While rotation sounds awesome to those of us that have been around a while, deck Brewers, and those looking to push the game further these are my concerns.
If your a new player and want to compete you have to buy cards that will rotate in 12 months. With no collectability or much resale value, not much incentive to buy in? Prices of old cards will go up no doubt with production stoppages and maybe a legacy type tournament will be fun, but aren’t we at a different model then. Surly FFG won’t sanction the events admitting a failed model, but that’s just speculation. With growth a major problem of the game rotation surly won’t grow the game. If the current pool of players is enough to sustaine I am fine with that but doesn’t seem like a viable business model. So back to the legacy type tournament discussion if FFG rebooted NR they would probably sanction legacy type, so what does FFG do? Maybe they are happy with the pool of players and the cash that pool generates maybe it’s enough to sustaine but if your always loosing players and gaining players keeping the game afloat rotation seems like it would begin to trend in the loosing direction. So what we end up with probably sooner then later is a reboot.
Maybe, but without rotation Netrunner will certainly die much sooner.
Seems a little hyperbolic to me.
Deluxe expansions won’t rotate. Core set won’t rotate. There are fewer cards in legal play at any one time, so new players will have a lower financial barrier to entry. And it will open up more design space for individual cards.
Slightly dramatic thread title. I think your post assumes a lot; I personally am very much looking forward to fan run legacy tournaments and am of the opinion that extra formats are a draw, as in mtg.
I think there are issues with bringing players into the game, but those are helped as much as hindered by rotation (more imho, smaller card pool). There are also plenty of other things that could be done to help with these issues, e.g. cycle packs.
As for a reboot, I’ve long been of the opinion that some form is inevitable. The core game is too unique to just drop (and not particularly dependent on any IPs remaining popular), but as the core mechanics don’t appear to be broken my money is on a ‘soft reboot’ similar to what games like Magic have had. Basically Core 2.0 and maybe fast rotation for a couple of cycles. This is in no way necessarily a bad thing.
In the short to medium term, I’m optimistic about rotation and am hoping for a best of both scenario with the appeal of a strong legacy community (and the op combo gameplay that brings) coupled with the benefits of a smaller cardpool for standard play.
I guess we will see, but as long as the design on the cards stays solid, I think we’ll do ok. Practically speaking, the best thing we can do is to not to be insular as a community and to value newer players. See the excellent article that I’ve forgotten the location of but would love to link.
entrynpoint may be lower but you end up with at the most 150 useless cards doesn’t seem like that will work.
Anyone looking to get into the game who read threads like this are likely to be put off. One way to help encourage new players into the game might be to stop prophesisng its demise?
Just a thought.
those other formats seem fun but the standard format would have to be viable in order to support the other formats. lm fine with reboot/soft reboot/ as is or whatever it’s just a topic of discussion if the title offends anyone sorry.
i just want to touch upon this point:
if we assume this is true, all it means is that from now and until rotation happens, it’s the worst time to be a new player if you want to be competitive and own everything that will go out in less than a year.
my first point about that is that it isn’t really as bad as it seems. you still get value out of the cards you buy (just a finite value competitively, if that matters)
my second point is that as soon as each rotation occurs, that will be the best time for new players to join the hobby because they automatically have two more cycles they won’t have to catch up
also, if we just want the current population of netrunner players and don’t want to attract new players, the game will absolutely die out eventually, but sooner rather than later. not everyone will play this forever.
As someone who has also been hyperbolic about what will and will not kill netrunner I think the answer is the following: someday netrunner will no longer be played. It might be rotation that kills it! But it might be something after that. We kind of just have to wait and see. Either way, if rotation does kill the game there’s nothing to be done about it.
If you’re a new player, you would just build a deck that doesn’t include genesis and spin cards and start playing it from now. You won’t be as powerful as the long time players, but there aren’t big prizes on the line or anything so what’s the problem?
The problem with rotation as a bridge to new players is that it is of limited utility for them; while it does constrain the buy-in cost, it’s still a hefty amount of money (~$750 MSRP) and time spent processing the cardpool.
I don’t think it’s a panacea. That doesn’t mean it’s not helpful or a good thing.
Rotation will surely not kill Netrunner. If anything it will be reinvigorated and become a much better game!
Most of the problem-cards rotate, and the designers have learnt a LOT in these years. New cards that do not see play at the moment (and those that do) are on average much better designed and will be more fun and skill-testing.
Yes card design is moving in a good direction for sure. I agree rotation could turn out the way you describe, I thyink we are all hoping for that.
As someone’s who only started playing 3 months ago, I think you’re both right, and wrong. I entered knowing that rotation was coming so I’ve been REALLY picky over which of the old data packs I pick up (I’ve grabbed a few, but not many). I have borrowed some rotating cards from friends but generally, I’ve been trying to build decks that don’t need those old cards. Sub-optimal, maybe, BUT I have really been looking forward to rotation as a way of levelling the field. I’m hoping I might even have a small advantage as I’m not used to playing with certain cards/combos that are getting nerfed - we can all live and dream, right? I’ve really enjoyed seeing the faces of the more experienced players when they’ve suggested a card for one of my decks and I’ve said no, I’m not using it 'cos it will rotate - and the grinding gears as they turn over the current card pool for other solutions.
On the other hand, it has been frustrating realising that certain cards were just a must-have (Jackson, anyone?) and I had to splash out for him. I can see this annoying people, definitely. But maybe not as much as “If you want to compete, you’ll need to buy EVERYTHING and there’s 5 years of cards and you’ll need to remortgage the house”?
Just my 2 credits’ worth, as I said I’m still new round here, but thought I’d chip in as rotation seems to be all about the newbies!
Experience from other card games proves rotation does not kill card games, nor will it kill netrunner. Pokemon is a prime example. Even now there is a large and fervent playerbase, even as a collectable card game with rotation. I played for almost a decade and popularity continued to improve even given those factors.
Can we stop with the click bait “the game is over titles”
Never. How would we know if the game was still alive without our monthly “The sky is falling!” posts?
If it can die, it must be alive. Makes sense.
Pokemon has a collectible aspect and a new crop of millions of kids every several years.