While true, a rather large number use Windows - because that’s what gets the most development and support.
Has this been true for like…the last five years? Windows is a dying platform. If you account mobile OSes, which Jinteki.net runs on and OCTGN does not, Windows isn’t even close to the majority. You mentioned MS Office later…that’s all moving to the browser. You do not presently need Windows for Office and haven’t for a while now.
And, FWIW, I’m one of the people who eschews Windows and that makes Jnet an easy sell. I’m well capable of running a Windows VM but the setup time & hard drive space aren’t worth it for one sub-par application.
OS X is popular among young professionals who work remotely with UNIX machines. Think 24-year-olds who curl their lip in snooty hipster disgust at the mention of powerpoint, but are willing to drop the extra couple hundred bucks so Linux doesn’t drop the ball when it’s time to Netflix and chill.
On the other hand, Windows still owns the gaming rig market. Think pimply 16-year-olds angry at Apple and Sony for daring to sell over-price’d, under-spec’d rip-offs like macs and the PS4, and angrier at 24-year-old web developers for buying them.
I do believe that Netrunner draws heavily from the first demo, but there are plenty of young professionals coming from Windows shops too, so, you know. Whatever.
Well, I can certainly accept that my analogies are out of date - I actually use Google Docs instead of Office anyway . I also haven’t used any form of Office since 2009. But to say that Windows is a dying platform is a pretty big statement as well. I was only considering non-mobile platforms - I’ve never used a tablet and likely never will - so when you factor those in, it’s certainly less ubiquitous.
I do still think that when we consider traditional desktop and laptop computers, Windows is the most common and has more companies developing programs for it than any other operating system running on non-mobile devices. It will probably continue to be the most-used operating system on those types of computers or quite a while. I think my argument about the likelihood of someone having Windows is still valid.
I didn’t really consider a VM as a dual-boot. Seems like too much effort to set up for almost anything I can think of. It’s not about how capable you are of doing it, it’s about whether it is worth it. If you don’t already have a machine set up for Windows, then I don’t think many people would think it worth installing Windows just for OCTGN when there’s a readily available browser client. The argument assumes Windows already existing. I’m just saying that many - though obviously not all - Linux users also have Windows set up somewhere on some machine.
If I hadn’t wanted to run at least 10+ of the programs I currently use (and often), then I likely wouldn’t be using Windows either. I also personally don’t want to spend the time customizing some form of Linux in order to suit my tastes - Windows allows me to do it much faster (though, that’s just my experience).
Another personal experience with Jinteki is that it’s too easy for me to actually close the tab I’m running it in (rather than it being a dedicated Window). I know I could just open Jinteki in another window, but then I’ve got two windows of the same program open, and that just throws me off mentally.
In any case, it’s pretty clear that my knowledge of the tech industry and markets is pretty lacking. My local meta is pretty full of people that once did the whole PC gaming thing (and some still do) so my thoughts are probably influenced by my community and my lack of knowledge when it comes to everyone else playing the game.
One of these two programs I can play on a work computer.
One of these two programs doesn’t require installing a standalone client.
One of these two programs automatically hooks into NRDB for card data on release.
One of these two programs keeps a list of my decks that I can choose from, with a picture of the ID.
One of these two programs doesn’t have to ask me how many cards I can access.
One of these two programs shows the entire game-state without having to flip tabs. (Cards in hand, credits available)
However, both programs have an annoying, busy background.
Both also have automation quirks in them. OCTGN happens to be easier to just ignore the automation and do it yourself. I’ve not run into a problem where I couldn’t work it out in jinteki, though sometimes the other player wasn’t willing to work it out as well. (Except for Escher, before they implemented the card. Wow did that not work.)
Bingo. I travel for work a lot, and I’m obviously not going to install OCTGN on my work laptop. Now that I’m used to Jinteki, I don’t use OCTGN at home. I never used it a lot, but it’s always felt clunky, non-intuitive, and a poor fit between engine and game. I don’t want to sound like I’m knocking db0’s work porting the ANR rules into OCTGN; what he’s done is nothing short of incredible. But the platform doesn’t add enough to justify its quirks.
I only recently started playing netrunner, and I can confidently say Jinteki.net is 100% the reason.
Before I played on jinteki, me and a couple friends would play with a core set and a few datapacks. The games were ok at best, and it just felt like we were playing the kids version of the game. We’d still play every 2 weeks or so, but only when convenient. When I found out about OCTGN and Jinteki, I looked up details of the two options and frankly I thought you’d have to be on some wild drugs to choose to download and set up OCTGN as opposed to typing a url. Since then I’ve been hooked. From listening to podcasts to joining SHL and more, the jinteki client is just so versatile. It’s everything I ever wished MTGO was. From reading this thread, I can now understand why some people prefer OCTGN, but I still think Jinteki is far superior, and I have no desire to download OCTGN.
I’ve also just arranged to buy a full collection of real life cards, so uh… thanks for that $500 hit to the wallet jinteki.
Woof. I’m always happy to see new blood join, but $500 is a hard pill to swallow for new players. Is that really what people are paying to get in now? I figured most folks were buying up used sets.
It’s a really big problem either which way. If full used collections are way cheaper than new, that means not many people are getting into the game and lots of people are bailing out. If full used collections are close to the cost of new, then the barrier to entry is a little too high, 500$ is a lot.
Then compound that with stuff not being in print and not being in stock, man, I really want to walk down to my local game store and hand them greenskins and have them hand me back a data pack that contains my favorite corp card, but I literally can’t do that.
$500 Was for a used set. I think the retail for 3 cores, 4 boxes, and 24 data packs gets to around the $800 mark. It’s a tough pill to swallow, but realistically as a one time investment that could eventually be sold back if need be, I don’t think it’s too unreasonable.
To be fair, I’ve spent the last month playing multiple games online every day, so I feel like I’ve freeloaded my fair share from the game already.
MSRP for this is $600. Buying off of a major discount site like Coolstuffinc or amazon would usually be less than $400. A Full used set should definitely be under $400.
@Goldenfoon Last I used stealth credits, JNet handles them exactly like a normal recurring credit. and you still have the issues of using the stealth credits while you also have bad publicity credits!
@higgs_bozo My cousin actually has done what you suggested and hosts an exact copy of JNet on a server that he owns the domain to. He and I play on it constantly so we can avoid the troubles of people trying to enter our games with eachother/ lag on the server/ whatever.
@Urkh nailed it. Use stealth credits exactly like recurring credits, but note that there is no enforcement (at this time) that you are actually using them in a valid manner–e.g., it won’t stop you from using a Lockpick credit to pump Dagger.
. I also haven’t used any form of Office since 2009. But to say that Windows is a dying platform is a pretty big statement as well. I was only considering non-mobile platforms - I’ve never used a tablet and likely never will - so when you factor those in, it’s certainly less ubiquitous.
