In an effort to either attract more people back to Star Wars Galaxies, or free space so it will be possible to condense the servers Sony plans to donate money to habitat for Humanity every time a non-active player’s home is destroyed.
"In SOE’s Star Wars Galaxies (SWG) MMO, there was a surplus of player-created houses and buildings that had been abandoned or left unoccupied by players. SOE Austin VP of Development John Blakely wanted to remove the houses, but do so in a way that is uniquely Star Wars – the buildings were marked as "condemned" by the evil Galactic Empire, and scheduled for demolition – TIE fighters would swoop in and bomb the buildings to the ground.
The SWG community was also given the chance to join in the fun of this "urban renewal;" players were provided reward points for the number of buildings they destroyed, which could be redeemed for special in-game items like droids, paintings and furniture. "When we initially conceived this idea, we didn’t know how the community was going to react," said Blakely. "Oddly enough, it was very well received; some players that hadn’t been in the game for months came back to reclaim their property, re-activate their accounts and start playing the game again." "
Sony has not yet released the amount of money that will be donated per virtual house destroyed, nor a figure on the amount of players that have rejoined the game in an effort to help.
