TCG

Pirates -- there have been several iterations now, starting with Pirates of the Spanish Main, with Pirates: Rise of the Fiends being the latest -- is a trading card game. Sorta kind. Or it's a miniatures game in which you don't have to paint the damn miniatures, which is what always stopped me from being a miniatures gamer. Any how you look at it, though, it's a damn clever little thing, and given how kitschy pirates are in general, it's amazing it's been a commercial success. I mean, Wizkids has gone through 10 expansions from the originals now, they actually ran TV commercials for the damn thing, and you can find it at Walmart -- I have to assume it's a commercial success.

Bellatorus is obviously inspired by trading card games (TCGs) like Magic: The Gathering, but it isn't a -trading- card game exactly; you get all the (virtual) cards with the game (and can download more from the developer's site) and edit decks with the provided editing utility--then play out games, either against remote opponents or an AI.

In other words, all the cards are available to you at all times, and you don't have to pay for more.

The Noks is a very weird game--if it's a game at all.

Partly, it's a system of collectibles. There are several hundred "Noks" in the world at present, and the developers plan to add more over time. You can think of Noks as something like, say, Magic: The Gathering cards, except that they aren't cards. They're animated 3D avatars with backstories. Some of them sing songs or perform music. And most have something to tell you about the game itself, or the backstory of the Noks universe. To understand that universe, you'll need to collect--well maybe not "them all," but lots of them.

If you took a trading card game (TCG) like Magic: The Gathering, added some board wargame mechanics, and threw in an online player-matching server, you'd have something very much like SpiritWars.

As in Magic, you have a 'hand' of spells you can cast, with your hand replenished one card per turn. Some of the spells create power sources (think Magic lands), of differing colors; others create defenders who do not move, but can be used to block attacks of enemies nearby on more vulnerable creatures (think walls). Still others are units that can move and attack--think creatures.

Magnant is a charming little indie real-time strategy game in which you control a colony of intelligent, technologically sophisticated ants waging battle against other ant colonies and the evil bees and beetles. It has all the usual RTS tropes--resource extraction, building construction, and real-time combat--as well as a pretty cool version of online play.

Astral Masters is a fantasy-themed trading card game (TCG). In other words, it's something like Magic: The Gathering, albeit simpler. It has two big things going for it: First, the interface is slick. Unlike some digital TCGs that try to replicate the tabletop TCG experience too closely, it's easy to figure out what each card does and how to deploy it effectively. Second is the price--a mere $20. Magic Online charges you by the card, and your cost can accumulate pretty rapidly; many other TCGs also have a "boosterpack" or subscription model. For a reasonably low, fixed price, you can play Astral Masters forever.