Why do we need consistent, large-scale alternative formats? Unless I’m some kind of globetrotting casual Netrunner player, the effectiveness of cube drafts or 1.1.1.1 events at getting me back into my store isn’t going to depend on what’s happening at all the other stores.
In fact, I’d argue that top-down one-size-fits-all formats are the exact opposite of what we need. In my experience, the biggest growth in any given community has come from organizers who understand the local player base and know what sort of formats or events will work and which one’s won’t. And the best thing to do for that is what we’ve been doing: provide a wide variety of well-supported formats for them to choose from.
Because Netrunner is probably around 1% of the revenue at most game stores. The vast majority of them will never care enough to come up with their own alternative formats, or research which ones are already out there. If FFG provided an official alternate format with data packs or GNK kits, they would run them.
If ‘everyone coming up with their own alt formats’ was working, then Netrunner’s playerbase wouldn’t be rapidly dwindling the last two years. I don’t really see how continuing as is is a viable option for FFG?
Few month ago, I played a Pokemon Pre-Release tournament. I got a box with defined cards and 4 boosters for build my 40 cards deck. And I was thinking afterwards: WOW, that’s exactly the way I would love to play some Netrunner tournaments. Not a long drafting time, no pre-printed decklists.
Sadly, this is something which only works with TCG. LCG is not designed for pre-release tournaments.
I do think it would be good for the game if FFG provided some prize support for more “casual” events, like the TD launch event (I would have loved to attend one, but there wasn’t one where I was), i.e. events that are not just regular tournaments with the full card pool.
So I do think more launch events are a good idea – although I don’t really know how this would work for data packs, since they provide so few cards at once. Maybe once the 3rd pack of a cycle is out, there could be an event where you play just with the core and that half-cycle? Or there could be a “cycle-finale” event when the last pack of the cycle is released, where people play with the core and that entire cycle?
I’m not a returning player, but a casual player, and not interested in hypercompetitive play. At the same time, I do like attending events. If an event comes with prizes, I think the prizing structure should be reasonably flat, so everybody can get something (ideally); that encourages people to come back and keep playing so they can use their new goodies (at least I work that way).
Local groups I’ve been to have had innovative ideas for events and used GNKs for these, which I think is a good way to get people in who only play occasionally or only casually.
These have been:
Cube Draft
Tournament with fixed decklists, where you were assigned a new random pre-built deck per side each round. These decks were all lists that were popular in tournament play at some stage in the evolution of the game.
Tournament with “ingredients” – a list of underplayed cards for each side; you have to include at least one in each of your decks and get extra points for flavour.
I participated in FightingWaloon’s Online Cache Refresh tournament, too, and I enjoyed that, but of course it is really still very close to the regular tournament format. Also, I don’t like the bidding, so I’m happy we just played normally, both sides in this tournament.
I’m a casual Magic player too - these days I mainly stop by to play two-headed giant at the pre-releases and the occasional draft with friends.
I like the idea of a prerelease like event - show up on the night, pay entry and get given the latest data pack (the 3rd or 6th in the cycle?) and build a deck from core + the cycle or something like that. The buy-in isn’t too high, and there’s some excitement attached to new and untested cards. Everyone is on a bit more of a level playing field.
This would require a fair bit of innovation from FFG to really push it (optimism level: low) but would be applicable to any of their LCGs.
I recently saw a “learn to play SW: Destiny” at a LGS, would be nice to see the same for ANR.
I wonder if there is room for a limited format based only on The Core Set and Deluxe boxes?
ANR can’t easily do MtG-style limited events because a cycle in ANR does not have the depth of a set in MtG. Because of that, any limited format will always require more than the most recent cards.
If we had common events where the cost of entry was one Core and one Deluxe, would new players find that interesting?
I don’t think you could fill an event with nothing but brand new players, so you’d have to have some way for people who already own a complete collection to participate. And honestly, I’m not sure how much new players want to play in events? I think as a new player, 2 things are helpful:
People willing to lend you cards
People willing to play with the same card pool as you.
The solution to both of those is for vets to carry around teaching decks, and use them when playing with new people. Or better yet, stores could have them. I think FFG did have a program to give teaching decks to stores, but the ones I’ve gone to don’t seem to have them.
I’ve tried to create an event that makes it easier for me players while interesting for regulars.
By having a very limited card pool, Allowing proxies, prices given away internet from position and done fun and other elements.
So far it works out. I have people on the list I have never heard before and regulars too. I hope to have ~15 people at the end
Yeah, I’m in the UK, just south of Bristol currently. Would defs be interested in a chase the egg format, can’t guarantee I’d be able to travel to Nottingham for it though.
The Chase the egg is on today. Please let us know how it goes. In particular I’d be interested to know what the balance is like between the two sides and I’d like to know what software you’re using to run the tournament. @5N00P1
Different tournament structures are one way to bring people back in, but there must be others.
I would imagine that giving away free, super-streamlined decks at Magic tournaments would be the best way to get new players. For the cost of 45-49 playing cards (next to nothing to manufacture) you put a fun card game designed by Richard Garfield into the hands of the exact people who are into that right when they have downtime to mess around with it. (Not to mention disposable income to blow on it.)
This seems pretty reasonable to me. I’m relatively new to the game and I picked up the Worlds 2016 decks pretty soon after I started. It was nice to have some pre-built decks to play against each other and they came with quite a few “staples” to supplement the small card pool I had at the time.
Fast forward to now and I’ve picked up enough big boxes and assorted data packs that I could probably put together most of the decks from Worlds with what I have (currently have Rewiring CI and the Maw-free Val built).
It might not work as well for someone new to competitive card games in general but coming from MTG I knew shameless netdecking was where I wanted to be.
I agree that the larger “full tournament legal meta” is hard to keep up with. I’m a casual player at heart so I make balanced “fun”/jank decks and I play them with friends and my kids. You could do the same. The guy with the cards makes A few balanced decks and brings them for casual play locally. Then players can tune them or use them as a basis for expansion at that point.
I think netrunner needs to release more infrequent, but larger, bursts of cards. Like release the whole cycle at once then wait for 6 months. That way the cards are new for everyone, and returning players have a logical point to jump back in. It also lends itself well to launch events and I think would work better with casual player’s lifestyles than the constant drip of cards.
The only issue with full-cycle releases is that you’re looking at $90 packs. That’s the cost of an MtG box, so it’s actually still a good deal, comparatively, but it’s a lot at once…
I think half-cycle releases, every 3 months, would work pretty well. $45 every 3 months is a perfectly legit way to do this. (Technically, they’d save on shipping costs by only shipping once every three months, and shelf space, so it should cost less than that, but I’m honestly not holding my breath on that one.)
… Shit. MtG already does that.
… It’s almost like they have >20 years of experience that’s told them this is the best way to do a release schedule…
The other thing that bothers me about the release schedule is that apparently only the full cycle is tested by R&D, so pack-by-pack can be wildly unbalanced, while the full cycle isn’t as bad. (See: Flashpoint Cycle.) Half-cycles may not improve the meta on the half, but at least we’ll only have an untested meta for 3 months instead of 5?
