From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Players interacting in Ultima Online, a classic MMORPG.

A massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) is a genre of computer role-playing games (CRPGs) in which a large number of players interact with one another in a virtual world. The term MMORPG was coined by Richard Garriott, the creator of Ultima Online, the game credited with popularizing the genre in 1997.^[1][2]

As in all RPGs, players assume the role of a fictional character (often in a fantasy world),^[3] and take control over many of that character’s actions.^[4] MMORPGs are distinguished from single-player or small multi-player CRPGs by the number of players, and by the game’s persistent world, usually hosted by the game’s publisher, which continues to exist and evolve while the player is away from the game.

MMORPGs are very popular throughout the world.^[5] Worldwide revenues for MMORPGs exceeded half a billion dollars in 2005,^[6] and Western revenues exceeded US$1 billion in 2006.^[7]

Common features

Although modern MMORPGs sometimes differ dramatically from their antecedents, many of them share some basic characteristics. These include common themes, some form of progression, social interaction within the game, in-game culture, system architecture, and a large degree of character customization. The characters can often be customized quite extensively, both in the technical and visual aspects, with new choices being added constantly. Players might also “mod” in order to allow for even greater flexibility of choice.

Character abilities are often very specific due to this. Depending on the particular game, the specialties might be as basic as simply having a greater affinity in one statistic, gaining certain bonuses of in-game resources related in-game race, job, etc.

Very often a player’s character design will leak into other creative areas of their life, such as artwork, stories or attempting to keep the same general design in another MMORPG they might play.

Themes

The majority of popular MMORPGs are based on traditional fantasy themes, often occurring in an in-game universe comparable to that of Dungeons & Dragons.^[3] Some employ hybrid themes that either merge or substitute fantasy elements with those of science fiction, sword and sorcery, or crime fiction. Still others use more obscure themes, including American comic books, the occult, and other recognizable literary genres.^[3] Often these elements are developed using similar tasks and scenarios involving quests,^[3] monsters, and loot. As the MMORPG genre matures, and the search for new consumer niches continues, this variety can only be expected to diversify.

Progression

A highly progressed character from EverQuest 2, with mount.

In nearly all MMORPGs, the development of the player’s character is a primary goal.^[3] Many MMORPGs feature a character progression system in which players earn experience points for their actions and use those points to reach character “levels”, which makes them better at whatever they do.^[3] Traditionally, combat with monsters and completing quests for NPCs, either alone or in groups, is the primary way to earn experience points. The accumulation of wealth (including combat-useful items) is also a way to progress in many titles, and again, this is traditionally best accomplished via combat. The cycle produced by these conditions, combat leading to new items allowing for more combat with no change in gameplay, is sometimes pejoratively referred to as the level treadmill,^[3] or ‘grinding’. The role-playing game Progress Quest was created as a parody of this trend.

Also, traditional in the genre is the eventual demand on players to team up with others in order to progress at the optimal rate. This sometimes forces players to change their real-world schedules in order to “keep up” within the game-world.

Social Interaction

Main article: Social Interaction via MMORPGs

MMORPGs almost always allow players to communicate with one another. Depending on the other interactions allowed by the game, other social expectations will be present.

Teamwork

Part of a large bombing mission, bombers and fighter escort teamwork to destroy a factory, while defenders coordinate an interception. View though bombsight of another He111 in World War II Online game.

Many MMORPGs exploit their players’ social skills and offer support for in-game guilds or clans (though these will usually form whether the game supports them or not).^[3] As a result, many players will find themselves as either a member or a leader of such a group after playing an MMORPG for some time. These organizations will likely have further expectations for their members (such as intra-guild assistance).

Even if players never join a formal group, they are still usually expected to be a part of a small team during game play, and will probably be expected to carry out a specialized role (such as healing). In combat-based MMORPGs, usual roles include the “tank“, a character who absorbs enemy blows and protects other members of the team, the “healer“, a character responsible for keeping up the health of the party,^[8] the “DPS (Damage Per Second),” a character specializing in inflicting damage, and sometimes the “CC (Crowd Control),” a character who temporarily controls the opponent, such as the “NPC” (Non-Player Character), and making the opponent lose its control of actions and abilities. Other common roles include being a dedicated “buffer” or “debuffer”, using abilities that affect the team or the opponents in other ways. Any given MMORPG might allow players to take on all of these roles, additional hybrid roles, or none of them. Despite the variability, some players might enjoy one role over others and continue to play it through many different MMORPG titles.

Roleplaying

Some MMORPGs also may expect players to roleplay their characters – that is, to speak and act in the way their character would act, even if it means shying away from other goals such as wealth or experience. However, as this behavior is far from being the norm, most MMORPG players never actually play the roles of their characters.^[9] Still, MMORPGs may offer “RP-only” servers for those who wish to immerse themselves in the game in this way.

MMORPG’s generally have Game Moderators or Game Masters (frequently abbreviated to GM), which may be paid employees or unpaid volunteers who attempt to supervise the world. Some GMs may have additional access to features and information related to the game that are not available to other players and roles.

Culture

Since MMORPGs have so many elements in common, and those elements are experienced by so many people, a common culture of MMORPGs has developed which exists in addition to the culture present within any given game. For example, since MMORPGs often feature many different character “classes”, the games must be balanced in order to be fair to all players, and this has led players of many games to expect “Buffing” or “Nerfing”, which is a term describing the strengthening or weakening of a subset of players, respectively.

As another example, in many older MMORPGs the fastest way to progress was simply by killing the same monsters over and over again, and as this is still common in the genre all MMORPG players know the process as “grinding“. The importance of grinding in MMORPGs, and how much “fun” it contributes to the experience, is constantly debated.

MMORPG addiction, which has been a source of concern for parents,^[10] also affects the culture. Some players might look down on those who invest huge amounts of time into a game, while others might scorn those who can’t put in the time to “play properly.”

[edit] System architecture

Most MMORPGs are deployed using a client-server system architecture. The software that generates and persists the “world” runs continuously on a server, and players connect to it via client software. The client software may provide access to the entire playing world, or further ‘expansions’ may be required to be purchased to allow access to certain areas of the game. Everquest and World of Warcraft are two examples of games that use such a format. Players generally must purchase the client software for a one-time fee, although an increasing trend is for MMORPGs to work using pre-existing “thin” clients, such as a web browser.

Some MMORPGs require payment of a monthly subscription to play. By nature, “massively multiplayer” games are always online, and most require some sort of continuous revenue (such as monthly subscriptions and advertisements) for maintenance and development.

Depending on the number of players and the system architecture, a MMORPG might actually be run on multiple separate servers, each representing an independent world, where players from one server cannot interact with those from another. In many MMORPGs the number of players in one world is often limited to around a few thousands, but a notable example of the opposite is EVE Online which accommodated around 20,000 players in the same world as of August 2007 and 41,690 users online in December 2007.^[11] Some games allow characters to appear on any world, but not simultaneously, others limit each character to the world in which it was created.

History

MUD, an early multi-user roleplaying game

Main article: History of massively multiplayer online role-playing games

Although MMORPGs, as defined today, have only existed since the early 1990s,^[4] all MMORPGs can trace a lineage back to the earliest multi-user games which started appearing in the late 1970s.^[4] The first of these was Mazewar, though more would soon be developed for the PLATO system.^[12] 1984 saw a Roguelike (semi-graphical) multi-user game, called Islands of Kesmai.^[12] The first “truly” graphical multi-user RPG was Neverwinter Nights, which was delivered through America Online in 1991 and was personally championed by AOL President Steve Case.^[12] Other early proprietary graphical MMORPGs include three on The Sierra Network: The Shadow of Yserbius in 1992, The Fates of Twinion in 1993, and The Ruins of Cawdor in 1995.

When NSFNET restrictions were lifted in 1995, the Internet was opened up to developers, which allowed for the first really “massive” titles. The first success after this point was Meridian 59, which also featured first-person 3D graphics,^[13] although The Realm Online appeared nearly simultaneously and may be credited with bringing the genre to a wider player-base.^[12] Ultima Online, released in 1997, may be credited with first popularizing the genre,^[12] though Nexus: The Kingdom of the Winds was primarily responsible for mainstream attention throughout Asia which was released in 1996, about a year earlier than Ultima Online. It was EverQuest that brought MMORPGs to the mainstream in the West.^[12]

These early titles’ financial success has ensured competition in the genre since that time. MMORPG titles now exist on consoles and in new settings, and their players enjoy higher-quality gameplay. The current market for MMORPGs has Blizzard’s World of Warcraft dominating as the largest pay-to-play MMORPG^[14], alongside earlier such titles like Final Fantasy XI and Phantasy Star Online, though an additional market exists for free-to-play MMORPGs, which are supported by advertising and purchases of in-game items. This free-to-play model is particularly common in Korean MMORPGs such as MapleStory and Rohan: Blood Feud. One exception, however, is Guild Wars, which avoids competition with other MMORPGs by only requiring the initial purchase of the game to play.

Psychology

Since the interactions between MMORPG players are real, even if the environments are virtual, psychologists and sociologists are able to use MMORPGs as tools for academic research. Sherry Turkle, a clinical psychologist, has conducted interviews with computer users including game-players. Turkle found that many people have expanded their emotional range by exploring the many different roles (including gender identities) that MMORPGs allow a person to explore.^[15]

Nick Yee has surveyed more than 35,000 MMORPG players over the past several years, focusing on psychological and sociological aspects of these games. Recent findings included that 15% of players become a guild-leader at one time or another, but most generally find the job tough and thankless;^[16] and that players spend a considerable amount of time (often a third of their total time investment) doing things that are external to gameplay but part of the metagame.^[17]

Many players report that the emotions they feel while playing an MMORPG are very strong, to the extent that 8.7% of male and 23.2% of female players in a statistical study have had an online wedding.^[18] Other researchers have found that the enjoyment of a game is directly related to the social organization of a game, ranging from brief encounters between players to highly organized play in structured groups.^[19]
In a study by Zaheer Hussain, B.Sc., M.Sc. and Mark D. Griffiths, Ph.D., it was found that just over one in five gamers (21%) said they preferred socializing online to offline. Significantly more male gamers than female gamers said that they found it easier to converse online than offline. It was also found that 57% of gamers had created a character of the opposite gender, and it is suggested that the online female persona has a number of positive social attributes. ^[20]

Richard Bartle classified multiplayer RPG-players into four primary psychological groups. His classifications were then expanded upon by Erwin Andreasen, who developed the concept into the thirty-question Bartle Test that helps players determine which category they are associated with. With over 200,000 test responses as of 2006, this is perhaps the largest ongoing survey of multiplayer game players.^[21]

In World of Warcraft, a temporary programming glitch attracted the attention of psychologists and epidemiologists across North America, when the “Corrupted Blood” ability of a monster began to spread unintentionally into the wider game world. The Center for Disease Control used the incident as a research model to chart both the progression of a disease, and the potential human response to large-scale epidemic infection.^[22]

Economics

See also: Real-money trading

A user browsing the market for items in EVE Online

Many MMORPGs feature living economies. Virtual items and currency have to be gained through play and have definite value for players.^[23] Such a virtual economy can be analyzed (using data logged by the game)^[23] and has value in economic research; more significantly, these “virtual” economies can have an impact on the economies of the real world.

One of the early researchers of MMORPGs was Edward Castronova, who demonstrated that a supply-and-demand market exists for virtual items and that it crosses over with the real world.^[24] This crossover has some requirements of the game:

• The ability for players to sell an item to each other for in-game (virtual) currency.
• Bartering for items between players for items of similar value.
• The purchase of in-game items for real-world currency.
• Exchanges of real-world currencies for virtual currencies.
• The creation of meta-currencies such as DKP, or Dragon Kill Points, to distribute in-game rewards.^[25]

The idea of attaching real-world value to “virtual” items has had a profound effect on players and the game industry, and even the courts. Castronova’s first study in 2002 found that a highly liquid (if illegal) currency market existed, with the value of Everquest’s in-game currency exceeding that of the Japanese yen.^[26] Some people even make a living by working these virtual economies; these people are often referred to as gold farmers, and may be employed in game sweatshops.^[27]

Game publishers usually prohibit the exchange of real-world money for virtual goods, but others actively promote the idea of linking (and directly profiting from) an exchange. In Second Life and Entropia Universe, the virtual economy and the real-world economy are directly linked. This means that real money can be deposited for game money and vice versa. Real-world items have also been sold for game money in Entropia, and some players of Second Life have generated revenues in excess of $100,000.^[28]

Some of the issues confronting online economies include:

• The use of “bots” or automated programs, that assist some players in accumulating in-game wealth to the disadvantage of other players.^[29]

• The use of unsanctioned auction sites, which has led publishers to seek legal remedies to prevent their use based on intellectual-property claims.^[30]

• The emergence of virtual crime, which can take the form of both fraud against the player or publisher of an online game, and even real-life acts of violence stemming from in-game transactions.^[31]

Linking real-world and virtual economies is rare in MMORPGs, as it is generally believed to be detrimental to gameplay. If real-world wealth can be used to obtain greater, more immediate rewards than skillful gameplay, the incentive for strategic roleplay and real game involvement is diminished. It could also easily lead to a skewed hierarchy where richer players gain better items, allowing them to take on stronger opponents and level up more quickly than less wealthy but more committed players.^[32]

Development

The cost of developing a competitive commercial MMORPG title often exceeds $10 million.^[33] These projects require multiple disciplines within game design and development such as 3D modeling, 2D art, animation, user interfaces, client/server engineering, database architecture, and network infrastructure.^[34]

The front-end (or client) component of a commercial, modern MMORPG features 3D graphics. As with other modern 3D games, the front-end requires expertise with implementing 3D engines, real-time shader techniques and physics simulation. The actual visual content (areas, creatures, characters, weapons, spaceships and so forth) is developed by artists who typically begin with two-dimensional concept art, and later convert these concepts into animated 3D scenes, models and texture maps.^[35]

Developing an MMOG server requires expertise with client/server architecture, network protocols, security, and relational database design. MMORPGs include reliable systems for a number of vital tasks. The server must be able to handle and verify a large number of connections, prevent cheating, and apply changes (bug fixes or added content) to the game. A system for recording the game’s data at regular intervals, without stopping the game, is also important.^[36]

Maintenance requires sufficient servers and bandwidth, and a dedicated support staff. Insufficient resources for maintenance lead to lag and frustration for the players, and can severely damage the reputation of a game, especially at launch. Care must also be taken to ensure that player population remains at an acceptable level by adding or removing servers (“shards”). Peer-to-peer MMORPGs could theoretically work cheaply and efficiently in regulating server load, but practical issues such as asymmetrical network bandwidth and CPU-hungry rendering engines make them a difficult proposition. Additionally, they would probably become vulnerable to other problems including new possibilities for cheating. The hosted infrastructure for a commercial-grade MMORPG requires the deployment of hundreds (or even thousands) of servers. Developing an affordable infrastructure for an online game requires developers to scale to large numbers of players with less hardware and network investment.^[37]

In addition, the development team will need to have expertise with the fundamentals of game design: world-building, lore and game mechanics,^[38] as well as what makes games fun.^[39]

Non-corporate development

Though the vast majority of MMORPGs are produced by companies, many small teams of programmers and artists have attempted to contribute to the genre. As shown above, the average MMORPG development project requires enormous investments of time and money, and running the game can be a long-term commitment. As a result, non-corporate (or independent, or “indie“) development of MMORPGs is less common compared with other genres. Still, many independent MMORPGs do exist, representing a wide spectrum of genres, gameplay types, and revenue systems.

Some independent MMORPG projects are completely open source, while others like PlaneShift feature proprietary content made with an open-source game engine. The developers of Endless Online have also released development information with details about their coding.^[40]

The WorldForge project has been active since 1998 and formed a community of independent developers who are working on creating framework for a number of open-source MMORPGs.^[41] The Multiverse Network is also creating a network and platform specifically for independent MMOG developers.^[42]

Trends as of 2008

As there are a number of wildly different titles within the genre, and since the genre develops so rapidly, it is difficult to definitively state that the genre is heading in one direction or another. Still, there are a few obvious developments. One of these developments is the raid group quest, or “raid”,^[43] which is an adventure designed for large groups of players (often twenty or more).

Instance dungeons

Another is the use of instance dungeons. These are game areas that are “copied” for individual groups, which keeps that group separated from the rest of the game world. This reduces competition, and also has the effect of reducing the amount of data that needs to be sent to and from the server, which reduces lag. World of Warcraft‘s “raids”, mentioned above, are often instance dungeons, as are all of the combat areas in Guild Wars. Also the creators of Ragnarok Online introduced an instanced dungeon called Endless Tower. This is, however, the only instanced dungeon in the game. The Dungeon Runners is, like Guild Wars, instanced, excluding Player vs Player areas.

Solo play

Although these games are multiplayer, and intended to be played in groups for the best experience, most now provide solo content, or adventures a player character can do on their own. It can be difficult to find a group to adventure with, and this allows people to play the game without waiting around in safe areas like cities for a long period of time. This change turned out to be popular, and some of the older MMORPGs such as Dungeons & Dragons Online were retrofitted to make solo play easier. Adding to the popularity is a side effect: some people prefer to solo. To encourage players to continue grouping, many games reward grouping by giving grouped players bonuses such as more experience points than they would otherwise get soloing.

Player-created content

Increased amounts of “Player-created content” may be another trend.^[44] From the beginning, the Ultima Online world included blank 30-page books that players could write in, collect into personal libraries and trade; in later years players have been able to design and build houses from the ground up. Some non-combat-based MMORPGs rely heavily on player-created content, including everything from simple animations to complete buildings using player-created textures and architecture like A Tale in the Desert. However, these games are very different from the far more popular “standard” MMORPGs revolving around combat and limited character trade skills. Player-created content in these games would be in the form of areas to explore, monsters to kill, quests to carry out and specific in-game items to obtain. The Saga of Ryzom was the first of these “standard” MMORPGs to offer players the ability to create this type of content. Again, whether or not this becomes mainstream is anyone’s guess.

Use of licenses

The use of licenses, common in other video game genres, has also appeared in MMORPGs. 2007 saw the release of The Lord of the Rings Online, based on J. R. R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth. Other licensed MMORPGs include The Matrix Online, based on the Matrix trilogy of films, Warhammer Online, based on Games Workshops tabletopgame, Star Trek Online, Star Wars Galaxies and Age of Conan. Additionally, several licenses from television have been optioned for MMORPGs, for example Stargate Worlds, which is currently in development. The process is also apparently being applied in reverse, with James Cameron designing an MMORPG that will precede a film (Project 880) to which it is tied.^[45]

Console-based MMORPGs

Although MMORPGs are largely available on personal computers, at least two major videogame developers have announced plans for console-based MMORPGs. The Age of Conan product’s release for the Xbox 360 is currently delayed based on “user feedback.”^[46][47]

See also

• History of MMORPGs
• List of MMORPGs
• List of free MMOGs
• List of text-based MMORPGs
• Comparison of MMORPGs
• Online game
• MOG
• MMOG
• MMOFPS
• MMORTS
• Private server

References

The Star Wars logo, as seen in all films

Star Wars portal

Star Wars is an epic space opera franchise initially conceived by George Lucas. The first film in the franchise was simply titled Star Wars, but later had the subtitle Episode IV: A New Hope added to distinguish it from its sequels and prequels.^[1] Star Wars was released on May 25, 1977 by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, spawning two immediate sequels released in three-year intervals. Sixteen years after the release of the trilogy’s final film, the first in a new prequel trilogy of films was released, again released in three-year intervals, with the final film released in 2005.

As of 2008, the overall box office revenue generated by the six Star Wars films has totalled approximately $4.3 billion, making it the third-highest grossing film series^[2], behind only Harry Potter and James Bond.

The franchise has spawned other media including books, television series, video games, and comic books. These supplements to the film trilogies comprise the Star Wars Expanded Universe, and have resulted in significant development of the series’ fictional universe. These forms of media kept the franchise going in the interim between the film trilogies. In 2008, Star Wars: The Clone Wars was released to theaters as the first ever worldwide theatrical Star Wars film outside of the main trilogies. It was the franchise’s first animated film, and was intended as an introduction to the Expanded Universe series of the same name, a 3D CGI animated series based on a 2003 animated 2D series, also of the same name.

Setting

The events depicted in Star Wars media take place in a fictional galaxy. Many species of alien creatures (often humanoid) are depicted. Robotic droids are also commonplace and are generally built to serve their owners. Space travel is common, and many planets in the galaxy are members of a Galactic Republic, later reorganized as the Galactic Empire.

One of the prominent elements of Star Wars is the “Force“, which is an omnipresent form of energy which can be harnessed by those with that ability. It is described in the first produced film as “an energy field created by all living things [that] surrounds us, penetrates us, [and] binds the galaxy together.”^[3] The Force allows users to perform a variety of supernatural feats (such as telekinesis, clairvoyance, precognition, and mind control) and also can amplify certain physical traits, such as speed and reflexes; these abilities can vary from user to user and can be improved through training. While the Force can be used for good, it has a dark side that, when pursued, imbues users with hatred, aggression, and malevolence. The six films feature the Jedi, who use the Force for good, and the Sith, who use the dark side for evil in an attempt to take over the galaxy. In the Expanded Universe many dark side users are Dark Jedi rather than Sith, mainly because of the Rule of Two (see Sith Origin).^{[3][4][5][6][7][8]}

Feature films

The Star Wars franchise began as a film series. The original trilogy comprised three films: Star Wars, released on May 25, 1977, Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, released on May 21, 1980, and Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, released on May 25, 1983. The opening crawl of the sequels disclosed that they were numbered as “Episode V” and “Episode VI” respectively, though the films were generally advertised solely under their subtitles. Once Star Wars became a success and sequels were realized, Lucas numbered the initial film as the fourth episode in his series and gave it the subtitle A New Hope when the film was re-released in 1981.^[3][7][8]

In 1997, to correspond with the twentieth anniversary of the release of Star Wars, Lucas released “Special Editions” of the three films to theaters. The re-releases featured alterations to the original films, primarily motivated by the improvement of CGI and other special effects technologies, which allowed visuals that were not possible to achieve at the time of the original filmmaking. Lucas continued to make changes to the original trilogy for subsequent releases, such as the first ever DVD release of the trilogy on September 21, 2004.^[9]

On May 19, 1999, Lucas released the first of the long-awaited prequel trilogy, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. This was followed by Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones on May 16, 2002, and Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith on May 19, 2005.^[10]

Plot overview

The prequel trilogy follows the upbringing of Anakin Skywalker, who is discovered by the Jedi Knight Qui-Gon Jinn. He is believed to be the “Chosen One” foretold by Jedi prophecy to bring balance to the Force. The Jedi Council, led by Yoda, sense that his future is clouded with fear, but reluctantly allow Qui-Gon’s apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi to train Anakin after Qui-Gon is killed by the Sith Lord Darth Maul. At the same time, the planet Naboo is under attack, and its ruler, Queen Padmé Amidala, seeks the assistance of the Jedi to repel the attack. The Sith Lord Darth Sidious secretly planned the attack to give his alias, Senator Palpatine, a pretense to overthrow the Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Republic.^[4] The remainder of the prequel trilogy chronicles Anakin’s fall to the dark side, as Sidious attempts to create an army to defeat the Jedi and lure Anakin to be his apprentice.^[5] Anakin and Padmé fall in love and eventually she becomes pregnant. Anakin soon succumbs to his anger, becoming the Sith Lord Darth Vader. While Sidious re-organizes the Republic into the Galactic Empire, Vader participates in the extermination of the Jedi Order, culminating in a lightsaber battle between him and Obi-Wan. After defeating his former apprentice, Obi-Wan leaves Vader for dead – but Sidious arrives shortly after to save him and put him into a suit of black armor that keeps him alive. At the same time, Padmé dies while giving birth to twins. The twins are hidden from Vader and not told of their true parents.^[6]

Tatooine has two suns, as it is in a binary star system. This shot from A New Hope remains one of the most famous scenes of the entire saga.^[11]

The original trilogy begins 19 years later as Vader nears completion of the massive Death Star space station which will allow him and Sidious, now the Emperor, to crush the rebellion which has formed against the evil empire. He captures Princess Leia Organa who has stolen the plans to the Death Star and hidden them in droid R2-D2. R2-D2, along with his counterpart C-3PO, escape to the planet Tatooine. There, the droids are purchased by Luke Skywalker, son of Anakin, and his step-uncle and aunt. While Luke is cleaning R2-D2, he accidentally triggers a message put into the robot by Leia, who asks for assistance from Obi-Wan. Luke later assists the droids in finding the Jedi Knight, who is now passing as an old hermit under the alias Ben Kenobi. Obi-Wan tells Luke of his father’s greatness, but says that he was killed by Vader.^[12] Obi-Wan and Luke hire the Corellian space pilot and smuggler Han Solo and his Wookie co-pilot Chewbacca to take them to the rebels. Obi-Wan begins to teach Luke about the Force, but allows himself to be killed in a showdown with Vader during the rescue of Leia. His sacrifice allows the group to escape with the plans that allow the rebels to destroy the Death Star.^[3]

Vader continues to hunt down the rebels, and begins building a second Death Star. Luke travels to find Yoda to become trained as a Jedi, but is interrupted when Vader lures him into a trap by capturing Han and the others. Vader reveals that he is Luke’s father and attempts to turn him to the dark side.^[7] Luke escapes, and returns to his training with Yoda. He learns that he must face his father before he can become a Jedi, and that Leia is his twin sister. As the rebels attack the second Death Star, Luke confronts Vader under the watch of the Emperor. Instead of convincing Luke to join the dark side, the young Jedi defeats Vader in a lightsaber duel and is able to convince him that there is still some good in him. Vader kills the Emperor before succumbing to his own injuries, and the second Death Star is destroyed, restoring freedom to the galaxy.^[8]

Themes

See also: Philosophy and religion in Star Wars and The Force (Star Wars)

Star Wars features elements such as (Jedi) knights, witches, and princesses that are related to archetypes of the fantasy genre.^[13] The Star Wars world, unlike science-fiction and fantasy films that featured sleek and futuristic settings, was portrayed as dirty and grimy. Lucas’ vision of a “used universe” was further popularized in the science fiction-horror films Alien,^[14] which was set on a dirty space freighter; Mad Max 2, which is set in a post-apocalyptic desert; and Blade Runner, which is set in a crumbling, dirty city of the future. Lucas made a conscious effort to parallel scenes and dialogue between films, and especially to parallel the journeys of Luke Skywalker with that of his father Anakin when making the prequels.^[4]

Technical information

All six films of the Star Wars series were shot in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1. The original trilogy was shot with anamorphic lenses. Episodes IV and V were shot in Panavision, while Episode VI was shot in Joe Dunton Camera (JDC) scope. Episode I was shot with Hawk anamorphic lenses on Arriflex cameras, and Episodes II and III were shot with Sony’s CineAlta high-definition digital cameras.^[15] Lucas hired Ben Burtt to oversee the sound effects on A New Hope.

Burtt’s accomplishment was such that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presented him with a Special Achievement Award because it had no award at the time for the work he had done.^[16] Lucasfilm developed the THX sound reproduction standard for Return of the Jedi.^[17] The scores for the six Star Wars films were composed by John Williams. Lucas’ design for Star Wars involved a grand musical sound, with leitmotifs for different characters and important concepts. Williams’ Star Wars title theme has become one of the most famous and well-known musical compositions in modern music history.^[18]

Production history

Original trilogy

George Lucas, the creator of Star Wars.

In 1971, Universal Studios agreed to make American Graffiti and Star Wars in a two-picture contract, although Star Wars was later rejected in its early concept stages. American Graffiti was completed in 1973 and, a few months later, Lucas wrote a short summary called “The Journal of the Whills”, which told the tale of the training of apprentice C.J. Thorpe as a “Jedi-Bendu” space commando by the legendary Mace Windy.^[19] Frustrated that his story was too difficult to understand, Lucas then wrote a 13-page treatment called The Star Wars, which was a loose remake of Akira Kurosawa’s The Hidden Fortress.^[20] By 1974, he had expanded the treatment into a rough draft screenplay, adding elements such as the Sith, the Death Star, and a young boy as the protagonist named Annikin Starkiller. For the second draft, Lucas made heavy simplifications, and also introduced the young hero on a farm as Luke. Annikin became Luke’s father, a wise Jedi knight. The “Force” was also introduced as a supernatural power. The next draft removed the father character and replaced him with a substitute named Ben Kenobi, and in 1976 a fourth draft had been prepared for principal photography. The film was titled Adventures of Luke Starkiller, as taken from the Journal of the Whills, Saga I: The Star Wars. During production, Lucas changed Luke’s name to Skywalker and altered the title to simply The Star Wars and finally Star Wars.^[21]

At that point, Lucas was not expecting the film to become part of a series. The fourth draft of the script underwent subtle changes that made it more satisfying as a self-contained film, ending with the destruction of the Empire itself by way of destroying the Death Star. However, Lucas had previously conceived of the film as the first in a series of adventures. Later, he realised the film would not in fact be the first in the sequence, but a film in the second trilogy in the saga. This is stated explicitly in George Lucas’ preface to the 1994 reissue of Splinter of the Mind’s Eye:

It wasn’t long after I began writing Star Wars that I realized the story was more than a single film could hold. As the saga of the Skywalkers and Jedi Knights unfolded, I began to see it as a tale that could take at last nine films to tell—three trilogies—and I realized, in making my way through the back story and after story, that I was really setting out to write the middle story.

The second draft contained a teaser for a never-made sequel about “The Princess of Ondos,” and by the time of the third draft some months later Lucas had negotiated a contract that gave him rights to make two sequels. Not long after, Lucas met with author Alan Dean Foster, and hired him to write these two sequels as novels.^[22] The intention was that if Star Wars were successful, Lucas could adapt the novels into screenplays.^[23] He had also by that point developed a fairly elaborate backstory to aid his writing process.^[24]

When Star Wars proved successful, Lucas decided to use the film as the basis for an elaborate serial, although at one point he considered walking away from the series altogether.^[25] However, Lucas wanted to create an independent filmmaking center—what would become Skywalker Ranch—and saw an opportunity to use the series as a financing agent.^[26] Alan Dean Foster had already begun writing the first sequel novel, but Lucas decided to abandon his plan to adapt Foster’s work; the book was released as Splinter of the Mind’s Eye the next year. At first Lucas envisioned a series of films with no set number of entries, like the James Bond series. In an interview with Rolling Stone in August 1977, he said that he wanted his friends to each take a turn at directing the films and giving unique interpretations on the series. He also said that the backstory where Darth Vader turns to the dark side, kills Luke’s father and fights Ben Kenobi on a volcano as the Galactic Republic falls would make an excellent sequel.

Later that year, Lucas hired science fiction author Leigh Brackett to write Star Wars II with him. They held story conferences and by late November 1977, Lucas had produced a handwritten treatment called The Empire Strikes Back. The treatment is very similar to the final film except that Darth Vader does not reveal he is Luke’s father. In the first draft that Brackett would write from this, Luke’s father appears as a ghost to instruct Luke.^[27]

Brackett finished her first draft in early 1978; Lucas has said he was disappointed with it, but before he could discuss it with her, she died from cancer.^[28] With no writer available, Lucas had to write his next draft himself. It was this draft in which Lucas first made use of the “Episode” numbering for the films; Empire Strikes Back was listed as Episode II.^[29] As Michael Kaminski argues in The Secret History of Star Wars, the disappointment with the first draft probably made Lucas consider different directions in which to take the story.^[30] He made use of a new plot twist: Darth Vader claims to be Luke’s father. According to Lucas, he found this draft enjoyable to write, as opposed to the year-long struggles writing the first film, and quickly wrote two more drafts,^[31] both in April 1978. He also took the script to a darker extreme by having Han Solo become imprisoned in carbonite and left in limbo.^[7]

This new story point of Darth Vader being Luke’s father had drastic effects on the series. Michael Kaminski argues in his book that it is unlikely that the plot point had ever seriously been considered or even conceived of before 1978, and that the first film was clearly operating under an alternate storyline where Vader was separate from Luke’s father;^[32] there is not a single reference to this plot point before 1978. After writing the second and third drafts of Empire Strikes Back in which the point was introduced, Lucas reviewed the new backstory he had created: Anakin Skywalker was Ben Kenobi’s brilliant student; he had a child called Luke but was swayed to the dark side by Emperor Palpatine (who became a Sith and not simply a politician). Anakin battled Ben Kenobi on the site of a volcano and was wounded, but then resurrected as Darth Vader. Meanwhile Kenobi hid Luke on Tatooine while the Republic became the Empire and Vader hunted down the Jedi knights.^[33]

With this new backstory in place, Lucas decided that the series would be a trilogy, changing Empire Strikes Back from Episode II to Episode V in the next draft.^[34] Lawrence Kasdan, who had just completed writing Raiders of the Lost Ark, was then hired to write the next drafts, and was given additional input from director Irvin Kershner. Kasdan, Kershner, and producer Gary Kurtz saw the film as a more serious and adult film, which was helped by the new, darker storyline, and developed the series from the light adventure roots of the first film.^[35]

By the time he began writing Episode VI in 1981 (then titled Revenge of the Jedi), much had changed. Making Empire Strikes Back was stressful and costly, and Lucas’ personal life was disintegrating. Burnt out, and not wanting to make any more Star Wars films, he vowed that he was done with the series in a May 1983 interview with Time magazine. Lucas’ 1981 rough drafts had Darth Vader competing with the Emperor for possession of Luke—and in the second script, the “revised rough draft,” Vader became a sympathetic character. Lawrence Kasdan was hired to take over once again and, in these final drafts, Vader was explicitly redeemed and finally unmasked. This change in character would provide a springboard to the “Tragedy of Darth Vader” storyline that underlies the prequels.^[36]

Prequel trilogy

After losing much of his fortune in a divorce settlement in 1987, Lucas had no desire to return to Star Wars, and had unofficially canceled his Sequel Trilogy by the time of Return of the Jedi.^[37] However the prequels, which were quite developed, continued to fascinate him. After Star Wars became popular once again, in the wake of Dark Horse’s comic line and Timothy Zahn’s trilogy of novels, Lucas saw that there was still a large audience. His children had begun to grow older, and with the explosion of CGI technology he was now considering returning to directing.^[38] By 1993 it was announced, in Variety among other sources, that he would be making the prequels. He began outlining the story, now indicating that Anakin Skywalker would be the protagonist rather than Ben Kenobi, and that the series would be a tragic one examining Anakin’s transformation to evil. Lucas also began to change how the prequels would exist relative to the originals — at first they were supposed to be a “filling-in” of history, backstory, existing parallel or tangential to the originals, but now he saw that they could form the beginning of one long story that started with Anakin’s childhood and ended with his death. This was the final step towards turning the franchise into a “Saga”.^[39]

In 1994, Lucas began writing the first screenplay titled Episode I: The Beginning. Following the release of that film, Lucas announced that he would also be directing the next two, and began working on Episode II at that time.^[40] The first draft of Episode II was completed just weeks before principal photography, and Lucas hired Jonathan Hales, a writer from The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, to polish it up.^[41] Unsure of a title, Lucas had jokingly called the film “Jar Jar’s Great Adventure.”^[42] In writing The Empire Strikes Back, Lucas initially decided that Lando Calrissian was a clone and came from a planet of clones which caused the “Clone Wars” mentioned by Kenobi in A New Hope;^[43][44] he later came up with an alternate concept of an army of clone shocktroopers from a remote planet which attacked the Republic and were repelled by the Jedi knights.^[45] The basic elements of that backstory became the plot basis for Episode II, with the new wrinkle added that the entire event was personal manipulation of Palpatine’s.^[5]
Lucas began working on Episode III even before Attack of the Clones was released, offering concept artists that the film would open with a montage of seven Clone War battles.^[46] As he reviewed the storyline that summer, however, he says he radically re-organized the plot.^[47] Michael Kaminski, in The Secret History of Star Wars, offers evidence that issues in Anakin’s fall to the dark side prompted Lucas to make massive story changes, first revising the opening sequence to have Palpatine kidnapped and Dooku killed by Anakin as the first act in the latter’s turn towards the dark side.^[48] After principal photography was complete in 2003, Lucas made even more massive changes in Anakin’s character, re-writing his entire turn to the dark side — he would now turn primarily in a quest to save Padme from death, rather than the previous version in which that reason was one of several, including that he genuinely believed that the Jedi were evil and plotting to take over the Republic. This fundamental re-write was accomplished both through editing the principal footage, and new and revised scenes filmed during pick-ups in 2004.^[49]

Lucas often exaggerated the amount of material he wrote for the series; much of it stemmed from the post–1978 period when the series grew into a phenomenon. Michael Kaminski explained that these exaggerations were both a publicity and security measure. Kaminski rationalized that since the series’ story radically changed throughout the years, it was always Lucas’ intention to change the original story retroactively because audiences would only view the material from his perspective.^[6][50]

Future releases

At a ShoWest convention in 2005, Lucas demonstrated new technology and stated that he planned to release the six films in a new 3-D film format, beginning with A New Hope in 2007.^[51] However, by January 2007, Lucasfilm stated on StarWars.com that “there are no definitive plans or dates for releasing the Star Wars saga in 3-D.” At Celebration Europe in July 2007, Rick McCallum confirmed that Lucasfilm is “planning to take all six films and turn them into 3-D,” but they are “waiting for the companies out there that are developing this technology to bring it down to a cost level that makes it worthwhile for everybody”.^[52]

Lucas has hinted in the past that he will release future, more definitive editions of the six Star Wars films on a next-generation home-video format.^[53][54] There have been discussions that he will take this opportunity to make any final adjustments, changes, additions, and/or subtractions to his films for this final release. An altered clip from The Phantom Menace included in a featurette on the DVD release of Revenge of the Sith (in which a computer generated Yoda replaces the original puppet) appears to be a sign that the “archival” editions are indeed in the works.^[55] Lucasfilm Vice President of Marketing Jim Ward confirmed that Lucasfilm is likely to do even more work on the films (possibly digital contemporization of the original trilogy), stating “As the technology evolves and we get into a high-definition platform that is easily consumable by our customers, the situation is much better, but there will always be work to be done.”^[56]

Critical reaction

Box office performance

Expanded Universe

Main article: Star Wars Expanded Universe

The term Expanded Universe (EU) is an umbrella term for officially licensed Star Wars material outside of the six feature films. The material expands the stories told in the films, taking place anywhere from 25,000 years before The Phantom Menace to 140 years after Return of the Jedi. The first Expanded Universe story appeared in Marvel Comics‘ Star Wars #7 in January 1978 (the first six issues of the series having been an adaptation of the film), followed quickly by Alan Dean Foster’s novel Splinter of the Mind’s Eye the following month.^[84]

George Lucas retains artistic control over the Star Wars universe. For example, the death of central characters and similar changes in the status quo must first pass his screening before authors are given the go-ahead. In addition, Lucasfilm Licensing devotes efforts to ensure continuity between the works of various authors across companies.^[85] Elements of the Expanded Universe have been adopted by Lucas for use in the films, such as the name of capital planet Coruscant, which first appeared in Timothy Zahn’s novel Heir to the Empire before being used in The Phantom Menace. A character introduced in Dark Horse Comics‘ Star Wars series, a blue Twi’lek Jedi Knight named Aayla Secura, was liked enough by Lucas to be included as a character in Attack of the Clones.^[86]

To date, six films and three animated series have been produced for television, with a live-action series and a 3D CGI animated series in pre-production as well as a 3D CGI full-length theatrical movie, The Clone Wars, scheduled for release on August 15, 2008. Lucas has played a large role in the production of the television projects, usually serving as storywriter or executive producer.^[87] Star Wars has had numerous radio adaptations. A radio adaptation of A New Hope was first broadcast on National Public Radio in 1981. The adaptation was written by science fiction author Brian Daley and directed by John Madden. It was followed by adaptations of The Empire Strikes Back in 1983 and Return of the Jedi in 1996. The adaptations included background material created by Lucas but not used in the films. Mark Hamill, Anthony Daniels, and Billy Dee Williams reprised their roles as Luke Skywalker, C-3PO, and Lando Calrissian, respectively. The series also used John Williams’ original score from the films and Ben Burtt’s original sound designs.^[88]

Other films

In addition to the two trilogies, several authorized films have been produced:

• The Star Wars Holiday Special, a 1978 two-hour television special, shown only once and never released on video. Notable for the introduction of Boba Fett.
• Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure, a 1984 American made-for-TV film – released theatrically overseas.
• Ewoks: The Battle for Endor, a 1985 American made-for-TV film – released theatrically overseas.
• The Great Heep, a 1986 animated television special from the Star Wars: Droids TV series.
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars, a 2008 theatrical release that leads into the animated TV series of the same name.

Animated series

Following the success of the movies and merchandising for both the original trilogy and its spin-offs, two cartoons were created for the younger fan base:

• Droids, also known as Star Wars: Droids, which premiered in September 1985, focused on the travels of R2-D2 and C-3P0 as they shift through various different owners/masters, and vaguely fills in the gaps between the events of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.
• Ewoks, also known as Star Wars: Ewoks and colloquially as The Ewoks, was simultaneously released in September 1985 and focused on the adventures of Wicket and various other recognizable Ewok characters from the original trilogy in the years leading up to Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi.
• Star Wars: Clone Wars cartoon series created by Genndy Tartakovsky that aired on Cartoon Network from 2003 to 2005.
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated series coming off of the animated movie Star Wars: The Clone Wars, scheduled to air in October, 2008.

Literature

Main articles: List of Star Wars books and List of Star Wars comic books

Star Wars-based fiction predates the release of the first film, with the 1976 novelization of Star Wars (ghost-written by Alan Dean Foster and credited to Lucas). Foster’s 1978 novel, Splinter of the Mind’s Eye, was the first Expanded Universe work to be released. In addition to filling in the time between the films, this additional content greatly expanded the Star Wars timeline before and after the film series. Star Wars fiction flourished during the time of the original series (1977–1983) but slowed to a trickle afterwards. In 1992, however, Timothy Zahn’s Thrawn Trilogy debuted, sparking a new interest in the Star Wars universe. Since then, several hundred tie-in novels have been published by Bantam and Del Rey. A similar resurgence in the Expanded Universe occurred in 1996 with the Steve Perry novel Shadows of the Empire, set between Episodes V and VI, and accompanying video game and comic book series.^[89]

LucasBooks radically changed the face of the Star Wars universe with the introduction of the New Jedi Order series, which takes place some 20 years after Return of the Jedi and stars a host of new characters alongside series originals. For younger audiences, three series have been introduced. The Jedi Apprentice series follows the adventures of Qui-Gon Jinn and his apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi before Episode I. The Jedi Quest series follows the adventures of Obi-Wan Kenobi and his apprentice Anakin Skywalker after Episode I and before Episode II. The third and currently on-going series is The Last Of the Jedi series which follows the adventure of Obi-Wan Kenobi and the adventures of a surviving Jedi almost immediately after Episode III.

Marvel Comics published Star Wars comic book series and adaptations from 1977 to 1986. A wide variety of creators worked on this series, including Roy Thomas, Archie Goodwin, Howard Chaykin, Al Williamson, Carmine Infantino, Gene Day, Walt Simonson, Michael Golden, Chris Claremont, Whilce Portacio, Jo Duffy, and Ron Frenz. They also published a Star Wars newspaper strip by Russ Manning, Steve Gerber, and Archie Goodwin, the latter under a pseudonym. In the late 1980s, Marvel announced it would publish a new Star Wars comic by Tom Veitch and Cam Kennedy. However, in December 1991, Dark Horse Comics acquired the Star Wars license and used it to launch a number of ambitious sequels to the original trilogy instead, including the very popular Dark Empire stories.^[90] They have since gone on to publish a large number of original adventures set in the Star Wars universe. There have also been parody comics, including Tag and Bink.^[91]

Games

Main articles: Star Wars computer and video games, List of Star Wars video games, and Star Wars Trading Cards

Since 1982, dozens of video games have been published bearing the Star Wars name, beginning with Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back published for the Atari 2600 by Parker Brothers. Since then, Star Wars has opened the way to a myriad of space-flight simulation games, first-person shooter games, roleplaying games, RTS games, and others. Two different official tabletop role-playing games have been developed for the Star Wars universe: a version by West End Games in the 1980s and 1990s, and one by Wizards of the Coast in the 2000s. The best-selling games so far are the Lego Star Wars and the Battlefront series, with 12 million and 10 million units respectively.^[92][93]

The latest games released are Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, for the PS3, PSP, PS2, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS and Wii. While The Complete Saga focuses on all six episodes of the series, The Force Unleashed, of the same name of the multimedia project which it is a part of, takes place in the largely unexplored time period between Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope and casts players as Darth Vader’s “secret apprentice” hunting down the remaining Jedi. The game features a new game engine, and was released on September 16, 2008 in the United States.^[94][95] There are two more upcoming titles based around the Clone Wars which will be released in November for the Nintendo DS (Star Wars: The Clone Wars – Jedi Alliance and Wii (Star Wars: The Clone Wars – Lightsaber Duels).

Star Wars trading cards have been published since the first ‘blue’ series, by Topps, in 1977.^[96] Dozens of series have been produced, with Topps being the licensed creator in the United States. Some of the card series are of film stills, while others are original art. Many of the cards have become highly collectible with some very rare ‘promos’, such as the 1993 Galaxy Series II ‘floating Yoda’ P3 card often commanding US$1000 or more. While most ‘base’ or ‘common card’ sets are plentiful, many ‘insert’ or ‘chase cards‘ are very rare.^[97]

Fan works

Main article: Star Wars fan films

The Star Wars saga has inspired many fans to create their own apocrypha set in the Star Wars galaxy. In recent years, this has ranged from writing fan-fiction to creating fan films. In 2002, Lucasfilm sponsored the first annual Official Star Wars Fan Film Awards, officially recognizing filmmakers and the genre. Because of concerns over potential copyright and trademark issues, however, the contest was initially open only to parodies, mockumentaries, and documentaries. Fan-fiction films set in the Star Wars universe were originally ineligible, but in 2007 Lucasfilm changed the submission standards to allow in-universe fiction entries.^[98]

While many of the serious fan films have used elements from the licensed Expanded Universe to tell their story, they are not considered an official part of the Star Wars canon. Lucasfilm, for the most part, has allowed but not endorsed the creation of these derivative fan-fiction works, so long as no such work attempts to make a profit from or tarnish the Star Wars franchise in any way.^[99] Lucasfilm’s open support and sanction of fan creations is a marked contrast to the attitudes of many other copyright holders. Some owners, such as Paramount Pictures with the Star Trek properties, have been known to actively discourage the creation of such works by fans.^[100]

Legacy

Main article: Cultural impact of Star Wars

The Star Wars saga has had a significant impact on modern global pop culture. Both the films and characters have been parodied in numerous films and television. Notable film parodies of Star Wars include Hardware Wars, a 13 minute 1977 spoof which Lucas has called his favorite Star Wars parody, and Spaceballs, a feature film by Mel Brooks which featured effects done by Lucas’ Industrial Light & Magic.^[101][102] Lucasfilm itself made two mockumentaries, Return of the Ewok (1982), about Wicket W. Warrick’s actor Warwick Davis, and R2-D2: Beneath the Dome (2002), which depicts R2-D2 “life story”.^[103][104] There have also been many songs based on, and in, the Star Wars universe. “Weird Al” Yankovic recorded two parodies: “Yoda” and “The Saga Begins“.^[105]

When Ronald Reagan proposed the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), a system of lasers and missiles meant to intercept incoming ICBMs, the plan was quickly labeled “Star Wars,” implying that it was science fiction and linking it to Ronald Reagan’s acting career. According to Frances Fitzgerald, Ronald Reagan was annoyed by this, but Assistant Secretary of Defense Richard Perle told colleagues that he “thought the name was not so bad.”; “‘Why not?’ he said. ‘It’s a good movie. Besides, the good guys won.’”^[106] This gained further resonance when Reagan described the Soviet Union as an Evil Empire, which was taken from the opening crawl to A New Hope.^[107]

See also

• Star Wars Portal
• Star Wars on Wikimedia Commons
• Star Wars on Wikiquote

Notes

References

• Arnold, Alan (1980), Once Upon a Galaxy: A Journal of the Making of The Empire Strikes Back, Ballantine Books, ISBN 0345290755, http://www.amazon.com/Once-Upon-Galaxy-Journal-Strikes/dp/0345290755
• Bouzereau, Laurent (1997), The Annotated Screenplays, Del Rey, ISBN 0345409817, http://www.amazon.com/Star-Wars-Screenplays-Laurent-Bouzereau/dp/0345409817
• Kaminski, Michael (2007), The Secret History of Star Wars, http://secrethistoryofstarwars.com/book.html
• Kaminski, Michael (2008), The Secret History of Star Wars (3.0 ed.), http://secrethistoryofstarwars.com/book.html, retrieved on 21 May 2008
• Rinzler, J.W. (2007), The Making of Star Wars: The Definitive Story Behind the Original Film (Star Wars), Del Rey, ISBN 0345494768, http://www.amazon.com/Making-Star-Wars-Definitive-Original/dp/0345494768
• Rinzler, Jonathan (2005). The Making of Star Wars, Episode III – Revenge of the Sith. Del Rey. ISBN 0345431391.

Further reading

• Star Wars, religion, and philosophy
  • Bortolin, Matthew (2005-04-25). The Dharma of Star Wars. Wisdom Publications. ISBN 0861714970.
  • Decker, Kevin S. (2005-03-10). Star Wars and Philosophy. Open Court. ISBN 0812695836.
  • Porter, John M. (2003-01-31). The Tao of Star Wars. Humanics Trade Group. ISBN 0893343854.
  • Snodgrass, Jon (2004-09-13). Peace Knights of the Soul. InnerCircle Publishing. ISBN 0975521470.
  • Staub, Dick (2005-03-25). Christian Wisdom of the Jedi Masters. Jossey-Bass. ISBN 0787978949.
• Joseph Campbell’s influence on Star Wars
  • Campbell, Joseph (1991-06-01). The Power of Myth. Anchor. ISBN 0385418868.
  • Henderson, Mary (1997-11-03). Star Wars: The Magic of Myth. Bantam. ISBN 0553102060.
  • Larsen, Stephen (2002-04-01). Joseph Campbell: A Fire in the Mind. Inner Traditions. ISBN 0892818735.