"How Card Games Became Cool Again"

[popeye09]

Oh absolutely. I’m from the UK too. It does seem to me as a view from afar that the two-party system in the USA seems to lend itself to an idea that the concept of “politics” just boils down to “Are you a red one or a blue one?” I think in a way the more official parties your country has, the more obvious it is that you can’t ever expect to entirely agree with any of them!

As I say, I wasn’t sure entirely what you meant. I was only really worried that you might be saying that politics itself (whether party politics, social campaigning or whatever) was a prominent part of your Netrunner experience.

[Salrantol]

I mean, even the name of the site we’re using to have this discussion is a freaking drug reference.

Just remember to follow the instructions: “Don’t take all at once.”

[sonatinas]

“Are you a red one or a blue one?”

Politics in the USA has bred a lot of tribalism so it can get really toxic, even within one of the parties various factions. Would be best to not get into the quagmire of US centric politics.

[mendax]

yeah, party tribalism can piss off - tribalism of any nature is neither helpful nor wanted.

Apart from hating Noise players, because fuck those guys.

[MondoPeregrino]

the concept of “politics” just boils down to “Are you a red one or a blue one?”

Yeah, we’ve basically turned it into a spectator sport. It’s not very effective, but it’s super fun to watch!

If there’s any justice in the world, they’ll give up pretense completely for this next election and just throw the candidates into Yo Mama joke contests instead of traditional debates.

[linuxmaier]

Yo Mama joke contests instead of traditional debates.

Trump’s debate is scheduled for next month, isn’t it?

[SimonMoon]

You can dump on the us political system all you want, but at least we don’t have 10% of our electorate voting for a proto-fascist party. And non of our states are actively trying to leave the federation.

I’ll respond more in depth to a couple things in here once I’m home and can actually type without every Other word being randomly capitalized.

[voltorocks]

Oh man, this thread seems like it’s about to get real hott y’all. Lets try to keep thing civil - blood fueds are for the “official rules questions thread”

[steve_houston]

It does seem to me as a view from afar that the two-party system in the USA seems to lend itself to an idea that the concept of “politics” just boils down to “Are you a red one or a blue one?” I think in a way the more official parties your country has, the more obvious it is that you can’t ever expect to entirely agree with any of them!

I think this is a structural thing–you guys have the parliamentary system, which allows more parties and voices to have a shot–the parties elect your prime minister as I understand it–not the people. Coalition governments must be formed–the majority party has no choice. So there is much less of a cult of personality as there is in the USA.

Because the voters directly elect the president in the USA, only two huge parties can generate the kind of funds and power base to give their candidate a shot.

In the USA, I think, there is also much too much emphasis placed on the executive branch (president). The legislative branch gets far less attention, but that is where the main action happens. This is the fault of various things, mostly the media and the viewers, who play the “horse race” game–it’s like sport. Good ratings.

Meanwhile the lawmakers are voting on all sorts of important things that get no coverage.

[razortoy]

But it’s so fun! (Playing Noise I mean. I make the worst choices when I play him. Conversely I have the most fun.)

[ericbtool]

Ffg lcg’s require the most aggressive marketing during the first year if their inception. The challenge of the model will always be the continuation of pricing people out from trying the game when the cost of having the complete experience is so high.

The consideration of other races and genders is moot in my opinion as the economic challenge trumps all that.

You don’t jump the second hurdle before the first.

[gumOnShoe]

Can we get back to the original article?

@ericbtool These games are always too expensive for someone, and while that’s unfortunate, I don’t see it being easily correctable, whereas we can all try not be jerks to people who are new in our meta. The later is under our control, the price of the game is firmly in FFG’s hands.

[striatic]

A tighter rotation schedule would help the game’s ability immensely. The new player retention rates at the Netrunner nights I go to and run are staggeringly bad and a lot of it has to do with new players getting absolutely obliterated by more experienced players. This happens even when the experienced players play “bad” decks and “take it easy” on new players. It has gotten to the point where I’ve considered quietly requesting experienced players deliberately throw games, but that is pointless. The trajectory of most new paper players is “buy core set, lose horribly most likely quit, buy data packs, lose horribly most likely quit” I’ve done the math and Dan’s world championship deck lists were over 300 bucks in cards and honestly with pilot skill being so important players with necessarily poor pilot skill because they are new are going to require decks of that caliber to even have a shot at winning the occasional match. That’s a financial barrier to entry even worse than Magic The Gathering.

[higgs_bozo]

Maybe ANRPC could help?

Run some Limited (draft / core-only) tournaments, highest finisher who’s never played in an Unlimited event gets a cycle’s worth of Data Packs?

[striatic]

What Netrunner needs is a set called “Netrunner Masters” - a complement to the core set that fills out the core card play sets, and includes the majority of the highest power cards from the previous 2 years before the current year. It should be the sure fire “next thing to buy” after core and it should cost around 40 USD. This is the sort of thing that will help ease players into the game because the current system does not work and is unworkable without first party support.

I wish we could bring way more diversity to the player base but the very first step is making it possible for any new players beyond extreme outliers to join the general player pool. Without that, any effort to make the game accessible to women is nearly pointless.

[linuxmaier]

Something that’s been mentioned elsewhere as good ways to ramp up new players are limited pool leagues, or leagues that slowly grow their cardpool. Maybe do two weeks of Core, or something, and then add two datapacks every two weeks?

[striatic]

Actually Netrunner Masters is way too gendered language for a product that should help new players of all stripes get into the game. My point is that the name should appeal to high performance, not its entry level nature.

[ericbtool]

This is my point. Growing the game is largely out of our control (presuming we are not contributing financially).

Being polite and respectful doesn’t grow a game unless the other polite and respectful people who are attractrd to such traits have the money and time to participate.

Conversely if a bunch of jerks play the game other jerks who can identify to their personality and are affluent enough to afford the game have an increased chance to purchase the product in pursuit to satisfy some need or another.

The game store I play in has had an increased number of players from the time I’ve started there, largely due to their enthusiasm and dedication. I would argue however that this has been more of a successful collection process vs. a growing process.

Having no idea what the people on these forums are like, I would offer that you’re best bet to grow a game is to patiently play with newer people to have fun and resist telling them what they should or shouldn’t do. What is strong and what is weak. Let them figure it out for themselves. Those who are not predispositioned to play netrunner don’t care how knowledgeable you are, they just want to have fun. Use their decks if need be.

[kim]

Yeah, I’m looking forward to seeing alternative formats like this! I noticed that @jkayati is starting a league along your lines of thinking. I think it’d be great to keep an eye on event series like this, see what the turnout looks like, and try to get some anecdotes from attendees. I remember Quinns mentioning that he wasn’t really aware of other atypically organized events, not out of vanity or anything, but because there hasn’t been a lot of attention paid to them. I think it’d be good to spotlight and support TOs trying to do something different.

Actually, I’ll go ahead and start a thread for this. Be the change you want to see etc etc

[Legate_Damar]

Because the voters directly elect the president in the USA

That’s actually incorrect - the vote of the people is important but it’s actually the Electoral College that elects the President, which is how a Presidential candidate can win the popular vote and yet lose the election, or lose the popular vote and still win the nomination.

Your point about the two-party system is still right… third-party candidates are barely a blip on the screen.