I play primarily for fun- I don’t normally play total jank (I like to win), but I choose decks on the basis of what is most interactive and gives the most interesting games (currently @bblum’s bootcamp glacier with a smattering of Mumbad cards). My best competitive performance is ~8/20 in an SC.
On Jinteki.net, I mainly corp now because I can pick a corp deck that is likely to yield an interesting game. If I run, it’s normally switching sides with somebody after we’ve played a game and bitched about IG for a while.
At casual meetups, very few people are playing the sort of grindy IG decks we are talking about, and it’s still fun.
So: Netrunner is still fun for me because I can avoid the sort of NPE’s that are the least-fun part of the meta right now.
My least favorite part about museum/asset-spam decks is that the best counters are . . . Whizzard and Anarch with imp/scrubber/recursion. Feel like a dog playing anything else.
Runner economy seems to be behind Corp economy right now. Rezzing a Tollbooth is no longer a big deal. Ice destruction’s a way better solution than ice breaking.
And if there are only ICE/Breaker games,Netrunner would be dead long time ago since runner will always win.Astrobiotics,24/7 Butchershop,CI Shutdown,Caprice Nisei Museum/Temple spam needs to be exist because if they don’t,Glacier deck will simply lose.Now runner can not just sit back,make money and run,they need to try to deal with all these other things,so the Glacier,the closest archetype to ICE/Breaker games,will be alive and shine.
To me the real factor that Netrunner apart from other games is that it’s a cyberpunk-themed game with poker and chess combined.
No, because I play casual. But I am sick of the silver bullet cards, and will avoid getting those packs as I slowly catch up. (By that I mean Clot and Plop. Especially Plop.)
Yeah, I use Pol Op for a ton of stuff. Trash Jackson after the Corp discards but doesn’t trash Jackson, trash Ronin before I die to it, trash Museum of History before it fires…
The card is very useful and flexible. Dedicated silver bullet for Caprice, it is not, IMO.
Yeah, I’ve done a ton with Political Operative. Ronin, a rezzed SanSan, Jackson (so much Jackson), rezzed Batty (because Drive By scared them from leaving it unrezzed), etc. It’s a powerhouse of a card, and incredibly versatile.
Most Netrunner games are still fun, but that percentage has definitely dropped over the last few months, and it seems like Netrunner’s problems are compounding each other. Also, AGOT 2.0 is in a good place to jump in right now, so I’ve been enjoying that more.
Faust/Anarch with ice destruction were heavily overrepresented on the runner side, and dominating most corps, which led to corps picking up asset spam as it didn’t rely too heavily on Ice. Unfortunately, Whizzard is the best equipped to deal with asset spam, so that’s become even more ubiquitous as the runner.
There are some cards I like in the Mumbad Cycle (Mongoose, PLop, Palana Foods), but overall it feels like it’s taking the game in a worse direction, while at the same time not addressing the major problem of the previous cycle (Faust). I wonder if we’ve gotten to a point where designing the cards a long time before they are released is no longer workable, as the card pool is too large that playtesters aren’t finding the annoying combos they enable?
Just responding to the last bit about play testing. I have serious doubts about the play testing that went into Museum of History. It seemed almost immediately after release that card became to focus of a ton of NPE complaints. Even the fact that it’s “when turn begins” forces the corp to shuffle before play can continue has been criticized from the get go that I have a hard time believing that feedback wouldn’t have come up pretty regularly from playtesters. I personally like Museum of History, but the general outcry makes me wonder what’s going on with FFG’s play testing.
yeah I am still having fun. IG decks can be a bit tedious to play against, any time Faust hits the table it’s all too easy to roll your eyes, and NEH decks that just go horizontal but lack real win cons are just incredibly boring and tedious to play against, and make you wonder why the opponent sleeved it up. The game is still fun, I feel like if the MWL wasn’t there then we would actually have fewer of these discussions, but now that the MWL exists I wish they used it. In any case game is still fun (though jinteki.net has gotten less fun), and cannot wait for turning wheel and rebirth to come out ^^
There are only 6 more regionals in the US this year than last year (30 instead of 24), and in my area there are less within a reasonable driving distance. So I don’t think quantity of regionals has anything to do with the decline in participation.
I’m inclined to agree with the OP that Netrunner is moving away from the ice/breaker interaction and is instead moving to a game of can the corp get a dominating board position of assets or can the runner keep the assets in check which I certainly enjoy less.
Netrunner is less exciting/engaging for me. In my own case, it’s not a symptom of the card pool, but rather a symptom of how much Netrunner I’ve played. Every single archetype and playstyle feels codified to me at this point, and in many ways when I play Netrunner I feel as if both my opponent and I are just going through the motions. This is probably largely due to my personality; I tend to have a voracious passion for things, consume them until I have solved them, and then move on. I don’t plan on leaving Netrunner any time soon, but I play about 5% as much as I did a year ago. There are other contributing factors, most notably being my inability to play online, and a more active social life.
I think the OP’s analysis of the game environment is very apt.
I agree with this for the most part. Since my regional a few weekends ago, I’ve played 3-4 games of Netrunner, when I used to play all the time. Part of me might just be burnt out for playing a decent amount in that time in preparation, but I’m definitely less excited than I used to be, and not just because I do believe this cycle, while giving us some cool cards, has promoted a play style that I think is generally less appealing/exciting.
Personally, I still love playing. It probably doesn’t help that I’m a OG NR player, and so I basically had to wait ten years to be able to play again.
Granted, I don’t play in meatspace other than the occasional event. There’s a few deck-styles that drag enthusiasm down after playing it, but those will pass in time. I’m patient.
i think the unofficial online play has been both good and bad for the game. on one hand it keeps people interested who cannot play face to face regularly but on the other people are able to consume the content at an exponetially faster rate than they would be able to if they could only play IRL leading to boredom and burn out.