34 replies to this topic

[soxford]

If you are looking for a great strategy game for the mac - have you tried Star Chamber? Its a trading card game where the board play element and strategy is just as important as the cards you own. While the learning curve is pretty steep its well worth the time and effort. For real 2 player strategy I havn't found many other games that are as good, especially for the mac. Each game lasts 20-30 minutes.

Also, the up front cost is small considering you can pick up every common card for free from the online community. For not much more you can be in the Mezz playing against the friendly crowd in there who are happy to help a newbie learn the ropes.

Sony run the game now and its hard to get official support for the mac version. However, you can download the mac client for the game from here - http://homepage.mac....ss/starchamber/

IMG reviewed it in 2006 - http://www.insidemac...view.php?ID=661

See you in the Mezz!
Cheers
Sox

[doctoryes]

I've been playing StarChamber for over two years now. No other game has held my attention for half as long. I wish there were other strategy games as well-designed. It's truly a masterpiece.

As Sox said, it is very complex. There's some pro's and con's to that. The population is very small, but also very intelligent and mature. (The typical online jerk, when he stumbles through, doesn't stay long.) It's more like a chess club than your average CCG.

Sony has pretty much foregone development of the game entirely: no one expects them to release new sets of cards beyond the existing six. Again pro's and con's: everyone likes new cards, but SC already has literally hundreds of viable strategies to pursue.

Also, the saturation of cards among veteran players has driven prices down, so it's a really easy game to get into at any level.

The basic registration is $10. Commons are free (you can only include four of any card in a deck, so extras are given away) and there is a 'Common Ground' setting for matches that disallows any other type of card. So you get ten races each with multiple strategies for $10.

If anyone knows of a game that gives you so much for that price please let me know! I haven't found anything close.

[charmin]

2 accounts with one post each?...

[Zak]

charmin, on June 10th 2008, 12:04 PM, said:

2 accounts with one post each?...

Nah, these guys are on the level.  They're both regular posters on the Star Chamber forums at SOE.

SC is a pretty sweet game.  I just wish SOE would give it the love it deserves.  Also, Mac support is unofficial, but very very stable.  In fact, I find it more stable than the PC version.

EDIT: Typo corrected

[QuantaCat]

..says a guy with four posts..

[the Battle Cat]

I think Zak is OK because of the quality of his few posts.  If he is vouching for these guys then I'll trust him, but doctoryes and soxford... try not to make it look so much like spam.

[mattness]

Hi,

I am yet another mac member of the Starchamber community that would like to add my endorsement for this game.  Sorry if this thread came off as spam, Sox posted this thread to our forums (to which we are all frequent independent contributers), and we all felt like chipping in.  We are a very devoted community of a great game that is now owned by a large company that refuses to promote it or even officially acknowledge that a mac client exists.  As such grassroots player promotion seems to be the best way to attract new players.  We talk about the game lots on our forums, but no one else ever gets to hear it!

Starchamber is a hybrid game combining the best elements of XXXX strategy games like Master of Orion, and CCG card games like Magic the Gathering.  It does it in such a way, that the strengths of one game genre overcome the weaknesses of the other.  If you are a fan of either of those genres, I urge you to read IMG's review of the game.  Its spot on.  Though I don't often post to their forums, I read IMG's reviews, and that is how I originally discovered Star Chamber.  I signed up with IMG back in 2007 in order to leave a user review of the game with a link to the mac client (which I now host on my mac.com website)

I realize that people might be reluctant to try to try a game that no longer has official mac support (I know I would be), but I assure you its worth it.  As the owner of the website that currently hosts the mac client, I do my best to help any new mac players get the game installed and running.  I am not affiliated with SOE.  I have no ads or ad revenue from my hosting site.  I do it for free because I love the game, and love macs.

If anyone has any questions about the game, or the mac client, please reply, and I will be happy to answer them.

Cheers,

-mattness

[soxford]

Sorry guys if it looks like spam. I have been playing SC for a couple of years and just wanted to raise its profile in a forum for mac players who struggle to find quality games to play. Don't take my word for it - check the IMG review then go over and have a look. The lack of promotion by Sony may have pushed it under the radar, especially with the unofficial mac support.

As the other comments here have said, its not for everyone as it take a long time to master - but I and a small group of others love it and there are plenty of players in the Mezz more than willing to help someone through the early angst.

Just hoping to share the fun!
Cheers
sox

[soxford]

3 posts now!!

[mattness]

Ack!  Sox we sound like the same person because we both joined IMG in October of 2007 and we both use "Cheers" in our signing off.   We aren't the same person!  Truely we aren't!

-mattness

[soxford]

Hah ha - you probably joined this forum as well when I was chasing your website details of the mac client! Just took me 8 months to get round to finally post about it!

here's the post from SC dated October 2007...
http://forums.statio...m?topic_id=4887

Nothing wrong with a good old British "Cheers".
Sox

[QuantaCat]

If one of you got an icon, and the other one didn't, it might *seem* as if you put more effort into it :D

[doctoryes]

If this were spam, it would be the lowballingest spam effort of all time. SC is owned by SONY, dudes. Do you think Sony recruited us to go out and find maybe if we're very lucky a dozen more players at $10 each AND convince them that they could get a ton out of the game by playing only free commons?

If you think that makes any sense, believe me, your strategic thinking skills are not up to tackling SC. Stay away at all costs!  

What's in it for us? We love the game and we want more players.

What's in it for you? Awesome game for Mac.

Nothing more sinister than that, I'm afraid.

[DaveyJJ]

I'm actually intrigued and may give it a go myself. Busy getting the first two CTG games done (days away now, in time for the App Store opening!) and need to get the website updated, but still, the gameplay description on the site and art, as well as the premise of the game seems cool. I will make time (he says).

[QuantaCat]

I don't know, it's just too.. similar to spam to convince me :D


low caps names. only a couple of posts. similar creation dates. typing without gramer. "selflessly" promoting. a website. OK, maybe a bit more gramer than I thought, previously.

[charmin]

Trading card games are clearly all about Yu-Gi-Oh!

<dodge/>

[DaveyJJ]

charmin, on June 11th 2008, 02:56 PM, said:

Trading card games are clearly all about Yu-Gi-Oh!

<dodge/>

I'll go gather up the kids and they can play you a game, then!  

They prefer Ticket to Ride (yes, even my nearly 7 year old) and Lost Cities though.

[soxford]

give me a break guys - I read the IMG review a couple of years ago and have been playing SC consistently since then. The variety offered by the trading card element, coupled with the strategy board play really works i think. Remembering how difficult it was to find a good strategy game on the mac I thought I would highlight it in case there were some others out there looking for the same thing.

It's no skin off my nose if you don't check it out, but read the IMG review then go to the official Sony website and the forums over there to see if it's legit.

And sorry, i missed the Upper Case power trip with my user name!

Cheers
SOX

[the Battle Cat]

soxford, on June 11th 2008, 04:16 PM, said:

And sorry, i missed the Upper Case power trip with my user name!

I can change your name to "Soxford" if you would like, or to whatever you want it to be.

[Eric5h5]

Don't pay too much attention to QuantaCat...he was beat up by some spam when he was a little kid.  It's left him a little twitchy ever since then.  Understandable, but very sad.

--Eric