We received a tip from a reader named Lateris, pointing the way over to a discussion on MMORPG.com about a possible new expansion for Star Wars Galaxies. A video originally posted to YouTube purports to show footage of new content coming to the game, and labels the expansion "City of the Skies". The expansion would supposedly allow players to explore the Tibanna Gas Mines of Bespin, introduce two new player races, and raise the game's level cap to 100. Despite the somewhat-convincing video, this rumor seems to be false. When contacted by Massively, an SOE representative stated flatly that the company had nothing to do with the film. He went on to note the enthusiasm of SWG fans, and that the video appears to be assets and video from a number of other Star Wars games edited together. In doing our own brief investigation, we noted several assets that seem to be pulled from the title Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast. The voiceovers used in the video appear to be pulled directly from that game, as does the imagery of the cloud city itself.
Read on below the cut for screenshots from the video and an examination of what appars to be a fan-made forgery - entertaining though it is.
The repost of the video included an explanation that was apparently originally on the YouTube posting. In essence, it offered the story that the video was taken from SOE Austin by one of four departing employees. They were posting it as payback, essentially, getting back at SOE CEO John Smedley, who the unknown poster blamed for their 'firing'. The author went on to say this about the project:
"This is the project John Smedley has not been telling SWG players about. He's known for about a year now that Bioware is working on the Knights of the Old Republic MMO, and him and Lucasarts have been busy thinking up ways to squeeze the remaining SWG playerbase out of one final cash lump sum before everyone jumps ship - and this is it."
Features included in the supposed expansion include a fully explorable Bespin, the addition of the Nautolan and Chiss races as playable characters, and a quartet of new ships. The ships were pulled deep from the Star Wars expanded universe, and included craft like the very recognizable Lambda-class Imperial Shuttle.
While all of this sounds like content the SWG community would really enjoy, it is apparently a fabrication. As mentioned above, several of the assets shown in the film are obviously culled from the Jedi Knights II game, with others lifted from additional recent Star Wars titles. Others video elements are lifted from Galaxies itself, creating a pastiche that - in passing - appears actually very convincing. The only obvious fan element is the voice-over, which suffers from fairly low audio quality.It's definitely interesting to see the level of dedication SWG fans have to their game displayed in this manner. Make sure to check out the trailer while you can to enjoy this impressive player-created homage.
