Lucasarts and Sony Online are bound and determined to get their hooks into you. Their latest attempt to appeal to your predilection for Star Wars is the Star War Galaxies Online Trading Card Game. Note the "Galaxies" in the title. Although this is very much a straight-up Star Wars-themed card game, every effort is being made to marry it to the Star Wars Galaxies MMO.

The design looks pretty interesting. Units, items, and tactics are your cards, along with ability cards used by your main character. In addition to the deck, each player has four quest cards, with one of them always active. The winner is the first player to complete all four of his quests. The quests are like the playing fields where cards are played, and they introduce special rules twists. You complete these quests by using your ability cards. However, you can also deploy your cards to you opponent's quest to try to delay him.

One of the things I really liked about the original Star Wars CCG by Decipher was the feeling of laying out a game board with the location cards, and then each player fighting over control of that board. Based on each player's deck, some games were fought in space, some on land, some with military might, some with Force powers, some with grunts, some with heroes. But you never knew where the battles would be fought, because half of the locations were probably in your opponent's deck. You might be ready to take Hoth, but what were you going to do if your opponent laid out Tattoine first and started running away with the game? Unfortunately, the game balance went all to hell as Decipher folding more and more expansion packs into the mix. They lost the Star Wars license in 2001. But it was a great design, and the quest system here seems like it might be able to capture some of what made the original Star Wars CCG so good.

(Note this tidbit from the latest game's FAQ: "In fact, members of the design team for Star Wars Galaxies Trading Card Game have experience with previous Star Wars® games including the popular Star Wars Customizable Card Game released in 1995." I'm not sure what "have experience with" is supposed to mean, considering I "have experience with" the Decipher game myself, having played extensively. But clearly the implication is that some of Deciper's designers worked on the Galaxies game.)

You can play the Star Wars Galaxies Trading Card Game for free, but only using the pre-built starter deck for each of the four factions. After that, it's $10 for additional starter decks and $3 for boosters packs. You can even buy boosters by the box for $100. Those of you who were never into CCGs might think that's kind of extreme. The rest of us are unfazed. Yeah, a hundred dollar box. That sounds about right, except for the fact that these cards are strictly virtual. I don't know of any CCG player who's entirely comfortable with that arrangement and it's the primary reason you won't catch me spending money on an online CCG. I might have blown a foolish amount of cash on the original Star Wars CCG, and at those same rates, but at least I still have the cards in a box in the back of a closet somewhere.

The Galaxies Trading Card Game includes "loot cards", which appear to do nothing in the actual trading card game. Instead, they're like coupons folded into the trading card game. When I registered, I was able to get a rebel flight suit. Not for me, mind you, but for whatever character I might roll up if I decide to play the MMO. Also, if you try the Trading Card Game, and then activate an account in the MMO, you get a free starter deck and five booster packs a month. You also get a Cybernetic Experience Chip you can use in the MMO. It has 50 charges. Each time you flip it on, you enjoy a temporary 20% experience point boost. Think of it as the midichlorian equivalent of steroids. Or, like this game itself, think of it as Sony Online saying "Pleasepleasepleaseplease play Star Wars Galaxies!"