So after FFG announced the END of Netrunner … My local community which was very hyped and worked-up for the release of R&R just suddenly got hit by this huge wall.
We were working hard to get in new players but without the official support and release of products I’m afraid it is going to hurt the community’s growth and eventually the players will shrink to become just the few hardcore players left.
For everyone out there … How do you move on and come up with ideas to ACTUALLY get people started despite the end of official product support?
“Wait, Netrunner’s ending? Dang, I was looking at getting back into it.”
Literally heard that three times in the week after the announcement.
I’m on a moratorium of introducing people to the game until it shakes out, other than just ‘Hey I have this neat two player card game to play if you want to try it tonight.’
I got a revised core for a friend who I had introduced Netrunner to and ordered another revised core on behalf of friend 2. Once the game died friend 2’s interest died completely and he isn’t even interested in learning the ropes of the game so we can play on jinteki. I’m still going to give the first friend the revised core and maybe we’ll play a little but my hopes aren’t that high. I have plans to introduce the game to a 3rd friend, but I’m not sure how to proceed if he likes the game a lot. I guess just use my cardpool to make decks for both of us or hope someone tries to unload a collection or just play on jinteki. Proxies is a possibility, but having to print out an entire deck would be a pain. I have poked around custom card websites to see how printing cards works but am not totally sure how that would work.
I guess I’m still interested in getting new players and playing around with the suggested starter decks for a day or 2 is easy to do, but logistically I’m not sure what the next step will be if they do want to get into the game.
Just angle it as a recently rare game. Only the most esteemed humans are willing to chase down the cards to complete the set. You know, sell it like a $1000 bottle of scotch.
Presume rarity can increase interest.
“Oh my, did you get to play netrunner last night? With the actual cards?”
“Why yes I did. We had a delightful match. We even used cards from…Creation and Control.”
As a boardgamer, I really don’t get this. Like, the game doesn’t suddenly become less fun when they stop selling it. I own games that aren’t sold anymore, and they’re just as good as when they were in print.
Sure, starting to play after that point will be a bit of an issue (although liberal printing of proxies can circumvent some of that), but why do people who already have access to cards think it’s less fun to play when out of print?
(Sure, if you’re only interested in tournaments with official prize support, I can see why. But for playing casually, it really does not make that much of a difference.)
As a kitchen table player who just got into the game and was in the process of selling some friends on it, I’m going to keep right on pushing the game. For now, I have enough cards to build decks for everybody. If they want to buy in I’m going to recommend they hold off until the end of the year, maybe. Once things settle in, I expect you’ll see a bunch of people decide to sell their collections and move on. That will be a pretty decent entry point for people who don’t have any cards.
I’m pretty sure that’s the issue, yes. It’s one whole avenue of the game that isn’t available anymore. I can’t really think of any discontinued games with tournament scenes.
Generally speaking, Netrunner is the best 2-player game I have played. But there’s better 3+ player games to play instead, and it turns out that most gaming groups have more than two people in them. A good cube draft is about the only way to engage more than 2 players in Netrunner. And playing cube draft with new players is just inhumane.
It’s kinda why I liked the Terminal Directive idea (if not its execution… Hey, it’s hard to balance.) It’s something that gets you invested in the game and willing to come back for more.
