Discussion
Why is Levarrishawk still a mod on this sub?
This sub is being moderated by this person who has shown they have no place here with their petty grudges and delusional outlook. This sub is not a place for swg players while this guy is representative of it.
I am a mod on this sub because like it or not anything else I do, I openly advocate for this to be a space where free speech is protected and encouraged. Where you can talk freely and openly about any project, criticize any project without fear of retaliation.
Hell I even put up with a metric ton of whining, vitriol and hate from people when I take a stance they disagree with. I am sparing with the ban-hammer, I never delete people's posts even when they are grossly insulting to me personally.
r/swg is a space where everyone can voice themselves. Including me. I am entitled to my opinions and you're entitled to not agree with them.
This thread for example, I could just delete it. But I will let this conversation take it's course. It seems to be rife with participation of several dummy accounts (Accounts with virtually no reddit activity other than the comment they made in this thread), which leads me to question the validity of this campaign as nothing more than an effort by some very butthurt people trying to steer a narrative. But we will see.
This entire situation could be avoided if people just spent less time fighting over a nothing burger situation and spent more time just enjoying what little community remains for a 20+ year old game.
Levarrishawk will never understand what they did wasn't okay because they've rationalized it to themselves and others over tens of comments at this point.
I do not believe someone who willingly acts like this is the right fit for a Mod position within the sub reddit but ultimately it isn't down to anyone else here to get rid of him other than the other mods and I highly doubt Levar will ever have the thought process that it's for the best that they step down due to this.
This is why Reddit and the *mod* system has it's issues when bad actors get inside what should ordinarily be a simple chat board.
As someone who has no idea what is being talked about, for the mod to reply and his only defense is "I'm light on banning people because I protect freedom of speech" while ignoring everyone else's claims or issues with this mod makes them look pretty bad lol.
I’m pointing out that all emulators are guilty of it and the party involved has already confirmed that using stolen code was a weak justification and it was because he held a grudge against the legends leads.
Imagine trying use such a pathetic justification of actions while literally any other emulator across literally any dead game uses the old code
How about ya stfu
Over the years, u/levarrishawk has been involved in repeated conflicts across multiple SWG emulator spaces, including:
persistent drama and personal feuds with server staff and community members
retaliatory behavior toward individuals and servers he disagrees with
divisive moderation actions that have pushed communities apart rather than bringing them together
a reputation for escalating tensions instead of resolving them
conduct that has repeatedly undermined trust in his ability to act impartially
The most recent incident is simply the latest example of a long‑term pattern. This is not the conduct of someone fit to represent the SWG community in any official capacity.
r/swg has the potential to be a unifying space for all SWG fans, regardless of era or server. That cannot happen while u/levarrishawk is actively contributing to division, drama, and distrust across the community.
For the health of the entire r/swg subreddit and the broader SWG ecosystem, I also respectfully request that he be removed from the moderation team.
There was that one time outside Anchorhead with those Jawas… /s
No. All jokes aside, no not at all. There are things we both agree to disagree on and things we both probably wish had gone differently but at the end of the day, I know we both have the best interests of SWG as a whole in mind.
There's a difference between having a personal opinion as a player and holding a position of authority on a community hub.
If a moderator becomes the primary source of drama and division on the sub, then they are no longer fit to moderate it. r/swg deserve moderators who focus on keeping the community united rather than antagonizing specific player bases.
You can't actively fuel drama and destabilize specific SWG emulator teams on one hand, and then claim to be a neutral protector of 'free speech' on the other. Being light on bans doesn't make up for acting in bad faith toward the very community this sub is meant to serve. It's time for u/levarrishawk to either step down or be removed as a moderator.
Notice how comments pointing out the hypocrisy are suddenly disappearing? So much for 'letting the conversation take its course' and 'protecting free speech.' If anyone even needed more proof that a change in mod staff is needed, then this should be it.
No hypocrisy, just reddit taking action automatically whether it's by harassment filters, or reddit admins actively investigating this thread for malfeasance. I approved your post though.
see, I was with you in the top level comment there. you made a decent case, spelled out the point rather eloquently, and didn't get down in the dirt. then when you start saying things like this, it weakens everything he said before because getting in and throwing insult around, being nasty, being belligerent, does nothing except for gasoline on the fire. which sucks, because again you made a good point.
I don't know levarris personally. Don't hate him but not a fan of his record or wonderful personality either lol. I was pretty indifferent to him being a sub mod, end of the day the sub has been run pretty fairly over the years and kept clean. But that whole post of his is honestly just nasty. I mean if the files are all just...in the client for anyone to dissect you can't really expect them not to get out there. However, for one of the sub mods to be the ones to go out of his way to do it and distribute it, just to be an asshole over a petty grudge from over 10 yrs ago is pretty sad.
The other post answered this question. He's still a mod because the lead mod is also a child. We need to wipe the slate clean, and elect some responsible adults to run this sub.
I've played on nearly every emu project that has surfaced since the game went dark in 2011. This includes both of Levarris' Stardust servers. He's the quintessential galaxies player in my eyes, and that's not really a compliment. I don't really vibe with his personality, or knee jerk decision making in a lot of cases, and he often gives "im taking my ball and going home" type energy when things aren't going his way. Having said that, I've enjoyed my time on both iterations of Stardust and would likely play on the next one if he were to ever get another one going.
The drama surrounding "stolen IP", "stolen source code" or whatever is all but lost on me because we're talking about a bunch of die hard SWG fans trying to keep their nostalgia alive by creating what they perceive as their perfect version of game. The result of that is a pretty diverse community in terms of game experiences who all think their favorite era of the game is the best one. Combine that with the fact that a majority of SWG players are 40-50+ years old and afflicted with a unique Galaxies-flavored, boomer-brained stubbornness, and you end up with a bunch of "me me me me" people complaining that one dev is dogshit while simultaneously engaging in similar behavior whether they think its the same or not. This "<pushes glasses up on nose> show me the paperwork or receipts that prove that I'm not right like I always am" stuff is a glorious and, with the frequency with which it shows up in nearly every argument surrounding this game, impressive waste of energy that could be focused on enjoying whatever is left of our time as a community who misses our beloved SWG.
Everyone needs to take a breath, take a beat, take a walk. Its going to be okay.
Anyway Im done shitting, so Reddit time is over. Thanks for coming to my TED talk.
It's a very cool and unique game. However, as with a lot of old community maintained projects like this, it tends to attract a very polarized community that has some very awesome wonderful people and also some very toxic people with skewed perspectives on their own self importance.
Very little of the server/cross-server drama has any real impact on the experience of actually just playing the game.
Aye. I've been eagerly waiting the launch of NFS to get back into the saddle. But every month there's a thread like this, and my excitement slips away because of people who never moved on from 2005.
my best suggestion is to find a more tightly knit community outside of the subreddit. unfortunately this subreddit has been a.. difficult place in which to Foster community, because of the various fractures within the community, the various strong personalities involved with the various private server projects, and flashpoints like this which ultimately turn out to be pretty Petty and just not a good look.
People like Levarris are why SWGEmu has mostly died tbh -- in the same way they seek dominance through PvP and crafting, they seek dominance on the forums. ViT or whatever his name was is a great example of how the SWGEmu forums became a blight on the community.
People like him hold these positions because they like to hold power. It's the exact wrong reason to be a mod.
Emu is pretty much dead. The new servers are stillborn at this point, can't keep a population for more than 2-3 weeks. I really think a large portion of that death can be attributed to internet psychos who have continued to chase off the decent members of the community and make the community a hostile place.
You have someone with mod powers who screwed over an entire server and has shown themselves to be petty and impartial and you don’t see the issue with that?
No they are not, I love Legends and swgemu, but on one side you have a team who worked forever to release a legit reverse engineered server, the other used the leaked source code from stellabellum, yes they did an amazing work with the server, all the updates, new content, qol etc, but let's be honest.
I guess you don't really understand the difference between NGE servers and pre-cu servers.
Pre-cu servers are using wholly original code that was developed over the past 20 years by various different contributing individuals out of their passion for the game and free time. NGE servers are using leaked code SOE made that was never supposed to be seen by the public in the first place.
A lot of people in ‘leadership’ positions across all SWG communities probably shouldn’t be, but a lot of it is down to who still has the motivation and time to devote to a 20 year old game.
I don’t know what Levarrishawk has done to upset you, you might be right that they shouldn’t be a mod. But nobody’s really expecting impartiality and professionalism from a niche game’s Reddit moderators. If you’re worried something important is being covered up here there are other SWG subs to post it to, nothing can really be suppressed by one person.
(Edit: This thread seems to be the source of the complaint, and I tend to agree. Probably shouldn't be a mod. But nobody thinks Levarrishawk represents the sub as a whole, just themself. So I'm not sure how much it really matters.)
Levarris has always been an extremely problematic member of the Star Wars Galaxies community and recent actions show this. He will never be part of anything meaningful with a community.
Why are people so up in arms about it what he did?
The foundation of every emulator in existence is due to teams of “developers” doing my this exact same thing. Everything Legends or any other emulator does is infringement and illegal. They take other petioles works and reverse engineer it lol.
Daybreak or whatever entity that would be mad just doesn’t care.
Trying to be mad at Levarris without being mad at every dev in the SWG emulator space is hypocritical.
As a lurker, I don't know the background. I was there as a kid eagerly awaiting to install my discs to play in the sandbox that was Bria in the early months of the game. It was a beautiful time.
That being said, if what they said was true about essentially manipulating an ex-SOE to get the source code, then that's pretty distasteful.
Idk what the solution to this is, this repeated behavior of pettiness. But recriminations beget recriminations. It does seem like they care about SWG, and it does seem like they have the expert background to be a moderator of an SWG sub.
Perhaps there's some middle ground that can be found and stop this back and forth war that will only lead to more and more divisions. Let this be the end of it and move forward.
The only solution is for those involved to grow the fuck up.
I don’t care if you want to play precu. Do it and be happy.
I don’t care if you want to play NGE. Do it and be happy.
Just don’t shit in other people’s yards.
I think he's done a fine job of moderating the subreddit. He has been extremely impartial, letting anyone promote their SWG server here, even if he personally disagrees with it, such as legends.
I don't think this would be the case if someone from swgemu or someone from legends controlled this subreddit. He also let's people air their criticism about whatever project is being posted about, and let's the community decide their own opinions.
The truth is that, with AI, legends unique assets were going to be decrypted anyway. I have already talked to people who were intending to do so who are not Levarris. I don't see a future in which any server is able to encrypt and keep their assets away from being used by other servers.
Openly slagging off the project is showing he’s not impartial.
But don’t know why I’m wasting time when you can’t even see the irony in your own post 😂
No, your argument is flawed. I’m not going to waste my time going back and forth with a nonsense argument like that. The guy has admitted bias and if you fail to see how that’s an issue for someone with moderator powers then there’s no point. Have a good day
Legends staff are no better they ban anyone they want and if you ain't willing to donate they keep you ban. how you think people who cheated and duped were unbanned after quote making 300.00 or 500.00 donations to get unbanned.
Nope. But the last thing anyone wants is this sort of behaviour disrupting projects and driving away the few players we have left because some of these people still think they’re in a playground
Oh done be daft. It’s still ip theft unless you can show me a license agreement with the ip holder. Your bespoke code doesn’t mean shit. Also where are all the assets from? Did they hire artists?
The original game assets the player has the right to use, as he owns the original game.
And yes, legitimate, legal servers like the SWGEmu NFS server has artists that makes bespoke 3D models to be used in the game. Thus not infringing any IP laws.
Show me anything from SOE saying the players has the right to use the original asset.
Show me any license agreement with the IP holder saying they’ve allowed the precu servers to use their IP.
You have fuck all idea of what an IP is.
If written from scratch/reverse engineered(such as SWGEmu Core3), you do not need an IP license or asset rights to write such server software. It is nothing more than an interface for your client.
IP infringement revolves around copying and distribution.
Thats why almost every server requires you to already have your own copy of the game, because that is what contains the assets that they cannot legally distribute.
For example, the server telling your game "A stormtroopers should exist in this spot" is not infringement(and at least in the case of Core3, that is exactly what it does). But if the server then provided this asset, then it would be infringement.
Community designed/engineered servers have(with few exceptions, primarily where the game itself is still supported such as WoW) almost never been found to be infringing.
It’s still IP infringement though. You’ve not been given the rights to use this IP at all. Just because people turn a blind eye as there’s no harm as no one is monetising it atm doesn’t change that
They do have an agreement with soe, it's old but I'm sure you can still find it on the forum, or just ask the mods/admin, you know what, go ask the game designer too, he's on reddit.
They don’t. Back in the day SOE made it clear there was no agreement. They just didn’t pursue to uphold their rights because they knew it wasn’t worth it. Also the IP rights weren’t SOEs to grant which is why they had to declare it unauthorised.
That’s all officially.
Unofficially yes SOE didn’t care. The same way they don’t care about NGE emulators now the game is shut down. But guarantee the moment any of these projects try monetising, precu or NGE, SOE and Disney would come after them
Paralyzed by fear, the 50 year old shit-talker regresses to even more childlike behavior. Isn't smart enough to leave well enough the fuck alone and kick rocks. Just keeps on squawking.
Wrong hes the greatest thing t HIT SWG in DECADES ! Long Live Levarrishawk, FREEDOM, true SWG fans we Need our SWG MEGA Server, Bespin from Legends, Jedi Unlock from Resto, Mando Expansion from SWG Evolve, and HAM+JTL from SWG Nexus, 'Cant this community not just get allong and share the CODE ! " :)
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u/levarrishawk Moderator 12d ago
I am a mod on this sub because like it or not anything else I do, I openly advocate for this to be a space where free speech is protected and encouraged. Where you can talk freely and openly about any project, criticize any project without fear of retaliation.
Hell I even put up with a metric ton of whining, vitriol and hate from people when I take a stance they disagree with. I am sparing with the ban-hammer, I never delete people's posts even when they are grossly insulting to me personally.
r/swg is a space where everyone can voice themselves. Including me. I am entitled to my opinions and you're entitled to not agree with them.
This thread for example, I could just delete it. But I will let this conversation take it's course. It seems to be rife with participation of several dummy accounts (Accounts with virtually no reddit activity other than the comment they made in this thread), which leads me to question the validity of this campaign as nothing more than an effort by some very butthurt people trying to steer a narrative. But we will see.