According to Valara, SWG Community Relations, the players of Star Wars Galaxies have assisted in donating 10,000 to Habitat for Humanity.

At a cocktail reception during the Austin Game Developers Conference, Sony Online Entertainment's (SOE) Austin studio presented the local Habitat for Humanity (HfH) with a $10,000 donation to their efforts to end poverty housing in the area. The funds were raised as part of an in-game event for the company's Star Wars Galaxies Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) video game, where players were allowed to demolish abandoned or unoccupied player-created houses and buildings. Fighters from the Galactic Demolitions Crew swooped down from the stars and bombed the buildings.

A crowd of more than 150 was on hand at the Speakeasy in Austin to see SOE Austin VP of Development John Blakely present Austin HfH Executive Director Michael Willard with an oversized photo check for the donation.

Well isn't that just dandy! Too bad the players were never informed that the House Pack Up was in conjunction with a charity event nor were they invited to participate.

I posted a brief "Eh?" type of message on the SWG forums and while reading the replies I could not figure out why SOE would lie about such a nice thing...well I was trying not to dwell on their past record.

After pondering why SOE/SWG would create this somewhat fictitious press release. I asked my Husband. (Masters in Business) His opinion was by including an in game event, it allows SOE/SWG to use the game as part of a tax deduction in addition to the 10,000 cash.

That makes sense.

I'm not one to take credit for something I had nothing to do with. Even though SWG/SOE's intentions were good, I feel used.

Perhaps next time they will actually allow players to be involved in a charitable event. I bet ya they would get more than 10,000 and real, honest publicity to go along with it.

Note: If links are missing or broken it is due to the heavy censorship on the SWG/SOE boards.