One of the most unique aspects of Star Wars Galaxies was its player Senate system which opened up a more direct line of communication between players and developers. These Star Wars-styled Senators were elected by players to represent their interests in the game to the developers; for example, a senator might run on the platform that they intend to bring forth proposals to revamp a particular ship or rework a game mechanic.

The volunteer-operated Legends server has continued this tradition, and as Legends' relatively small team tackles the various deep systems in this massive Star Wars sandbox, the developers rely heavily on the Senate and its various committees to guide their decisions and focus their efforts where players need them most. Legends project administrator Lokee spoke with Game ZXC about the Senate's role, as well as some hard lines that the developers maintain in terms of senate proposals.

Star Wars Galaxies: Legends' Senate Offers Valuable Insight To Devs

Even among a genre as complex as MMORPGs, Star Wars Galaxies is in a league of its own. The game is riddled with shockingly deep systems, and a small team can't possibly be complete experts in every single area. However, senate committees dedicated to space content or PVP, for example, provide the developers with valuable insights into their favored areas of content and the needs of the communities that engage with those.

They offer feedback on some of the different projects that we have worked on and continue to work on with our veteran rewards overhaul being one of the most recent ones that they've helped us with. We knew that we had a problem that needed a solution with the vet rewards. We pitched it to the Senate and said, “Hey, this is our issue. How would you all like to see this? How would this work?” So now, instead of handing out hundreds of items within the first 10 days of playing, we've added it back into the game inside of engaging content so that new players can come in and feel rewarded from areas they might not otherwise have. That was thanks to the Senate and the committees to be able to do that.

The Senate system is refreshingly transparent and involves the entire community. Senate proposals first have to be voted on by players themselves before they're passed along to the developers, and players can even read through the meeting notes for every Senate meeting, which senators were present, and how they voted. As it becomes increasingly important for games to listen to player feedback, the developer-player relationship that Star Wars Galaxies' Senate system affords may be worth revisiting in future titles.

Legends-Original Content Often Starts In The Senate

In Legends' case, the Senate also helps the developers bring in completely new content like the server's unique ranching and farming gameplay. While Legends' developers have a strong vision and plenty of ideas of their own, many of the project's greatest hits originated on the Senate floor.

One of the most recent notable ones is the entire ranching and farming system. That's an entirely new system that was built into the game based on an idea that came out of the Senate. The crafted ship part reworks, the ITV travel pads inside Bespin , Flashpoint map updates, bazaar search updates, the weapon “freedom of skin” updates, and the museum painting election reward updates. They've helped us to make changes to invasions, space PvP, and to decrease the spawn time of The Hand inside Restuss so that it's easier for those new players to come in and be able to complete the collections they need for their Jedi. They helped us find and point out different areas where we needed to increase or decrease no-build zones around creature lairs and POIs.

Unlike Senator Palpatine, Legends' Senators have fairly limited power in-game. They don't have any extra privileges over other players, and the role is mostly sought out by knowledgeable players who are genuinely passionate about a certain facet of the game. Although it's a system that mostly operates in the background, the Senate in Legends is one of the most compelling features of the project and one that strongly reinforces the feeling of belonging to a galactic community.

Star Wars Galaxies: Legends is free to play on PC with a copy of Star Wars Galaxies.