Star Wars Galaxies Reconnaissance

RPGvault has bucketfuls of recent forum postings from the team of the MMORPG in the works, Star Wars Galaxies. Here's a smidgeon from Shug Ninx:

One of our overall goals is to immerse players in a recreation of the Star Wars Universe. This means that we must stay faithful to the look and feel of the films: Tusken Raiders need to be dangerous; Tatooine should have familiar landmarks; and Jabba's laugh should be unmistakable. When creating environments, characters, and vehicles, we'll be drawing inspiration from virtually every Star Wars source, including the comics, games, and novels. Visually, we'll be remaining faithful to all current continuity.

In terms of the "history" of the Star Wars Universe, we decided early on that our virtual recreation of the galaxy will be based on a "snapshot" of the Star Wars galaxy as it exists early in the Galactic Civil War. Given the time period, we've tried very hard to make sure that nothing we create or establish contradicts what is already known about this time period. We're only going to push the boundaries of continuity when absolutely necessary to provide a great gaming experience.

However, once the servers go live, each individual galaxy (on each server) will begin to evolve and change in its own way. And, as Danbu_Lapitt has pointed out in the original thread, the players will indeed be able to shape the Star Wars galaxy. We really want to give players the freedom to make the galaxy their own without destroying the overarching storyline portrayed in the films. (Are we going to let you kill Luke Skywalker? Probably not. Can you help free a major location from Imperial rule? We certainly hope so).

After you're through reading at RPGvault, e-gondola your way over to the Official Star Wars Galaxies page if you feel like browsing or joining the active community.