaan
 * Secrets of the Syren
 * Rebel Theme Park
 * Imperial Theme Park
 * Legacy
 * Death Troopers
 * Nym's Theme Park

Gameplay
In basic gameplay, the player uses his or her character's skills and special abilities to attack targets, complete quests, undertake missions, create useful in-game items, and/or entertain other players. The player's character will have opportunities to meet famous Star Wars characters, earn in-game fame and fortune (or infamy and notoriety), travel to iconic Star Wars locations, and obtain numerous items, artifacts, and 'trophies' that can enhance his or her character.

Ground Combat
Ground combat in Galaxies is in real-time. Unlike most MMORPGs, whether an attack hits is not solely based on the character's skill numbers. The player must aim a targeting reticule at a target and left-click the mouse to fire. Auto-aim and auto-fire features are available, creating a more traditional combat experience, but players eschewing those options are rewarded with an increased chance to do maximum damage. As characters gain levels (by gaining experience points, known as XP), they gain access to additional combat abilities, called "specials", which are "fired" by using the right mouse button. These specials usually have a cool-down period during which they can't be reused, but they are much more powerful or versatile than the basic left-click attack. Specials are also used to heal characters and enhance their other abilities as well as decrease an enemy's statistics. In addition to these specials, players gain the ability to use more powerful and varied type of weaponry as they climb the ranks in their chosen profession.

Space Combat
Space combat in Galaxies is similar to ground combat. Players must aim at their targets (often needing to "lead" their target in compensation for the target's movement) and click a button on the mouse or joystick to fire. Success in space combat is largely dependent on player skill, but not quite to the same extent as seen in previous Star Wars space-simulator games.

As characters advance in their piloting professions, they gain access to a variety of tactics, starship chassis, and starship components. Their ships can be completely customized with components looted from enemies or crafted by shipwrights. Available chassis include the X-Wing and Y-Wing for Rebels, TIE Fighters and TIE/In interceptors for Imperials, and new Hutt and Black Sun ship designs for Freelancers. Characters who have mastered a piloting profession get access to PoB (Party on Board) ship designs such as the famed YT-1300. PoB ships allow characters to walk around the interiors (which can be decorated just like a building on the ground) and man additional shipboard stations such as laser turrets. Some high-end ships are obtainable only via difficult quests; such ships include the Eta-2 Actis-class light interceptor (commonly called the JSF or "Jedi Starfighter") and the KSE Firespray (Made famous by the Fett ship Slave 1).

An Empire Divided
At the time of its initial release, the game was very different than it is now. Vehicles and creature mounts were not yet implemented. While player housing was in the game, player cities were not. (Those features were added in November 2003.) Each character and creature possessed three "pools" (called Health, Action, and Mind; or "HAM") that represented his or her physical and mental reserves. Most attacks specifically targeted one of these three pools and any action the character took also depleted one or more of the pools. When any one of those pools was fully depleted, the character would fall unconscious. Combat, then, required the player to carefully manage his or her actions to avoid depleting a pool.

Character progression was vastly different at release as well. Characters started out in one of six basic professions (Medic, Brawler, Marksman, Scout, Entertainer, or Artisan) and could pick up any of the other five at any time after character creation. Each profession consisted of a tree-like structure of skills, with a single Novice level, four independent branches of four levels each, and a Master level which required completion of all four branches. Characters purchased these skills with experience points gained through a related activity. For example, an Entertainer could purchase skills to get better at playing music, but only with Musician experience points. Dancing experience points were entirely separate and could only be used to purchase dancing skills.

In addition to the basic professions, characters could specialize into advanced professions such as Bounty Hunter, Creature Handler, Ranger, Doctor, and Musician. There were a total of 24 advanced professions, although there was no way for characters to obtain all of them at once. Each advanced profession had certain skill requirements from the base professions that had to be met, some more restrictive than others.

Jedi were not available as a starting profession, or even as an advanced profession. The developers stated only that certain in-game actions would open up a Force-sensitive character slot. The actions required were left for players to discover. It eventually turned out that characters had to achieve Master level in five random professions. The identity of four of those necessary professions could be learned via looted holocrons, but the fifth had to be found via trial and error. The first Force-sensitive character slot was unlocked on November 7, 2003.

Expansion packs
In addition to the base game, three expansions have been developed by Sony Online Entertainment and published by LucasArts since the game's inception. They are as follows:


 * Star Wars Galaxies: Jump to Lightspeed
 * Star Wars Galaxies: Rage of the Wookiees
 * Star Wars Galaxies: Trials of Obi-Wan

Combat Upgrade
The Combat Upgrade of April 2005 and was a major revamping and rewriting of the entire Star Wars Galaxies combat, armor, and weapons system. A more restricted tone was set, whereas only certain characters in certain professions would use specific weapons and wear armor. In addition, the method of fighting in the game was redone with skill levels assigned to both players and game creatures. Under the new system, only a creature of equal skill could be attacked by a player, with lesser creatures rendering no experience if killed and the more powerful creatures deemed almost invincible to single player attacks.

New Game Enhancements (NGE)
On November 15, 2005, there was a complete overhaul of all game aspects, reducing the number of professions to nine from the old 32 professions. (bounty hunter, entertainer, smuggler, trader, medic, Jedi, officer, spy and commando). New patches have come out emphasizing on balance and individuality of each profession. These included:

Free character transfers and server closures
Beginning January 13th, 2009, Sony Online Entertainment began offering a free character transfer to all current subscribers of the game. Players were allowed a one-time only transfer from one "galaxy" (or server) to another. The departing and destination servers were each part of separate lists. You could only depart from a set list of servers and could only transfer to a set list of servers. This promotion was set to end on October 15th, 2009.

Sony Online Entertainment later announced on September 15th, 2009 that a number of Star Wars Galaxies' servers would be permanently shut down on October 15th, 2009. The following is a list of the servers that were permanently closed on this date. All characters, items, and structures still present on those servers were permanently lost when they closed down.


 * Corbantis
 * Europe-Infinity
 * Intrepid
 * Kauri
 * Kettemoor
 * Lowca
 * Naritus
 * Scylla
 * Tarquinas
 * Tempest
 * Valcyn
 * Wanderhome

Sony Online Entertainment later announced that starting on October 16th, 2009, players who did not take advantage of the free character transfer service and had characters on the deactivated servers could contact Sony Online Entertainment Customer Support and., for the standard $50.00 USD charge for a Character Transfer, could transfer a character from an inactive server to an active one. However and as a courtesy, when submitting the request to the GMs, the transfer fee has happened to be free of charge until further notice.

Release and major update history

 * June 26, 2003: Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided (initial boxed release) and Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided Collectors Edition
 * October 27, 2004: Star Wars Galaxies: Jump to Lightspeed (boxed expansion)
 * April 27, 2005: Combat Upgrade (free major online revamp)
 * May 5, 2005: Star Wars Galaxies: Episode III Rage of the Wookiees  (digital download expansion)
 * May 25, 2005: Star Wars Galaxies: The Total Experience (boxed compilation of An Empire Divided, Jump to Lightspeed, Rage of the Wookiees)
 * November 1, 2005: Star Wars Galaxies: Trials of Obi-Wan (digital download expansion)
 * November 22, 2005: Star Wars Galaxies: Starter Kit (boxed compilation of An Empire Divided, Jump to Lightspeed, New Game Enhancements)
 * November 15, 2005: New Game Enhancements (free major online revamp)
 * November 16, 2006, Star Wars Galaxies: The Complete Online Adventures (boxed compilation of An Empire Divided, Jump to Lightspeed, Rage of the Wookiees, Trials of Obi-Wan and New Game Enhancements)
 * September 28, 2007, Star Wars Galaxies: The Complete Online Adventures (digital compilation of An Empire Divided, Jump to Lightspeed, Rage of the Wookiees, Trials of Obi-Wan and New Game Enhancements)
 * September 28, 2007, Star Wars Galaxies: The Complete Online Adventures (premium digital compilation of An Empire Divided, Jump to Lightspeed, Rage of the Wookiees, Trials of Obi-Wan, New Game Enhancements with an additional ingame J-type 327 Nubian royal starship instant travel vehicle)
 * November 20, 2009, Star Wars Galaxies: The Complete Online Adventures (premium plus pack digital compilation of An Empire Divided, Jump to Lightspeed, Rage of the Wookiees, Trials of Obi-Wan, New Game Enhancements with additional ingame rewards: J-type 327 Nubian royal starship instant travel vehicle, Tsmeu-6 personal wheel bike, All Terrain Recon Transport, Mustafarian Underground Bunker, Varactyl and Lava flea mounts)

Boxed compilations and editions
Sony Online Entertainment and LucasArts have released three retail compilations of the game since 2005. They are as follows:


 * Star Wars Galaxies: The Total Experience
 * Star Wars Galaxies: Starter Kit
 * Star Wars Galaxies: The Complete Online Adventures

Star Wars Galaxies: The Ruins of Dantooine
The Ruins of Dantooine is a tie-in novel to Star Wars Galaxies which was co-written by Haden Blackman and Voronica Whitney-Robinson. It was published by Del Rey Books on December 30th, 2003.

Star Wars Galaxies Trading Card Game
Star Wars Galaxies Trading Card Game was an online card game that was launched in August 2008 and is available to all Galaxies subscribers. Its initial release was called Champions of the Force. Several expansion have been released since its inception. It allows players to play on their own or against each other, in a new storyline that features Namman Cha, Rachi Sitra, Jeffren Brek and Coret Bhan in their quest for the Codex of Tython. It also features special loot cards that can be redeemed for in-game items in Galaxies.

A few words from Leland Chee regarding Star Wars Galaxies and canon
When Leland Chee was asked on the StarWars.com Message Boards if Star Wars Galaxies is generally ignored when it comes to canon, he replied with:


 * As far as the Holocron is concerned, I don't ignore anything. Licensing checks continuity in Galaxies like we would for any other game, book, or toy. As I do my continuity checks, the information gets entered into the database. I also incorporate anything from the Galaxies website and strategy guides.

When asked about player-created characters, ships, and events featured on the official Star Wars Galaxies website, Leland stated that such aspects of the game are:


 * Non-continuity since they exist only in a single galaxy/server.

Inconsistencies with Star Wars continuity
The developers of this game draw on as many aspects of the films and expanded universe as possible. This is good in many ways; however, in some cases, they just don't fit into the era.

Keeping in mind that the time frame of this game is meant to be shortly after the Battle of Yavin (0 ABY–1 ABY), there are some elements of the game that arguably should not be there.

In few of the above cases, the developers provide a reasonable in-universe explanation as to how these elements exist, however it is unknown if other sources will accept them as canon.
 * The opportunity to play as transcended Force ghost Jedi character. This option is only accessible by those players who attained Jedi status prior to the NGE.
 * Jedi can be seen in large numbers in many major cities, equipped with Jedi robes and ignited lightsabers. Also, Jedi are dominant combatants in the Galactic Civil War (see below).
 * Players using non-Human characters can earn military ranks in the Empire, resulting in Imperial Wookiee generals and the like.
 * The ability of players to craft and pilot ships such as the B-Wing and A-Wing, which supposedly have not been designed yet.
 * Chapter 5 introduced combat droids (droideka and battle droids) for regular use which are highly uncommon for this era.
 * Large quantities of buildings dotted about landscapes that wouldn't normally be populated, such as Tatooine.
 * The ability of players to craft and equip Mandalorian armor, which has come quite abundant as time has gone by.
 * Cloning was outlawed during the Galactic Civil War, and so massive cloning centers on every planet would be breaking the laws of the Empire.
 * Clones in the Star Wars universe took up to ten years to grow and mature even when they are biologically engineered to age faster than normal. In Star Wars Galaxies, it is the option of the player to clone his character instantly in a cloning center whenever he dies.
 * The Rancor is identified as an crustacean/arachnid hybrid, though it displays the traits of neither and has already been identified in more reliable sources as a reptomammal.
 * Game Update 11 introduced the Galactic Marine armor for Imperial players. The armor itself is obsolete and was not in use at the time of the Galactic Civil War.
 * Game Update 12 introduced more battle droids such as B2 super battle droids, MagnaGuards, and Dwarf spider droids. These, as well as the the battle droids introduced in Chapter 5, are highly uncommon during this era and are a glaring continuity error.

The game seems to focus more on allowing its players to experience as many facets of Star Wars lore as possible, at the expense of major inconsistencies inside its own universe (e.g. mayor of Mos Eisley highlights the incident in the cantina when Obi Wan revealed himself as Jedi as something special, while Jedi are the main population).

The Jedi in Star Wars Galaxies
Unlike the historic chronology of Star Wars, where almost all Jedi are extinct by the time frame of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, the concept of Jedi in Star Wars Galaxies is modified to have several hundred, if not thousands of Jedi capable of playing in the game which is set in the period of time between Episode IV and Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back.

Under the first Jedi system, a player could only become a Jedi after mastering professions chosen randomly for you at character creation. When fewer Jedi entered the game than was anticipated, players were helped by finding several Holocrons which would tell a player which game professions to play and master. This resulted in several "career" players spending hours on end writing program macros and mastering almost every profession in the game. However after complaints from a large portion of the player base (especially those that weren't constant and devoted players and thus more unwilling to master multiple professions), Star Wars Galaxies was altered to a new Jedi system called the Jedi Trials.

Under the Jedi Trials, only after obtaining several various goals as a regular character was a character considered "glowing with the Force" and deemed worthy to train to become a Jedi. Several new tasks then became available to the player, which were revealed through various NPCs (Non-Player Characters). Such tasks included obtaining various skills, destroying certain creatures, and visiting several Jedi related locations.

Even with the Jedi revamp in place, many in the Star Wars Galaxies community have expressed feelings that eventually the game will become an "Army of Generals" where the number of Jedi playing in the game will be extremely high, thus making the game less interesting for those playing non-Jedi characters. It has not yet been announced by game programmers if yet another Jedi system will be enacted, although the method of obtaining Jedi skills was changed considerably under the "Combat Upgrade" system released in April 2005.

As of the NGE, anyone can become a Jedi by selecting the "profession" when creating their character. Arguments, however, come up proposing that Jedi, once the NGE was released to still be unbalanced, only this time with the odd against them. Many Jedi came into the NGE and saw that their former power was dramatically reduced. At this time the village of Aurilia (the in-game location that served as a hub for pre-NGE Force-sensitive questing) is still inactive. Players that were still inside when this happened found only a few NPCs left. Some Players still wish to see the village reopened, only this time, as a sort of training center for the Jedi made to ensure the old prizes don't disappear from the game.

Unfortunately, a recent announcement was made that due to the changes in the code of the game, the village of Aurilia will never be returned to its former state. It has now be re-opened, albeit changed in Chapter 7, it is now the location where players can receive quests, which, upon completion, will allow the player to access the "heroic instances", which are battles against multiple "bosses", with puzzle, and strategy elements mixed in. These heroics are designed to be completed with a group of players, usually 8.

Expanded Universe references to the game

 * Star Wars Galaxies: The Ruins of Dantooine (direct spinoff, contains numerous references)
 * The Story of General Grievous: Lord of War
 * N-K Necrosis
 * Myyydril Caverns
 * Bane's Heart
 * Treun Lorn
 * Doctor Kinesworthy
 * Underworld Appendix: Swoops, Spice, and Wretched Rogues
 * Crash n' Burn
 * Star Wars: Empire at War
 * Rihkxyrk Attack Ship
 * Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic: Days of Fear
 * Bivoli tempari (in name of Little Bivoli)
 * The Force Unleashed novel
 * Minstyngar
 * The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia
 * bocatt
 * Emperor's Retreat
 * Kobola Miners
 * piket longhorn
 * quenker‎
 * Rori
 * Rori Spice Mining Collective

Reviews
Reviews for the initial launch of the game in 2003 were mostly positive. The game was praised for its lush graphics, liberal 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, PVP/PVE combat imbalances of the professions, bugginess and lack of quest content. The reviews for the first expansion, Jump To Lightspeed, praised the new space combat but criticized the ground game for its lack of sufficient improvement. The reviews for the second expansion, Rage Of The Wookiees lauded the new quest content for current subscribers but lamented the CU and the continued bugginess of the game. The third expansion, Trials Of Obi-Wan(ToOW), once again introduced new quest and content and the planet Mustafar. However, two weeks later a new system called NGE was introduced, which forever changed the play style of SWG and removed some of the content that was included with ToOW.

Controversies
The following lists some of its more controversial issues:

Jedi
Players who wished to play a Jedi character had to first unlock their Jedi slot by fulfilling an unknown list of criteria. However, within four months of this stipulation, no player had yet achieved the goal. Jedi forum at the official site turned into a "flamer's paradise" as some subscribers accused the developers of lying about the Jedi system being in place. The first player unlocked their Jedi slot on Friday November 7, 2003. Lucas Arts game producer Haden Blackman stated in an interview on December 20, 2003, with Gamespy: "We're confident in the [Jedi] system because the feedback from players has been extremely positive. Not only are Jedi players happy with the system and the powers they are receiving...." This caused a backlash by some players who felt this statement was misleading. Gamespy noted: "GameSpy's mail was so flooded with reports from the Galaxies community that we started researching this feature to present both sides of the story." Because the time commitment to unlock a Jedi was substantial, players complained that perma-death of the character after three deaths was overly harsh. The developers eventually relented and lowered the penalty to skill loss in January, 2004.

Some players further complained that the process of unlocking the Jedi slot, known as "hologrinding", was overly long, painful and disruptive to the social fabric of the game. In March 2005, the developers released a quest system as the new path to unlocking the Jedi slot. With the NGE (see below) in November 2005, allowing all players, including new ones, to play a Jedi character, there were complaints that the efforts that veteran players had expended in unlocking their Jedi slots were all for naught.

Combat Upgrade
SWG developers promised a "Combat Upgrade" or "CU," which was released April 27, 2005, and represented a major re-writing of the combat, armor, and weapons systems, wherein only certain professions could use specific weapons and armor. The combat mechanics in the game were shifted from a skill system to a combat level system for both players and game creatures. The UI icon graphics were changed from monochromatic to color. This alteration resulted in controversy caused by players who criticized the changes, and cancellations during that time.

New Game Enhancements
Another set of game changes dubbed the "New Game Enhancements" (NGE) began testing on November 4, 2005, going live on November 15 via digital download, and became available in retail as the Star Wars Galaxies: Starter Kit on November 22. Changes included the reduction of the 34 original professions to nine "iconic" ones.

There were criticisms of the changes in some reviews, and negative player feedback was noted by media outlets outside the gaming industry, including CBS News, New York Times, New York Post and Wired Magazine. On Slashdot, president of SOE John Smedley explained that they felt it necessary to revamp the game to the NGE in order to reverse the deterioration they were seeing in the subscriber base.

The development team affirmed this is their desired direction for the game, and they are slowly modifying parameters to address players' desires. This progress includes the re-introduction of some pre-NGE features that were removed, such as creature handling, target locking, auto-firing, the ability to fire special attacks from their keys, and the option to keep the camera behind the character, rather than the NGE's over-the-shoulder perspective.

Since then, the development team has given each profession a set of "Expertise trees" to bring back some complexity and differentiation to characters.

The NGE caused thousands of players to cancel their accounts, and more or less crippled the game.

This caused groups of former players to try to create pre changes server emulators.

Expansion refund
The Trials of Obi-Wan expansion met with controversy as, two days after the expansion was released, the development team announced the NGE. Many players objected that they would not have purchased the expansion if they had known in advance about the NGE. Sony Online Entertainment eventually offered a refund to players who had purchased the expansion prior to the NGE; though this refund was quickly rescinded due to what the player community believed was an overwhelming number of refund requests.

Subscriber numbers
Many industry professionals expected that the subscription numbers would exceed the one million mark, a feat accomplished only thus far in Asia by MMORPGs such as Lineage and more recently by World of Warcraft. Based on NPD figures as of February 2004, SWG sold more than 300,000 boxed copies at retail for a total initial revenue of over $18 million dollars. Sony Online Entertainment confirmed in March 2004 that there were well over 200,000 monthly subscribers making it the second largest MMORPG in North America. The company later reported in 2004 that they had 250,000 subscribers. In August 2005, Sony Online Entertainment reported that they had now sold 1,000,000 boxed copies of the game. Media sources reported that the subscriber numbers have fallen substantially since the release of the CU and the NGE. In early 2006 after the NGE, allegedly "hacked" numbers purported to show that only 10,363 subscribers were playing on a particular Friday night. The President of Sony Online Entertainment, John Smedley, denied that subscriptions had fallen this low: "Have the numbers in Star Wars Galaxies gone down? I will tell you that the concurrent numbers have gone down. Are they as low as what was shown there? Absolutely not."

As of the second quarter of 2006, according to charts at MMOGchart.com, there were estimated to be between 110,000 and 175,000 subscribers. However, even MMOGchart.com rated the subscriber number as a "C" which mean they are "merely industry 'best guesses' or are otherwise questionable" due to SOE not releasing SWG subscriber numbers.

Awards

 * E³ 2002 Game Critics Awards: Best Online Multiplayer
 * E³ 2001 Game Critics Awards: Best PC Game, Best Online Multiplayer