[motherboard] What Will it Take For Netrunner to Be Played Like Professional Esports?

Yeah, that bothers me, much like how Baseball’s big once-a-year tournament is the ‘World Series’… for American teams. :confused:
(Yes, I’m 'murrikan. Still bothers me. :stuck_out_tongue:)

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Thanks for posting this up! This was part 3 of a series, here’s part two covering his initial foray into Worlds:

I can’t divulge lots of information, but the grand issue comes down to the fact that FFG doesn’t know how to handle this. If we reflect and look at their hiring efforts, they’ve recently acquired a new head of Organized Play. This person probably will need some time to adjust to this new role. This still leads to serious gaps in the scene, and can be a issue for those who are so heartfelt and committed to this game.

FFG’s goal is actually… low balled. By that, I mean they don’t currently look at Netrunner as something grandiose. They’re content with selling all their data packs, and nothing else. But that’s the inherit issue. The game has grown beyond a margin where they don’t know what to do with it. If we’re to retain players, and grow it at large, it seems that it’s going to have to lean on the shoulders of the community.

I wouldn’t be lying when I say that pre-Worlds, I was in discussion with people close to me about quitting this game. Frankly, I lack the time and able schedule to commit and grow the scene, and I’m the kind of guy where I either commit 120% or I don’t do it at all, as to not run the gambit of ruining something awesome, and allow someone who is better capable. But I’ve realized with the community at large, that we need to stick to our guns and continue to work at it. I’m pretty much bought in, thanks to the kind words of you all, that I actually provide something of value.

The agenda I have at mind would have to be this:

  1. A continued and structured channel where we can have a group of sociable, likable players who broadcast and stream. Minecraft came to popularity through Youtube videos and streams of over enthusiastic players who made the game enjoyable to watch. We need to carry this same sort of energy over this game. This game actually has great potential to be something to enjoy and watch, it’s up to us to grow that experience.

  2. Community events. As much as Organized Play has great platforms set for competitive play, it’s not enough. ANRPC Circuit has provided great traction and as long as the branding can stay consistent around the positive experience for the players, the rest will follow. We need a community model of what we represent at the core. I had ran a similar circuit with great success in Toronto, and I wish I could’ve devoted more time to grow it side by side with ANRPC. But it certainly showed me that concerning myself with the experience first, and the rest later, made everything come together naturally.

  3. Mentorship and support. The only reason I threw my name into the bucket was because this game needs it, moreso than banter about what the current hot broken deck is. There’s lots of players who want to do well, and as I mentioned in the podcast, those are the players who are in danger of quitting the game. No one likes getting blown out over and over again, but if we situate them in a environment where a loss feels tight and they have room for improvement, we’ll have a overall better player retention percentage. At that point, we’ll only lose players due to conflicts of time, life, and of course, boyfriend/girlfriend/wife/husband.

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Thankfully my gf Kati is pretty supportive of my hours spent playing Netrunner

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This is the biggest thing for me. Netrunner is super deep, but there’s no motivation to create/polish decks without tournaments to play them in. A handful of store championships + occasional GNKs + 1 regional is not enough.

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How about all those Twitch viewing hours?

I worry that the cardpool is growing too large to easily accommodate new players. I think FFG need to think carefully about that.

The LCG model is really good once you’re in. But from the outside, once the cardpool is about £400 it’s pretty daunting. Add to that the fact you can’t get hold of some of the lynchpins to the game for RRP and it get’s almost impossible. Perversely, CCGs suddenly look much more appetising.

I think FFG need to think about how best to support the game once it’s reached maturity. They’re really good at the first few years, but beyond that there are many examples of their LCGs drifting, then dwindling in popularity. Firstly, I think they need to improve their distribution so product doesn’t go out of stock for so long. Secondly I really think they need to create a competitive starter deck. £20 ish per deck, 60 cards (45+15/49+11) so you have a deck and a small sideboard to tweak with. You could do 1-2 for each faction. Existing players may buy them to get dupes of key cards so they can easily have multiple decks. New players could get into the game to a level where they seriously consider buying new packs without having to buy all the packs they’ve missed.

Naively one could think of this as cannibalising their own sales, but I think that it encourages new players to get into the game beyond the core set experience.

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I agree 100%. The ANR pool is already daunting. People can argue all they want about how one can buy core & then pick and choose data packs, but my experience is this: a person is exposed to ANR, either by purchasing the Core without playing first, or playing a game or two and then purchasing the Core. After this, one of two things happen: they never purchase anything else and don’t become a Netrunner, or they fall for it immediately and start ravenously buying everything. Obviously, the game can sell itself to some; those aren’t the people we have to do much about. They’ll probably come to the game eventually. The first group is where things like starter decks and prerelease events will help. Even when someone plays ANR and enjoys it, the numerous investments involved in the beginning (time and money) can turn them off. Starter decks help with both of these problems, if they are reasonable builds. A new player could buy Core and then peruse the starters for concepts that appeal to them. Do you enjoy bluffing? Here’s the Jinteki shell game starter. Do you want to quickly build an efficient rig? Here’s the Stimshop starter. Starters are certainly weird in a LCG, but they could omit certain optimal cards while retaining the spirit of the archetype.

I don’t think you should omit anything. Ideally you get on the phone to @mediohxcore, @vinegarymink, @calimsha, @IirionClaus, @Cerberus etc and ask them if they could build their decks using 60 cards (total) which 60 do they choose. I think it acts as a bridge for people who’ve discovered the game but can’t reconcile with the fact that to play it ‘properly’ they need to spend at least another £200.

I think a reasonable fraction of the players that make that further commitment will end up buying many other data packs to try a card or 2 in their builds. Or buy other starter decks, which is also sales revenue for FFG. They’re certainly more likely to buy future data packs.

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Yeah I always liked the Worlds decks that Wizards put out for awhile. It would definitely help, I think. “Hey, want to start practicing and playing this game without any handicaps? Here’s a tournament winning deck for $20.”

Not like the rest of us can be salty. We already have the cards, and if we want more copies of Siphon we can buy Val DLR instead of another Core. FFG would probably make more money off veterans with starters, too.

Honestly these hypothetical starters could be $30 and they’d likely still sell like wyldcakes.

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Ffg has a starter set, is called the core set. It comes with 7 pre made decks and some of the best cards in the game.

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I don’t know if you’ve not read the descriptions of the starter decks, or whether you’ve just not understood the point.

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The starter decks stand against their entire business model of an lcg. The with the printing lead time, it would take months for any deck to be printed, so your deck would be out of date the moment you buy it. Also, you then get the fun experience out buying data packs with cards you already own. One of netrunner’s greatest asset is the LCG format, and they don’t have much to gain by printing decks that aren’t competitive. WotC event decks can barely win an fnm, and their product is more expensive and rotates quicker.ffg doesn’t gain much by chasing the wotc model.

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The model that was proposed is essentially a way to supplement pre existing product. It is in almost no way different from their draft sets.

What we are proposing is a set of decks played by those in the world champs. Unlike the wotc and pokemon tcg model, those cards will be legal for sanctioned play. For example we would be releasing a set of decks played by Dan D’Argenio which are DLR Val and HB Foodcoats respectively.

Reasons to do this is that it allows them to start playing competitively with decks that age well as well as giving them time to collect gaps in their collection.

Entry point is obviously one of many problems for attracting new players and this proposal is a very good one. Besides what else are they going to do with their excess back end of draft Elis and Sansans anyway?

I don’t know about lead time. That could be a problem.

If not a starter deck, what about a best of cycle edition (a data pack with the 20 most important cards from a cycle)

I really think the advantage of being able to get new players playing the same game as everyone else at game nights outweighs any lost sales. People who are buying cards once a month won’t really buy old cards regardless. Getting 10 people to buy £100 of cards (and be invested) is way better than having 1 or 2 buy £400 worth. In fact it’s better than 1-2 buying £1000 worth in the long run.

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Here’s the current cost of playing MtG: The Most Expensive Standard Since Caw Blade

And that’ll let you play for only a few months, assuming you stick with the same deck for that long.

Paying $400 for every A:NR card seems pretty reasonable for this kind of game.

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You could build a Monored Deck in Standard and still be fine. But at the rate cards are going in Standard the Red deck is the price of a complete ANR set.

The general pattern is that MtG players are actually more ok with spending $400 at most to buy into ANR because they have already carried an expensive hobby with them going in.

Of course the MtG players who dont buy into ANR have already committed their time and financial investments into MtG.

I will admit that entry was hard for me as well and I did have to sell off half my MtG collection to get started in ANR.

Great ideas. Will they do it? No. They’ll continue to try to force draft, which is OK but somewhat of a waste of resources.

The entry barrier is real. It’s grown from an ICE Wall to Hadrian’s, and it’s approaching Curtain size. Used collections are reasonable, but, if one has to drop $200-300, wouldn’t one put it into MTG, where your cards may hold/grow in value, and the game is easier to learn? The difficult learning curve and entry cost are real concerns for the future of the game, and are out of our hands. As noted, if pack sales remain steady/drop slightly, mission accomplished in FFG’s eyes.

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I think MTG is something this article really should have talked more. MTG has been in the market for over 20 years and Wizard has focused their business plan a lot around that. FFG business plan is more about many short term gain games with a strong licenses like Star Wars, Warhammer and Game of Thorones ec. It is quite irrelevant if Netrunnner is “better or more interesting game” than MTG if organized play is not FFGs focus. Netrunner has maybe the biggest potential of all card games to be a big thing with MTG. Sadly this won’t happen with FFG but I hope fans will make organized play better for Netrunner.

I also feel that MTG is very expensive argument is a bit moot. If I would invest my time/money for MTG I could be almost sure that game will be played after 5 years for now. Netrunner I would almost bet otherwise even that I love the game. Issue with MTG is more about what you will get with your money. With MTG you get undying game with many formats and players. So you can get a whole new hobby. I think MTG is actually very outdated and boring but there no good alternatives if you would like to have a long single card game hobby.

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an official digital client is the only way I see netrunner becoming an e sport and even then I think the game is too complex for a casual viewer to understand what is going on.

Netrunner by its very nature isn’t a game for casuals. Even people who would claim to be casuals are not in the same way a casual hearthstone, lol or dota2 fan is. I’m a casual netrunner player, I subscribe to 5 podcasts, read BGG,Reddit and stimhack, play 3-5 hours a week, own 2x of every big box and data pack and buy promos off eBay. How is this casual? I don’t play on octgn or jinteki anymore and I can feel the skill difference when playing people who do on a regular basis.

A casual hearthstone fan might log on once a week do an arena run, climb to 20 for his monthly card back and have his favorite streamer on in the background while folding laundry. This same person will tune into the tournaments and world championships and be able to follow along with the pros. The time and money needed to be a casual hearthstone fan is as little as an hour a week whereas I need 5-10 hours plus to be a casual try hard at netrunner.

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You’re absolutely right. So is @spags. ANR is the least casual card game I’ve ever encountered, possibly with the exception of VTES. The game itself is the biggest barrier to its own growth. That’s what I meant by a game needing to sell itself being the #1. ANR certainly can sell itself, but it will never sell itself like HS or MTG. Those are pleb games. This is not meant to offend those who plays those games; it is just a fact. They are both intended in their current form to appeal to as large an audience as possible and everything about them reflects this–their design, their distribution, their organized play, everything. Nothing about ANR is ‘easy to love’ despite the fact that many of us fell in love at first run.

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