Wow, I appreciate you resurrecting this failure of a thread. Two years old, how the time flies.
Through the work of myself and other committed individuals, my meta has remained at a stable count (with some different faces) since the time of my original post. Due to the games decline in popularity, I view this as a success story. I can contribute that to a few things:
- A single person is not a community. A community leader’s goal should be to create an environment where other players can get excited about the game, have fun in their own way, and spread the word. One person can only do so much.
- Weekly (or more) meetups. If people want to play Netrunner, give them as many opportunities to play Netrunner as you can! You don’t need to be there for every meetup, see the above point. Just ask people to open up their invite to others.
- Netrunner is a face to face board game, not a faceless online game. Take an opportunity to get to know the person you are playing. Make friendships. Invite your new friends to do other things you are both passionate about. As a person who used to be thoroughly addicted to WoW, I can’t say enough how awesome it is to actually hang out with people you meet through board games.
- Talk with your local gaming stores, they are surprisingly helpful. Explain to them why the game is fun and ask them to advertise your meetup group if anyone shows interest in the game (or game similar).
- Community leaders should always have a pair of teaching decks with them for new players. Deck building is a difficult concept and should come after learning the fundamentals of the game.
- To get player’s hooked who don’t own the complete set, host cube drafts. New players don’t need to own any cards and as an added bonus experienced players enjoy a change in pace.
- For player’s that get hooked, but are still learning the fundamentals. Make sure to have a few recent videos with commentary to help them move to intermediate level.
- For intermediate players, introduce them jnet to and netrunnerdb
Lessons Learned:
- The buy in cost to the game is prohibitive. You need to hook a player in without forcing them to purchase an entire set of cards. Once a beginner player learns the style they like, this buyer’s guide has been rather helpful.
- Restricted formats like 1-1-1-1 and Cache Refresh are a nice way to expose new players to a larger card pool. Unfortunately, those formats are unbalanced at a competitive level and do not get your veteran player base excited.
- Not all people will be welcoming to new players. Once you walk through that competitive door, its difficult to play against “jank” decks without feeling like its a waste of time. Create introductions to accommodating players as necessary. It’s important to get new players, but it’s also important to maintain your existing player base.
- Not all players you teach will go to a tournament and that’s okay. Tracking win/loss, playing timed games, or going to a game store is not for everyone. Enjoy the game for what it is, if someone understands why you enjoy tournaments but still doesn’t come out, that’s okay. Have fun with them in an environment they feel comfortable in and they might one day decide to venture outside their comfort zone.
- Achievements don’t work. If you have Johnny players, they want to play their own “jank” not prescribed “jank.”
I’m really excited to see how rotation pans out. It’s a big opportunity to get new players involved with a game we all enjoy.