It seems that even in a galaxy far, far away people still like to boogie.  Rock Paper Shotgun have reported a little-known easter egg whereby entering the /getdown chat command will cause your character to switch into “shameless rug-cutting” mode in BioWare’s popular Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO.

Apparently, the dance vibe this elicits is so strong that in-game enemies will refrain from attacking characters while they’re dancing in this fashion.  I guess even Dark Jedi won’t stop the music.  

While this is amusing in and of itself, the real story here is that BioWare and EA have inexplicably been banning accounts of users who just want to get their jitterbug on, as a string of emails have been circulating the internet:

Dancing is currently not permitted except in special ‘Dance Zones’, and multiple warnings were given not to dance outside these zones.  By ignoring these warnings, the account showed clear intent to continually exploit the game.

It’s only a matter of time, I’m thinking, before we have a full galactic reenactment of Footloose on our hands.

Note that the email, which you can read here, was user-submitted to Rock Paper Shotgun.

UPDATE: According to Joystiq (via an email from BioWare), the emails are the work of trolls.

[via RockPaperShotgun]

-Patrick Lindsey