In my seemingly never ending quest to talk about Netrunner trivialities, I pose the following question.
Alot of people describe the Corp as “Evil”, “Corrupt”, “Heartless”, and various other derogatory names.
Is the Runner really the hero of the story? or is it simply the lesser of two evils? Could an argument be made that runner is more evil than the corp (Especially the Criminal faction)?
Nightmare’s though for the day…
The whole point is that it isnt clear.
I acknowledge that in a dystopian universe such as Android that morals and ethics are supposed to be murky. However, I have heard numerous people explain the game as the Corp being the “Bad Guys” and the Runner being the “Good Guys”. I guess i just wanted to make it clearer that the truth isn’t as black and white as that.
I always describe it as “evil corporation” and “evil hacker” because then it is clear that its really just a grey area.
I am one of the guys who describes it as good hackers vs bad corps.
Good and bad is obviously subjective, and to me, the most “important” perspective is probably the public(which is the party with the largest numbers).
If the runners were really the evil ones, wouldn’t the runners be able to gain bad pub too? 
I think the tone of the setting is that it is supposed to be relatively ubiquitous. Heck, in a recent interview Lukas even described the genre of the universe as “Cyber Noir”. I definitely think that is the case. Many runner IDs are likely not as interested in helping people as they are interested in either making money, getting bragging rights, or pure and simple revenge/vengeance.
Also not all of the corps are strictly evil… or rather not all of the corporate sub-divisions are strictly evil. I like to imagine that the new Jinteki ID previewed in H&P might actually operate in that grey area. Agendas like Medical Breakthrough let you get some insight into public perception, and think that maybe the corp is not always up to no good.
The game operates in a universe of grey areas. The board game and the novels convey that very well.
How are the novels? My stack of books to read is very large already but I would be willing to grab one and plow through it if i got a good recommendation.
I actually really like the concept of the grey area and I think that works a lot better than “everyone is evil” I think that makes the whole world rather immersive and I love that about Netrunner (and almost all of FFG’s other products)
Only read the first two in the first series, but I really liked them. I would suggest at least picking them up. The corps, bio-roids and clones are found throughout, as well as a few named lesser characters from the game (Tallie Perault and Raymond Flint).