I’m not sure if this would merit a separate thread, but something I’ve been thinking about is how, in X-Wing 2.0, they’re no longer printing point costs for ships or upgrades directly on the cards so they could tweak them in the future if balance dictates. I wonder if something like that could work for NR? Maybe not on all cards, but maybe having future ID’s influence printed in the MWL? Would give a extra tuning knob to play with.
No matter who gets the mat (the winner or someone else), it’s still only one person, while everybody else gets significantly less.
Also, note that I’m not saying NISEI should not offer mats – far from it – I’m just saying an alternative prize kit with a more equitable prize structure would be much better for casual play.
We already do this – only one prize in pick order, then if stuff is left over, go again.
Still, only one person gets a huge prize (the mat), the others get small ones (1-2 cards). That’s what I’m talking about.
Edited for clarity.
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I understand that NISEI does not have the capability that FFG had for other prizes, such as acrilic tokens. Those are also very attractive and might help with mid-range standings prizes.
Sorry for hijacking this thread with the kit discussion!
I am a little surprised, though, that my point about
casual play vs. heavily tiered prizes
seems to not be coming across. Is this because I (as someone not at all interested in competitive play, after trying it) see things that differently from most players, or am I not expressing myself well?
New suggestion: Would NISEI consider creating the position of Casual Play Representative as part of their OP team?
Netrunner OP has always been focused on competitive play, and naturally the perspectives of at least somewhat competitive players dominate online discussions (these players are just that much more likely to be super involved with the community and post online regularly while most casual players do not even enter these online spaces).
In the interest of keeping the community alive longer beyond high-level competition, putting a little more focus on players who are not interested in this, but nonetheless want community involvement and lovely Netrunner goodies, could be good.
The players I mostly play this game with do not hanker after that one moment of glory where they finally win their first mat (as described as an essential part of the Netrunner experience by @LSTM above). They just want to play the game with funny decks, where it matters less whether they win and more if the wacky card combination goes of, or if they have a nice social evening, and where they then get something nice to take home afterwards.
The pressure to compete for wins actively diminishes the enjoyment of these people.
That doesn’t mean they are any less invested in the game, though.
(Yes, I would put myself forward for such a position, if applications were opened, and I have a bunch of suggestions to make. Of course, there may be better-qualified applicants, but I say this so that it doesn’t look like I’m asking for things but not willing to put any work in myself.)
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Make an achievement-based prize structure, then. Install more than four things in a turn? Get a prize-point. Play Exile? Get five prize points. Install a Monolith? Get ten prize points. Whatever. At the end, most prize points gets first dibs on a prize, and go on down the line.
Maybe they don’t want to compete for wins. In that case, distribute all prizes equally and just have a nominal entry fee to cover the cost. If the prizes can’t be distributed equally, save them until they can be distributed equally, or use only those to run a tournament for the real players competitive players.
(I feel it necessary to specify that the strikethrough was 100% a joke and shouldn’t be taken seriously at all…)
The main thrust is that the kit has a ‘suggested’ distribution model that presumes a competitive tournament, simply because that’s going to be the most common distribution. If you charge an entry fee, we assume you’re not catering to the casual crowd. You don’t have to follow that suggestion, though, and can make your own.
A Casual Play Representative is an interesting idea though.
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You can’t distribute prizes equally when there is only one playmat and the rest of the prize pool are cards…
That is the point of this whole discussion. I was asking whether in the future there might be prize kits that allow a more equitable distributions of prizes.
Edit: Yes, OK, we could wait until we have 5-7 playmats to distribute, I guess. But we’re talking more than a year at that point.
Edit again: I don’t want to take anybody’s lovely playmats… I just wanted to say that for genuinely casual play, a prize kit with one huge prize and otherwise only small ones is not suitable, and that if there was an option to omit the playmat, the kit would also be less pricy to obtain, so the barrier to entry would simultaneously be lowered.
For casual players, both of these things go really well together.
That’s all.
(Sorry to keep reiterating, I just feel like nearly every answer misses the point I wanted to make.)
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Cheers, thanks for the discussion and suggestions. I can’t speak for others in the thread, but personally I was just trying to offer alternatives and also learn as much as I can about your situation for future considerations of kits.
I don’t know that we will add another position to the team, but I will certainly bring it up with the rest of the board.
Thanks again!
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Thanks a lot for taking my comments into consideration! 
The implied prize differential is certainly something we’ll take onboard. The singleton playmat is constrained by trying to fit in minimal shipping weight as it’s obviously the biggest offender - even an extra mat would likely put us into parcel shipping weight rather than large letter and could drastically increase the price of the kit. Since we no longer have a model that involves wholesale distribution to stores, direct shipping weight is a concern. On the other hand, the playmat gives us something exciting and splashy for our new prize support and we wouldn’t want to omit it, and doing multiple kit options just makes the whole process more convoluted. The Titan/Rashida distribution assumes people will want a playset of Rashidas and only 1 Titan, but the premium/participation ratio is definitely something we’ll consider in the future - it’s tricky to hit a point that offers something for every conceivable use case, and I think modelling it on previous GNK kits is a safe step while we work these things out. For larger metas or a more equal distribution, I’d recommend you order multiple kits or augment it with other prize support!
Regarding casual play representation, I think you might be underestimating how casually-minded the current OP team is. Alternate ways to use Game Night Kit prizing are a big part of discussions and the GNK documentation that will be in the kits themselves. If you’d like my credentials, I did extremely poorly at Worlds.
I think the biggest way in which the new GNK kit is a step ahead for casual meetups is this: Everyone that wants to order one, gets one. You’re not constrained by store ordering or events - run a league at your kitchen table, run a draft at a brewery, give them out to whoever designs the best Chela deck. I think getting kits into the hands of people that might not have local store support is huge, and I’m excited to see what people do with them.
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Lots of good discussion happening here but I agree that this topic probably warrants its own thread. I will say that I am very intent on focusing equally on support for casual players and I think @Chaostheorie’s suggestion of an optional, cheaper kit without a mat is a very good idea. It is unfortunately a bit too late to implement this for the Q1 kit (we can count time remaining until launch in hours), but I will absolutely work on this for the Q2 Game Night Kit.
We are absolutely not going to stop offering kits with playmats for those that would like them. I have already tweaked the balance of cards within the Q1 kit slightly and will consider doing so for future kits.
It is also worth noting that there is no specified structure for prize payout, unlike, say, a regional. A tournament organizer may use the prizes however they see fit and a single kit does not have to be used in a single evening.
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Then the amount of Rashidas included should be divisible by 3 
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I like that a playmate is included and many people going crazy about it! I don’t need 20 mats, but i appreciate it!
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Are the kits going to be sold and shipped from US only, or will it be possible to receive them from other parts of world as well (EU, Asia Pacific, etc), to keep the costs reasonable ? Please keep in mind that a 15$ MSRP FFG Game Night Kit costs around 35$ when arrives into FLGS in Europe, due to taxes and shipping. As a seasoned local tournament organizer, I’d suggest the GNK kit to meet the following:
- minimal shipping costs
- participation prizes for at least 16 participants
- equally divisible to two half kits for minimum of 4 people attendance and thus
- prize for top 4 participants
- prize for top 2 participants
- total cost with worldwide shipping no more than 40$ a kit, ideally much lower
Nice to have:
- extra piece of prize for TO
- non card prizes (tokens, etc.)
As you can see, the latest FFG GNK kits were pretty cloe to ideal 
For reference I’ve just checked on ludocards.com that ordering 100 kits as described would cost less then 2EUR per unit
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But this would mean we would need to use you as warehouse right?
Then add shipping & artist.
I think the current approach is to go print on demand instead of the warehouse.
I mean, to me, if you go to Worlds, you’re already far beyond being a casual player? (I have never played in an event that wasn’t a GNK.)
But this is not about one-upmanship of who is more casual…
Thank you, @inactivist, and @icecoldjazz and @jakodrako for taking the time to respond thoughtfully, and for trying to make this the best it can be for everyone!
I totally understand that not everything can be done immediately, and some things cannot be done at all because time and resources are limited. You (=everyone on the NISEI committee) are all doing a stellar job and have done so much already to keep this game alive!
(Just wanted to make this crystal clear in case I’m looking like a not-to-be-pleased killjoy.)
One idea in the kits is to include a suggested Event Format and then have the documents needed to do so (i.e, we could say, “In the Spring 2019 Kit, you’ll find [such and such prizes] and also the rules for an Achievement League and 10 Achievement League Sheets to add a little spice to the standard events.”).
Shipping costs would hopefully not be too impacted by included 11 sheets of paper AND those local meta organizers have something they could do with their metas.
I’ve done all sorts of different things when I was organizing stuff, but it was normally me hunting around for ideas. Having something baked and ready to go, with artwork infused documentation would probably carry a lot of positive weight without (again, hopefully) being too stressful on the Organized Play Department.
Imagine…
-
Spring 2019: Achievement League Documents
-
Summer 2019: Superban Event Night Documents (can only play cards with 4 Influence or Higher)
-
Fall 2019: Draft-a-Deck Event Rules
Anyway, even in this hypothetical GNK, some of the prize support could be framed around the included documents (maybe a sticker for the corresponding event the players could put on a sticker sheet for the years events…you know, like when you went to the library in the summer and got a state-shaped sticker and you were trying to fill in the USA for each book you read, all you non Americans did that, right? 
)
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We are planning inserts, but I don’t believe the plan was this extensive. It’s up to @icecoldjazz and his team, but I like where your head is at.
Thanks, everyone. We’re all for hearing concerns and ideas. Please keep it up. This is NISEI’s first swing, and we defo want to tailor these to what will best fit the community.
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I could just imagine my sticker sheet being full of “participant” ones. Oh, one day I might just get the blinged out “winner” variant, but until then, at least I have solace knowing I covered up the empty Chilo space on my collection sheet.
They a could be implemented on ABR like other special events.