LucasArts and Sony Announces New Star Wars Galaxies CCG

LucasArts and Sony have announced Champions of the Force, a new virtual trading card game being launched as part of the Star Wars Galaxies fifth anniversary celebrations.

Champions of the Force is an online-only collectible card game, available to subscribers with a valid and fully-paid subscription to Star Wars Galaxies. Starter and Booster Packs will be available for purchase through the Sony Online Entertainment Station Store, and players will also receive five free booster packs per month as part of their subscription cost. Decks can be built for either the light or the dark side of the Force, allowing players to engage in trading card combat on behalf of either the Galactic Empire or the Rebel Alliance.

The game will include both story-based solo play as well as one-on-one matches, "Heroic Encounters" and planned tournaments. Over 20 "loot cards" will also be included in the initial Champions of the Force release, which can be traded for virtual items to be used in Star Wars Galaxies.

All-faction "Empire Day" festivities are also scheduled to begin this week, marking the half-decade anniversary with events including Imperial parades, appearances by Princess Leia, in-game fireworks and more. All players will also receive in-game items including an Empire Strikes Back virtual poster, wearable goggles inscribed with a "V," and the opportunity to vote in the Star Wars Galaxies Fifth Anniversary Fan Art Contest.

Champions of the Force is set to launch in late summer 2008.

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If Sony and LucasArts were to announce this as a totally seperate experience, I may have been more jazzed, however, being a past SWG player from the painful inception (remember the account login servers were crashing for days) to the continues delayed patches, nerfs, and eventual re-imaging of the initial game (is it even the same game anymore?), I can't help but be wary.

Is this solely a ploy to attract new subcribers from a game that is a former shadow of what was originally promised? 5 booster packs a month to paid subscribers?!? That almost sounds like a desperate attempt to keep what subscribers they have left, as if to say, "Yeah, we know the core game sucks, but we'll give you a side game as well for free....and we'll give you booster pack every month as well....Don't leave."

Hmmmmm...

Oh whoa Lucasarts announcing another Star Wars game, didn't see that one coming.

I'm only speaking, well writing, for myself but I have never played a good Star Wars game.

Is it just me?

Jedi Knight games weren't half bad, online modes were cool to boot.

Hey, wow, look a new Star Wars game. How completely original.

Start a new franchise please, I'm bored of this one. (Prepares for full-on attack by rabid Star Wars fans).

So if im paying full price for a lackluster MMO; I get the privillege of playing for a (I still dont see the point in the genre at all) virtual trading card game? That sounds so appealing I think my wallet just jumped out my pocket n onto my keyboard.

A Username Not In Use:
I'm only speaking, well writing, for myself but I have never played a good Star Wars game.

Is it just me?

Yes. TIE Fighter is probably one of the best games ever. In this crazy new world of remakes and re-imaginings, LucasArts really needs to commission a new TIE Fighter/X-Wing Alliance title with online play. Even if they tweak down some of the more hardcore flight sim options and put it on consoles it'd be a big win.

The Jedi Knight games were also very good, though I generally don't care for FPSs. Online lightsaber duels were just awesome.

Virgil:

A Username Not In Use:
I'm only speaking, well writing, for myself but I have never played a good Star Wars game.

Is it just me?

Yes. TIE Fighter is probably one of the best games ever. In this crazy new world of remakes and re-imaginings, LucasArts really needs to commission a new TIE Fighter/X-Wing Alliance title with online play. Even if they tweak down some of the more hardcore flight sim options and put it on consoles it'd be a big win.

The Jedi Knight games were also very good, though I generally don't care for FPSs. Online lightsaber duels were just awesome.

Don't forget KOTOR. HK-47 is the best robot ever, in any game film or book, ever.

Virgil:
TIE Fighter is probably one of the best games ever. In this crazy new world of remakes and re-imaginings, LucasArts really needs to commission a new TIE Fighter/X-Wing Alliance title with online play. Even if they tweak down some of the more hardcore flight sim options and put it on consoles it'd be a big win.

true...

the trick in the game design would be in how incentivize uneven teams since the tie's win battles by zerging since they have no shields.

The interesting thing about Star Wars games is that the best of them - X-Wing, TIE Fighter, KOTOR - succeed largely by ignoring everything but the most basic Star Wars connections. X-Wing only touches on the Star Wars plot a few times (until the very end), TIE Fighter does a fantastic job of portraying the Empire from an alternate and far more sympathetic point of view, and KOTOR of course avoids the whole mess by setting itself so far prior to Star Wars that it doesn't even matter. By taking the broad concepts of the universe created by Lucas (which is very cool) and ignoring all the specifics of the story he's hacked together over the years (which are shit) it's possible to end up with some really cool games.

But I'm not seeing the point of a CCG within an MMOG. I don't really get the point of a virtual CCG in the first place, because isn't the point of a collectible card game to collect the cards? Which doesn't even touch on the whole idea of mashing one distinct game type into another for no particular reason beyond, as someone pointed out, a desperate attempt at subscriber retention. I'd think their efforts would be better spent improving SWG itself rather than wedging in some mini-game.

talking about good games away from the original storyline, what about republic comando?