The Star Wars franchise is no stranger to fan discourse. Most recently, fans have been at odds over the state of the sequel trilogy, but the voices of the fans have been heard by executives even before then. Disappointment over the direction of The Phantom Menace and decisions made even before then have led to an outcry, but one surprising instance of fan outcry came when Star Wars announce its first MMO.
Back in the days of Lucasarts, the developers were working on what would become the iconic (and infamous) Star Wars Galaxies. This would be the first Star Wars MMO title, releasing eight years before Star Wars: The Old Republic and set following the destruction of the first Death Star. Many locations from the films were also included, such as Tatooine, Naboo and Endor. Players could create their own character and pick from multiple professions to embark on classic and new missions set in the Star Wars universe. But one particular omission sparked outrage from one of the franchise's biggest fanbases: the 501st Legion Stormtroopers.
As revealed in a recent GDC Postmortem video, Galaxies received a threat from the 501st Legion to picket and boycott the game. This spun out of a pre-release announcement that Stormtroopers would not be a playable class. Stormtroopers are among the most recognizable armies and villains in science fiction, so this naturally disappointed some fans. However, the 501st Legion was particularly irate at the decision. The 501st Legion is a massive group of devoted fans that cosplay as Stormtroopers, Clone Troopers and other Star Wars villains. They're so massive that they're still around today -- they even helped with The Mandalorian Season 1 when production had a major shortage of Stormtrooper uniforms.
It seemed peculiar, on the outside, that a Star Wars game promoting itself as a roleplaying experience and featuring so many iconic characters and ships from throughout Star Wars was removing the ability to play as one of the series' most iconic figures. However, the reason for the omission wasn't anything sinister. In fact, it was because of a behind-the-scenes secret. At the same time as Galaxies' development, Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones was in production. The developers, who were already under several strict production mandates from Lucasfilm, were told they couldn't include Stormtroopers so as not to reveal the film's upcoming massive retcon that they were all actually clones.
Their decision makes sense from a story perspective, but with a game like Star Wars Galaxies, there was a lot of hype and attention surrounding its development. It just wasn't a very good look to make the franchise's largest army unplayable. Fortunately, the developers were able to keep the peace by explaining that, while Stormtroopers were not a selectable class, players could still obtain their gear and roleplay as a Stormtrooper. It may not have been the solution fans were hoping for but in the grand scheme was a fair and clever compromise.
The fan reaction blew over and, for a time, Star Wars Galaxies was a thriving MMO. However, the story serves as an important lesson that developers are fans too. In some cases, even the most unfair decisions are made with the best intentions. Nevertheless, Star Wars Galaxies enjoyed eight years of service before being shut down, but today is still regarded as an excellent Star Wars MMO that lives on via fan-made servers.