I think you are right a lot (most?) of the time about deck building, but there are a few people out there that have a gift to come up with something special. It is the combination of willingness to try new things, never discounting ideas out-right, and seeing the game on a broader level. My teammates come up with things I have never seen elsewhere, sometimes it is entire decks, sometimes it is tweaks to a common deck that just make so much sense. I have a lot more trouble with that aspect of the game, and thus a lot of respect for it. I am glad to have them around, certainly it has made us all better players.
I donât even think Worlds is all that good, as itâs quite inconsistent as to who attends-- my meta had 0 people at Worlds last year, and so did many other areas that have strong communities. Iâm hoping thatâll change this year, but realistically who knows?
I doubt my opinion counts for much, but I would argue that the pool at Worlds was quite good. I donât think thereâs any doubt that the competition there far surpassed any other tournament in the States. Obviously, itâs more difficult to compare with the international scene. The only two repeat Regionals winners in the US this year both played at Worlds last year. On a more local level for myself, the only two repeat winners of the nine Store Championships in Colorado were both at Worlds last year. (Both of us finished in the Top 40, neither of us made the cut - a blasted timed win was the difference for me between 38th and 24th)
Donât get me wrong, there were plenty of high-quality caliber players missing from across the country - not everybody can (or wants to) make it to Minnesota in November. It would obviously be more ideal to have some of the national winners from other countries flown in to make for more of an international spectacle. But, that said, the level of competition amid the players there was simply outstanding. I think the number of Regionals, Store Championship, and Plugged-In winners over the past several months that were in attendance there more than vouches for the level of competition, and Iâve seen no higher quality pool of opponents in any other stateside tournament.
I should clarify that I was referring to Worldsâ quality as a method of evaluating whoâs the best, not to the level of play at Worlds-- sorry for any confusion.
I consider the level of play at Worlds to be very high, and indeed probably the highest of any tournament. That said, itâs still far from a comprehensive event.
OK, itâs pretty obvious we all agree FFGâs organized play program needs to be better. Stating problems without offering solutions isnât all that helpful, however. For me, the question is: is there any way for me to actually help achieve that goal?
Iâm already investing my free time into creating a local organized play community, but that most probably isnât enough. For one, no matter how great the local scene is (running a league with a Glicko-2 ranking system for something like 100 weeks straight by now), itâs simply not a part of something more⌠global. Also, thereâs only so much I can do within the confines of the current general OP program (or lack thereof) - hell, we didnât even have a Regional this year, because the distributor âlost our applicationâ (that they confirmed they received, back in februaryâŚ) and there is basically no way for me to make certain that doesnât happen again in the future.
Iâd love to be able to help in a more global/organized capacity. I guess my question is now aimed at people that are in closer contact with the FFG folks ( Playtesters, maybe? Looking at you now, @spags). I understand that FFG doesnât have in-house capacity to tend to their OP program in a more serious manner, but would they be willing to at least work with volunteers on it, make it either community-powered, or at least let us do the drudge work of coming up with a good OP program and laying the groundwork?
Could we for instance get together a think-tank of volunteers, come up with a specification/design document of what weâd like the organized play program to look like one day, get into contact with someone at the company and start working on making it happen?
Would an official online version help to implement rankings? An official PC/iPad version would help to connect people and organise play further
There are more playtesters on these boards than you think.
I donât know the specific OP guys. I mean, I know them by sight, but not by name (Stuart and Ian, apparently). I have heard from others that they are responsive. I believe they should/would be willing to ask for volunteers, but, they also may not want any of this done out of haus, even if it greatly benefits them. This is the email address. organizedplay@fantasyflightgames.com
I wonder who these mysterious playtesters are⌠I hear they all smell very good and look amazing in tuxedos
I probably mentioned it in the other thread⌠here in germany/europe there is a site called t3, which is a system agnostic site for tournament organization, that keeps records and ladders.
It is done by one person (or was in the beginning) and it is probably not that hard. I mean, from the technical side.
What do you really need? An MSSQL server for the database, you need to program an application that can be used to organize tournaments and enter stats and on our server, we need to run a program that actually calculates the ELO or whatever it is that we would be using. And a website to automatically display the stats⌠that would be the hardest part for me, I donât know much php or whatever it is those web designer type people use these days.
The rest? Couple of weekends of work (say 4-5 months, allowing for real life and stuff) and if I am not the only programmer ever to play Netrunner I might not even have to do it alone
Afterwards getting people to use the thing and to admin it and weed out the fake tournaments⌠that might be more of a problem⌠I have no experience with that.
As for the question of who is really good⌠I rarely go to tournaments and yet the current german champion is in my group and he doesnât always beat me. So⌠does that make me decent? Who really knows. The problem is, 4 guys in there basement can easily profit from the knowledge of the community by browsing online, reading, watching etc, but they never need to interact with the community, so we do not really know⌠for all we know, two guys who meet once a week in a basement are the best netrunner players ever. I imagine one being played by Ian McKellen (rezzes tollbooth, yells: âYou shall not pass.â) and the other being a troubled young kid whom he teaches to get him out of a life of crime (probably played by Leonardo DiCaprio, because he seems to be in every movie ever). Perhaps we see them at the next worlds, it is going to be dramatic⌠sorry for the tangent. It kinda just happened.
What really sucks is desperately wanting to play ANR every day and get better but being stuck in a city with absolutely no ANR community or player poolâŚ
(and hating OCTGN)
Stuck in a town with no ANR community? Do what I did - build one from the ground up. It may not be easy, but itâs simple.
Every night?
Seattle is a fairly large city and only supports 3 game nights a week in the city proper. 5 to 7 seems excessive.
Maybe move to New York City?
Well I donât necessarily mean a proper game night every week. I would just like to play at least a game or two or ANR every day. It would be awesome if ANR were anywhere near as big as MTG, and you could just show up to any game shop ever and find someone to play with.
In that case, the best advice I can give you is âMarry an awesome womanâ
* high-fives @CrimsonWraith*
edit: to be a bit more constructive, though - you actually just need one other person to get the ball rolling. Grab two decks, grab a friend, and go to an MTG game night or tournament. Sit down at a free table and start playing. You will generate interest, I guarantee - cyberpunk is always hot as a theme, and the game just looks straight-up weird when being played. If people ask you what youâre playing, go into sales-pitch mode. The four best points to play up are:
- The asymmetric gameplay (that always catches interest, especially once you get to the point about how agendas are only present in the corpâs deck!)
- The click system and how youâre gated by that, rather than stupid stuff like âhaving to draw landsâ and âonly drawing one card per turnâ
- The distribution model (a.k.a. âno you donât have to sell a kidney and two to three firstborn to get a complete setâ)
- The awesomeness of the community in general (very little jerks, especially when compared to the competitive MtG scene)
Once you get two people interested, do the same shebang with two tables. After that, youâve basically won.
p.s. buy a second core set, build some easy to play decks to lend to people that you manage to hook into trying. Alternatively, get hold of the demo decks that FFG just put out.
if youâre willing to drive ~30-45 minutes in dallas, you can play netrunner out here every night except tuesdays and fridays. I think thereâs a tuesday meetup downtown as well, but fnm crowds out every store on fridays. Living in dallas is nice
I think the best way to see whoâs good is start a league which last for 1 year. Youâd have the elo system to gives scores, and you can expect people to bring tried instead of experimental decks.
My brother and I (only person I currently have to play with) have gone to 2 board game nights in a row (a night at the biggest local shop where people just come and play whatever). We played some ANR both nights, in a room of 30+ people, half of which were MTG kids in the corner. Over both nights only 1 person wandered over and wondered what we were playing. Keep in mind there is supposed to be ANR every board game night, but no one else showed the past 2 weeks my brother and I went. We will see what happens next Thursday, which is supposed to be a tournament (every other week).
Does anyone know the date of netrunner worlds? Google has failed me.
Nov. 6-9. (20characters)
Yeah, but FFG has the benefit of WotC already establishing their rules, and they have a great example of how clear wordings and rule basis make for a great base for the game rules.
edit: so, this does not quote automatically
What city are you in? That would help. I just randomly ran into my 3rd and 4th netrunner players Monday night at the local game storeâŚthey both said they were looking for a while for people to play with, as I had been for a year.