Growing up, my son was and still is an Artist, he wasn’t into sports, or fishing, or any traditional father/son activities. So we weren’t as close as I wished we could of been. He is now an adult, and up to December of 2017 our relationship was still distant, we loved each other, but we had nothing that we both loved and could do together. During Christmas of 2017 I taught him how to play Android Netrunner, and he loved it, so now we get together twice a week and play, and our relationship is closer then it has ever been. That is what Netrunner means to me, it brought my son and I closer, which I will always be greatful.
About 6 months ago I watched the whole Learning Netrunner series (and again this month) and it's been a magnificient journey. The effort put into the videos and the sheer joy that you two have playing have made me buy two cores (old, revised never came here in spain), the whole genesis and spin cycle. Since then I've been bringing the game to my board game group trying that any of them wants to get into it for real because man is the game good.. Thanks a lot for your work :)
As retailers, the loss of a subscriber base is ROUGH, no doubt, but I bought into Netrunner in the wake of the cancellation and I probably wouldn't have if I hadn't stumbled onto the Learning Netrunner series. You've created something really cool. Props for that.
Thanks for the shout-out, guys. Steven, I've watched that video so many times I could not possibly give you a number. I started to rebuild a Netrunner player base at the beginning of this year from the ashes of the dark times. And I showed that video to everyone who was just beginning to play and could grasp the intensity and nervousness of that moment. As crushing as it was, it was, without a doubt, my favorite game of Netrunner and will always be my favorite memory of Netrunner. Sometimes you do everything right and it still doesn't work out. (For the record there were 2 agendas left in my 21 card deck - a 9.5238% chance on your one card access...) I'm so incredibly fortunate to have had that experience and to have played a game that is someone else's favorite memory. Thanks for all your contributions to building the fan-base for this wonderful game and I hope to see you in September in Minneapolis. - Mason Hans PS Here's the game in question: th-cam.com/video/-FK7HRmpurk/w-d-xo.html
#askcovenant God, I could feel the hurt emanating from Steven throughout this video. It was primarily your energy when discussing the game on this cast that convinced me to try it properly for the first time. I got in only a few months back with the Revised Core, but I've been having a blast. Thank you guys so much for your Learn to Play videos. The value in the insights, explanations and enthusiasm is extraordinary - I must have watched each one 5+ times. My answer to your question is, as you guys have always emphasised, one of the moments when I bent over backwards to discover the solution to a problem. One such moment involved Scavenging an important breaker for an Egret as Kit and Tinkering another piece of ice in order to cut through 3 pieces of ice with a Gordian Blade. It was all for one Hail Mary multi access on R&D at game point on both sides that won me the game. My question to you is: Will you continue making efforts into continuing the legacy of Android Netrunner? I saw Tim's name associated with the NISEI project and I know Steven's enthusiasm for this game could move mountains. Would you ever be involved with fan-based content and if so, what would you envision that to look like?
heh just watched this! I just got into Netrunner a few weeks ago. I absolutely love this game and I missed everything :( I have purchased a complete collection via secondary markets and I am so glad I bought these cards. Although there wont be any new cards or sanctioned tournaments the game itself will live on forever and the people who love playing it will keep it alive. Thanks for creating all of your learning Netrunner series as it is what allowed me to dive into and learn this awesome game. Favorite moment ---> Zack getting pantsed on camera. lol
Netrunner without Jinteki, Weyland, NBN and HB? No chance at all that I would buy into that. After the LCG model there is no way we will accept a CCG as it would just be too greedy in comparison. I could maybe buy into a digital version of netrunner. Either way I am devastated that this has happened. However, I still have people to play with so ANR isn't going anywhere, especially when I have a full collection to experiment with.
Sad days indeed. As a former Magic player, Netrunner showed me a positive community that was open and inviting. I met a ton of friends that I would have never encountered otherwise and thats how I found you guys! It was great to know that there were others totally smitten with this game I had fallen in love with. Thanks for being part of all the memories and the laughs. I firmly believe that ANR will live on through the community. Here's hoping.
Netrunner was my first foray into LCGs and really card games for quite some time. I had played the LoTR CCG for a while, but that was about it. The community in my area was amazing, I traveled around to different tournaments and went to our weekly league nights often. I religiously watched the Netrunner videos from Team Covenant and really tried to study how great players like Steven made their choices to improve my own game. My favorite memory playing Netrunner occurred during my first store championship final. I was playing Leela against a NBN deck and it was 5-4 in favor of the corp. On his turn, he goes install-advance-advance behind a single piece of ice. I didn't think I would be able to get into that server, so I went with the best chance I had-- a two-card Medium dig on R&D. So, I hit a Project Beale in that run, bounced the piece of ice protecting that new install and ran there and stole the agenda for the win and my first ever store championship. I'll never forget what Netrunner meant to me in terms of my own gaming identity and the world it introduced me to. While I haven't played in quite some time, as I moved on to Destiny and X-Wing as my two main competitive games and Arkham Horror taking up quite a lot of time as well, Netrunner will always have a special place in my heart.
Over the last two days I have watched your intro to Netrunner, the basic deck building guide, the four example games and now this. With every video I found myself getting more and more interested and excited at the prospect of playing the game but I was finding it difficult to find products here in the UK. I wondered if that was just being based in the UK but then this video confirmed my fears. I feel like I've showed up to a party after the cops have already closed it down. Sadly, I have been through the 'death' of a game before. I was an avid Vs System player and the end of that CCG was horrible. I hope the suggestions that it might get rebooted or picked up again in one form or another, but it's a very odd feeling to have got so excited about a game which is already over. I can only commend your videos in the highest possible way for building that excitement and your passion has been clear in every video
BR2049 ... fantastic. End of an era. Glad to meet you guys through the fantastic game of ANR. Keep up the great work, and will hopefully will see you when Netrunner reboots again at some point.
Really late to this, but the loss of Netrunner was a big deal to me too. I found out about you guys back in the day because of your Netrunner tokens; maybe without that I wouldn’t be watching your throwback game streams today :) My favorite Netrunner memory was going to my first ever store tournament at a new store playing a MaxX Wyldcakes deck that drew a million cards every turn to build up to a big Medium run on R&D with a Showing Off to score up from the bottom if necessary. I just remember one of my first opponents complimenting me on my deck and telling other people: hey did you see this guy’s deck? It was the first time I’d ever had a deck in any game complimented, and this from a stranger (at the time). I played with that group off and on for years, and had the same arc you talked about, with not really buying into Mumbad cycle but getting excited about the one after it. It was pretty rough to hear the news, and our group tried Destiny, L5R and even Arkham. I remember getting the restock alert for Reign and Reverie during a Destiny game night with the ANR crew. I did play a little in early 2020 in the SF scene with the new Nisei cards. The local meta was more competitive than janky like my old group but it was great to get the game to the table again. My favorite deck ever was a Weyland Beanstalk-Vanity Project-Punitive Counterstrike deck. I had five agendas and would as often flatline a runner as score two Vanity Projects. SanSan was my favorite cycle, I loved the flavor and theming and built most of my decks out of that card pool. (Loved me a Stim Dealer, some cybernetics, and NBN’s whole vibe in that set.) Anyway, thanks for the memories! Now that I’m thinking about older card games, I think it just might be time to get back into Netrunner! ^^
one advantage I see for netrunner at least compared to other LCG's is that it has two sides that use completely different cardpools. 1 person with a single collection has the ability to enjoy the game for years and still have the complete experience of deck construction and facing off against something unexpected. provided he has an opponent that is simply willing to learn (remember the opponent does not to invest anything into it its all 1 single collection). it just means in this case one side is playing corp continuously while the other side plays runner. and maybe after a day of doing this, you switch carpools and come back and do it again but with switched roles. while there is not going to be any new cards or official tournament play, i think there is still plenty of life for casual kitchen table games.
I’ve just finished putting together a complete Android Netrunner collection. Played it when it was alive, but didn’t start collecting it until after the announcement. I watched this video back in the day, but rewatched it again tonight (March 2024) while organising my collection. A great conversation about an amazing game.
TC netrunner coverage was some of the first videos I cottoned on to when I started learning the game. Steve’s “Anatomy of Anarchy” article was one of the best that I read when I was trying to play competitively. Thanks for the fun times.
Netrunner was originally based on Cyberpunk. CD Projekt Red, the developers of Cyberpunk 2077, are known for making supplementary board games/card games (like Gwent in Witcher 3, and then the standalone version). My theory is this: Cyberpunk 2077 will have a new version of Netrunner as a minigame. It'll then be spun off into a full new online game. It'll be great, but it won't be an LCG, which will be unfortunate.
This is a super late response to this, but CDProjekt RED confirmed that their is a card game in their upcoming video game cyberpunk 2077, so it looks like you may be right :)
Blade Runner 2049 was fantastic. Probably one of my favorite movies in a long time. I love that it lets you sort of live in that fully realized world. The guy I took with me to see it in the movie theatre fell asleep half way through. It's definitely a love it or hate it film :)
Some more positive news (maybe it's already been mentioned here) --Denis Villeneuve (the director of Blade Runner 2049) is currently working on a Dune movie!
My thoughts on Netrunner coming to end: Whoever was responsible within Asmodee or FFG for not agreeing to pay more for the license from Wizards of the Coast has made a huge mistake. If one is only to see things in business from a profitability point of view, most creative endeavours may not even get off the ground. Creativity and development takes money and investment in talent with no certainty of it paying off - some of business is a gamble and a commitment to make things work. For FFG to pull the plug on their no. 1 LCG was a massive error of judgement. It's actually quite disrespectful to all their development team, their in-house talent, their play testers, community and content creators (such as yourselves, TC, and Bad Publicity, etc. who have made video after video to encourage learning and understanding of their product). If a revised core set came out a few months prior and now the plug is pulled - it signals to me that management have lost their way because it's clear the development team knew little/none of this. I am concerned for all the other FFG LCGs (Thrones, being the major licensed LCG product left). I can no longer be confident that FFG are committed to competitive LCGs and I am no longer confident that FFG will support their non-Star Wars/non-in-house products. When FFG lost the Games Workshop licence and Conquest LCG ended, we assumed that it was because GW wanted to walk away and nothing would stop them. Now, I think FFG simply just isn't willing to pay for their non-Star Wars licenses - and that's very alarming. I think a lot of people are being diplomatic here, but losing your no.1 LCG after a reboot is supremely damaging - and to justify the license loss as purely a profitability thing, is smoke and mirrors for not acknowledging that Asmodee/FFG as huge companies could have (if they were committed) kept their licences and let their investments for Netrunner continue - but they chose not to to the surprise and anger of many.
HerbJon maybe WoTC will make a CCG. Not optimal I know, but much better than nothing. In the meantime I have a huge back catalog of cards to hunt down and try out. Looking like I'll never get to play in a tournament.
I know.. I have a full collection.. x2 even.. I just wanted for this game to continue so frekkin much (under FFG..) as it's easily my fav game of all times.. But yeah, It's a game, it's over.. Not much to do about that. And hope something like Jinteki.net can still be an outlet as well for a while at least. Sure, WoTC could make something out of it.. Don't know.. Depends on the rout they choose to take for the game I guess. And my second fav game, SW: LCG also hit the bucket just a couple of months ago. Bitter times..
I got into anr cause of tc and Steven's passionate coverage of the game. The game and the underlying story remains intriguing to me and I feel lucky to have the game. Will continue to enjoy playing this game and teaching it to my kids. Thanks!!
Best memory... first GNK, earlier this year. I took a Study Guide Kit deck with Egrets and Surfer (the only breaker is Study Guide). Ran this stacked remote... hit the first ice, he rezzes. I break and jack out. He looks puzzled. Then I Egret the ice, install Surfer, and run last click, Surf aaaaall the way in for the winning agenda. Priceless :D
Learnt to play thanks to your tutorials some months ago. I’m into it since February, bought everything ffg ever published about this game and made so many new friends to my local meta. Thanks for supporting this wonderful game and for your efforts in introducing ppl to this amazing cyber world.
Hey guys thanks for the shout out. As Steven said netrunner was never "the one" for me. Despite that I still loved game, the innovative design, and the community that came with it. I know everybody is saying this but I too was just a pinky tow away from getting back in myself. Sad to see such a great game have this happen, again rip the spoils, but it's always warms my heart to see people actually be emotional in response to the loss of these great games. With regards to your questions about favorite moments in netrunner, my favorite moment was the first netrunner regional held at covenant. I had recently moved away for graduate school but I was able to make the trip back to town for the regional. It was the largest event I had ever attended. I was so nervous I was going to get destroyed since I hadn't played a single game in over a month. Despite the odds I ended up being the number one seed in the swiss and was able to make top 4, only losing that day to Tim in what was a game I will never forget. Despite being upset about having to move away, it was amazing to be immediately welcomed back into the fold that day. Sadly it was due to this lack of community existing where I moved that I fell out with the game. Still heartbroken to see it go, but I know many of us will be reminiscing over memories from this game and others over a cold beer for years to come.
Is it possible to cut clips or at least a list of links to greatest netrunner moments within covent videos? Thanks so much either way!.......Also maybe Hasbro is seeing Asmodee as a growing threat so they told WotC not to give FFG the rights in hopes it would slow down their rise to the top.
A new mainstream digital version, (and maybe analog as well) of Netrunner from WOTC Vs. The Asmodee/FFG team Keyforge creation? Both games made possible by Richard Garfield ultimately. Lol, the irony. Also, Keyforge competing with not only possibly a new Netrunner game, but also MTG for their share of the market could prove quite daunting. Fascinating stuff going on behind the scenes here for sure. Interesting times.
Ah man. Night before the announcement, I decide I want to get back into netrunner and sit down to start figuring out rotation, revised core, and what's still legal. I hadn't played since terminal directive got released, but mostly due to life business and a diminished community where I had been living. I want to get the packs, finish my collection, but sheesh the availability of Reign and Reverie is getting real thin. I want to thank you guys for the videos and your enthusiasm over the years. I found Team Covenant specifically because of your data tokens and now I am a happy user of those, the mythos and the LotR tokens. If not for netrunner I wouldn't be listening to your podcasts each time they are released. I was crushed that it is ending, I tried L5R and as much as I like parts of it, it is such a slower game. Nothing will probably replace Netrunner for a long time.
I teared up when I heard the news. Netrunner is how I found you guys and Netrunner is how I bonded with a few friends. I’ve played at least once a week online and absolutely love this game to pieces. Such sad news. There are so many Magic clones I wonder how much you could actually take from Netrunner mechanically and get away with it. Makes me wanna develop a Netrunner clone but in a different universe.
This just came up in my algorithm for some reason - so glad that the game isn't actually dead, even through Covid. Got IRL play back up and running post pandemic, the third NISEI expansion coming up and multiple semi organised leagues on jnet.
Guys, please just keep playing netrunner games on a video, you are the only reason I need youtube. I’ve been wishing to play netrunner since l have been 7 yo. And it’s not easy in Russia! I was just reading William Gibson like a nuts, and somehow google (or what was that in early 2000) myself into this deck game. Imagine me when I’m 27 and I could at least bought the very same game! (So I did!), and my disappointment when it’s cancelled when I’m 28! I’ve just finishing teaching my girl to play it good (and she is literally kicking my ass as a wayland deck), and now - that’s it, she won, she doesn’t have to play with me anymore! Now we’re playing shopping, again. Meanwhile, to wash away a tear, I’ve never liked an idea that they are making those card packs so often anyway. I felt that it is getting further away from, like, chess, or Go, or some games so symmetrical and perfect, for which I’ve appreciated those hacker-megacorp battles. So, guys, especially you - ginger/bold guy, hold your guts! And please, just keep playing, and thinking, and expressing on a camera, choose a new tactics with a perfect (a bit owerwhelmed) pack of tools of cards we have printed at the moment! *and quit loosing already to the evil-mustaches guy, just score those agendas, just score them!
On another note (and mentioned by Gui below), you cannot copyright game mechanics. The best thing that could happen would be another company (or FFG themselves) to make the exact same game, but with a different theme and different terms/names for things.
THANK YOU for addressing the "LCG model doesn't work" junk - I'm so tired of hearing this from whoever can't grasp the reality of the industry. This question is NOT REAL. It means you don't understand any of the reasons behind Netrunner getting discontinued, which, as most of this video explains - nobody does. Just calm right down.
We don't know what exactly happen but we do know Michael Boggs turned the game around in a big way. Always a joy to play games made by talented developers and I am excited to play what he makes next, hopefully something in the Android universe.
Just an update to this saga. It seems as if Wizards of the Coast didn't offer the license back to FFG is 2018. In June of 2021 WotC trademarked "Netrunner" according to an article from last August.
Most of my netrunner memories are of kitchen table games. My very best memory is of trying to play with my brother over skype in the very early days of the game. He had a whole rig with his iPad dangling over his desktop tower. The visual quality was so bad we had to constantly be telling eachother what cards were. My other favorite memory is giving a guy I knew for. A brief period of time all my corp cards so that I would have someone to play with. We played quite a few games and he continued to play on jinteki for a long time afterwards. For me netrunner continues to be my all time favorite game despite the fact that no one will play it with me. This is just another disappointment in a long and illustrious chain of nostalgia and missed opportunity. But I still have all the cards, and that's really all that I've had for the last several years. But I felt the momentum. I had the hope. I wanted to believe the game could come back for me and for the whole community. Some other favorite memories are watching the early days of covenant. Stephens commentary will always be some of my favorite and most stuff. Unboxings amd predictions for metas and strategy, made the game so much fun. My brother (and sparring partner) bought that first run of tokens by you guys and we were in awe of how cool they were and they threw us right into the anr universe. Thanks for all the mems, anr community, I wish I could have been more a part of you and I even hope that I can break out some decks with some of you down the line. Thanks for all the mems covenant. Netrunner is a lot of the reason why I know you're here and incredibly awesome! You are making tabletop so good right now! #askCovenant: do you foresee any non ffg game becoming awesome enough for you guys to cover and support it (I know you talked about the drop off with ashes, and Godtear keeps coming from up)? Do you foresee any game filling the box of anr? Whether a competitive non-combat card game, or a bluffing game, or a game with such visceral pace, theme, and play? Or is anr unique?
I also am sad about Netrunner's premature demise; and I have too think the timing of it all fairly screams this was WotC screwing over FFG just like GW did. It also makes decisions like them buying L5R outright as opposed to licensing it make more sense. I suspect we will see them being much more cautious about entering into new licensing arrangements in the future.
I’m feeling shafted from them shifting the burden to the consumer. I just got into the game literally a month ago, bought pretty hard into it, and then found out it died. Agree with you that it doesn’t feel anything like anything else, especially not like magic. I don’t think I’m giving up on this game though, I have six years to catch up on!! :)
Same here. This is literally the only card game I sincerely enjoyed hands down. I'm still seeking the data packs I don't have and share it with my godchildren.
Your videos with the Revised Core got me into this game. From a new players perspective, this game was intimidating. The terminology, massive card pool, and asymmetry make the game hard to grok. You guys made it very accessible. I wonder if this is a problem that others shared. I’m sad of the news, but I realized how great of a game this is. I was able to get a nice pool of cards. It will be played for many years.
I would play a CoOp NetRunner game in a heartbeat. As long as Runner and Corp are both playable, since I am a fan of playing the Corp, but even just one side, I'd still play it!! I know we’ve seen Niesi pick up the Netrunner system and carry it forward, which is great!! But it would be interesting to see WotC actually do something with Netrunner. You mentioned Cyberpunk 2020, there was a CCG in that setting. You play as a sponsor(basically a Corp) and hire runners to complete objectives and mess with your opponents. Systematically, much more like MtG except there is are asymmetrical win conditions specific to each sponsor. Fun game and thematic to the same theme as NetRunner. Been rewatching the TC LTP Netrunner series again, helps scratch the itch for NetRunner!! It really is such a great game and you two did a fantastic job highlighting the game itself!! Its funny, you talk about a toxic community. MtG is definitely that, for the most part. But I was driven away from NetRunner partially because of a toxic community that would made fun of players who didn’t play the meta cards or play a Corp/Runner ID that they viewed as “bad”. This unfortunately happened when I moved and went to a few tourneys and weekly casual gaming nights and it was very disheartening, seeing as I loved the game so much. My favorite NetRunner memory isn’t even from the community, per se. But my friend and I used to have our decks on us all the time and we would play a game while waiting for other people to show up for a different game. We would just power through games. It was a great pickup game for us; which sounds odd given how complex the game can be but it just worked for us. It helped that he preferred running and I preferred Corp-ing.
So, ANR was/is the first game I've gotten in to since I was a kid (15+ years ago). I bought in shortly after H&P, and consider Anatomy of an Anarch to be what sold me on the competitive game. Needless to say, the news hit me hard. I know that I want to get into another game like this, but the biggest problem I'm finding is discovering another game that I like enough to play competitively. What originally drew me to this get was the asymmetric strategy. My question for you is, do you think FFG is going to attempt another asymmetric LCG again soon?
This announcement had me gutted last week. It was one of those games I just assumed would always be there. I would go on stints with other games and always have reliable Netrunner to fall back on. Not anymore. Makes me want to spend as much time as I can with it, while it's still around.
Awesome you mentioned Vampire the Eternal Struggle - since they have been kept alive by VEKN (community) online for 10 years or so now, and they just got a new distributor (Drive thru cards) and publisher (Black Chantry) last month (working together with White Wolf since V5 is coming). A:NR is getting a community treatment to keep games going, and VtES has survived through some unbelievable times. The magic of old innovations just don't get the rest of decline; people just keep them alive. Unbelievable news for VtES - which keeps hope up for Netrunner as well.
@askcovenant Will you be taking a look at the development of White Wolf + Black Chantry co-development of V5 (rpg) and new starter set of VtES (cardgame)?
Such a great podcast. You guys give really insightful analysis. I've never been really into Netrunner, but I wanted to learn more about what happened. I'm really looking forward to Keyforge though. Keep up the good content!
Yeah, I've played MTG for many years and it kept my wallet empty and blind to so many of the other great games I could have been playing that entire time that I could have easily afforded with cash I was constantly sinking into magic. I had fun at times with MTG over the years here and there, but the more competitive it became, and the more expensive it became due to power creep and the business model, the less it captured the essence of what made it fun and accessible in the beginning. This is why I am excited for Keyforge. This is also what brought me to Netrunner. That combined with a long time love for the Cyberpunk genre.
However, I have said for a long time now that FFG should have tried to make a deal to promote Netrunner with a digital component available on the big platforms or at least one of them. Something akin to WoTC's various offerings on Sony and Microsoft's marketplace.
Great podcast as always. So, on Netrunner, I really don't think this is the end. I suspect WotC they are taking it in-house now that it is ready to be taken up a level - something the FFG just don't seem to want (or be able) to do. Friday Night Netrunner? Yes please! Regular blog / news content, regular professionally run and recorded tournaments? Yes again! A shed-ton of lore in short and long formats coming out on a regular basis, and a move over to the CCG format to bring into play arguably the best Magic formats: draft and sealed? Hell yeah. Hey, maybe I'm being overly optimistic, but I have a feeling in my water that this time next year we'll all have smiles on our faces.
I'm not through the entire podcast yet, but one factor to this Netrunner situation is Wizards is owned by Hasbro. So, they've got even more muscle to develop than they did before. So, the sky's the limit one what could happen to this license now. Hasbro has a lot of entities that could work this license in-house that's not just Wizards.
For me I just bought into the game with RC2.0, then to play outside of kitchen table I needed to get all the boxes and a handful of packs across a couple months. I still had fun and will, but now I'm in a weird state with almost a half collection. I guess I learned to buy into new big games slowly.
For casuals, there's more than enough Netrunner content to play in that universe for a very long time. Just waiting for my local games store to have a fire sale (which they say will happen soon) on the stuff and I'll pick up what I don't have. I'll still play it. But it is kinda sad that FFG won't be supporting such a great game (I like it so much more than MtG even though that's an enormous scene and I'm always hard-up to find opponents for Netrunner). Oh well.
Very sad that Netrunner is ending but it lead me to making some great friends and finding this channel along the way! I think playing very cerebral games like Netrunner connect opponents in a way that other games (certainly not online games) cannot do very easily. With that said, I hope you guys at TC get plenty of Reign and Reverie to go around, I keep reading horror stories about Netrunner fans trying to complete their collection and all retailers are out of stock!
You guys make an interesting point about the Android universe. WotC was licensing Netrunner to FFG, but FFG owns the Android IP, sooo... what happens to ANR? They can't reboot Netrunner as a separate WotC product, because that would shaft everyone who bought into ANR - they'd lose that player base. You guys also talk about WotC having digital card games, but Magic Online is notorious for being clunky, unpolished, and a money sink as deep as paper-Magic. You speculate about WotC working with CD Project Red (the guys behind Witcher, Gwent, & Cyberpunk 2077) but so much of what makes Netrunner Netrunner was the Android universe. I can't even imagine Netrunner without Jinteki, Weyland, Haas, and NBN. IDK, I'm really salty about this, and I hope it bites WotC in the ass.
Great video guys, as always. It was a nice farewell to the game from you. I'm also super sad to see Netrunner go. The community was great for this game and playing it was a very special experience, unlike any other card game out there. Although I'm guessing there will be a digital version by WOTC in the end, I'd still like to see a cooperative game launched by FFG in the Android world (since they still have that IP). Perhaps with the players as runners going against the corp encounter deck? I think that would be successful, keep some of the game alive and in-house, where it belongs, and the theme is sufficiently different from LOTR and Arkham Horror that it wouldn't compete too heavily with those other LCGs.
My favorite Netrunner memory was piling four nerds I barely knew into my little car, driving to my first Store Championship in the next town, and taking 2nd place with a janky combination of Whizzard/Keyhole and NBN Psycho/Beale decks. It should never have worked, and the guy that beat me for 1st was obviously a thousand times better than me -- but I had a little luck on my side, I guess. We all had a great time and I got to meet some fantastic people along the way.
Mind you FFG doesn't have the exclusive license on Star Wars games. FFG only has the licenses for Star Wars role-playing, card, and miniature games. They do not have the license for Star Wars boardgames in general. That belongs to Hasbro, which means that Imperial Assault and Rebellion are both products FFG/Asmodee can only sell by the good grace (and a lucretive deal, presumably) with Hasbro. The same Hasbro, who also happens to own WotC...
Sorry if this has been asked and answered, but.... can FFG continue to print previously-released copies of data packs, etc until the October cutoff date? Judging from the huge supply of still-available-and-cheap Warhammer Quest Cardgame copies, I hope they’v e done it before (print up until deadline) and can do so again. #AskCovenant
This makes me so so so sad. I have yet to played a game of netrunner and only got into board gaming about 3 years ago. I have enjoyed Arkham Horror LCG, my first LCG, and Ashes. My friend and I love the cyber hacker theme of netrunner, funny you mention blade runner, and we were both excited to get our hands on the revised core set and were preparing our wallets to embark on this journey together, me the Corp player (naturally) and him the plucky and foolish hacker (bwahaha). Now, we are just utterly disappointed. I was so confused and baffled and aimlessly started looking up netrunner stuff to see if maybe I could get anything now but now I just... I just....
Sanjuro Shinjitsu there is a huge card pool out there, I find stuff for sale all over the internet. Plus soon I bet eBay and BGG marketplace will be flooded with second hand stuff. You and your friend can still play, and it'll be a long while before you get bored with what is available.
NO. They can't sell any product after October 2018, and it takes way to long to reprint things and ship them over here. The only new product announced since the deluxe is the 2017 Worlds decks...
Are there plans to reprint the data tokens (revised)? I just purchased the game in the wake of last week announcement. Loved your learn to play series on the game as well :)
I'm not sure if you guys are aware, but the original game "Netrunner" was designed by WOTC, but the term and world were both liscensed from R. Talsorian games, the creaters of Cyberpunk 2020, the table top rpg that Cyberpunk 2077 is based on. So by default, if WOTC releases a new netrunner game, it WILL be in the cyberpunk 2020\2077 universe unless some other company gives them a different liscense.
I recommend fans of Netrunner check into Doomtown: Reloaded. It is another unique LCG, and in my opinion quite different than other card games I've played. It has more luck than Netrunner, which turned some people off. But the element of chance is can be strategically mitigated, and there is still a high degree of skill to deck construction and play. Also, the chance element is highly thematic (wild west theme + making poker hands). I'm sure it isn't a replacement for die hard Netrunner fans, but maybe another fun option (and in current production).
Scott Wallbank it got picked back up by another publisher and they are supporting it again. I think AEG had it, then didn't want it anymore, and the original IP owner Pinnacle decided to keep it going. They didn't change rules, so all of the AEG cards are still useable.
I actually had just recently heard about Netrunner and decided to order the revised core set. Two days later I heard they were killing the game. Still got the set coming in the mail but man that's a bummer lol.
For me the biggest thing with physical card games is what you guys were talking about earlier. Other formats like Cube. Two-Headed Giant. Sellout (2v2 Netrunner). Not a single digital card game (to my knowledge) promotes playing with friends. Where is trading, guilds, 2v2 formats, PvE, etc? It seems silly that we've not seen any community features in any of these games. Hearthstone has Fireside games but that is not very well done or marketed all that well. Games like WoW had amazing community features. Where are those in the digital card game space? Give me a reason to be online the same times as my friends chatting with them and you'll have something great.
One can survive the end of the official print run of a game. Legend of the Five Rings was up in the air in 2000-01, Doomtown has had it twice. If you have a decent playgroup in your area, none of these games ever has to truly die off. Just play casually, even restrict the card base to Core sets and a particular cycle.
Watching this in 2021, I wish Cyberpunk has picked up Netrunner. But the game came and went and no Netrunner. Thank god for Nisei taking a more active roll. System Gateway coming soon.
I also remember many games eaten by Wayland of the Coast. Don't blame FFG. Vampire a was killed when Wayland asked the publishers to pay ridiculous amount of money for tap mechanic. And hostile overtakes of FASA and Tsr and desipher, killed star wars, star trek, battletech, spell fire, shadow run, rage, vampire..... Weyland of the Coast always "Making a better Magic"
Albino Wombat 2077 is based on the tabletop rpg Cyberpunk 2020, which was the setting for the original Netrunner CCG published by Wizards. That's probably where all the parallels come from. Still, I could see Wizards wanting to capitalize on that now.
#askcovenant I couldn't pick my best Netrunner memory, but I made some great new ones at our local meet up last Thursday. I taught two new people to play the game. One of them brought decks built from the old Core and I got to play Precognition as my first click of the game, then scored Priority of Requisition to rez a Wall of Thorns. It was glorious. The other was the sharpest learner I've ever taught. We had a wicked game that ended with me whiffing on a 6-card R&D access at match point and then getting killed by a 1 per deck card that was sat on the table. Good old-fashioned Netrunner thrills. After that I played a few great games with old friends. I got to 'Account Siphon' someone for the first time in almost a year with the new more-balanced reprint, had my eyes opened to the terrifying new deck that is Mti Mwekundu , and pulled off a smooth Blue Sun Punitive Counterstrike kill like it was 2014 again. All three experiences were, and I do not say this lightly, Effing Sweet. On the way home I thought to myself, "Wow, they've really managed to get over the pre-rotation hump and make this game great again! Really excited for Regionals season!" 24hrs later and the game is dead. Kick in the teeth is putting it lightly.
FFG made a few mistakes with all their LCG titles which turned them into hardcore gamer's games and turned many casual players away despite the gameplay being good. 1. Asking players to buy a core box 3 times meant throwing away a lot of stuff, like duplicate cards, tokens and boxes, all of which add to the cost of the game. Many players felt like they were throwing money down the toilet. It would be a lot friendlier if the core box had only 2 factions with all 3x cards and then each additional starter for a faction had its own box, or perhaps a 1v1 box which introduced 2 factions. Honestly, it made FFG look very greedy and players - especially casual players - rarely respond well to that. 2. Having "expansion" packs each month with each of them having 2-3 cards of each faction - often only 1 card was good and 1-2 that were almost useless - meant that players had to buy everything in order to make a specific strategy work. What about the players who only want to focus on 2 factions? This made the game very expensive for the casual players. A more considerate release plan would be to release specific faction packs every 4-6 months with 60-80 cards, just like regular board games do, and everyone could have all the cards for their factions at a significantly lower cost. These 2 reasons mostly, with the occasional unavailability of older packs which made some strategies impossible to use, were the cause for me to lose interest very quickly on some of the games; especially AGoT because I did not want to play (out of principle) Lannisters and Greyjoy, yet I had to buy all the cards. That left a bitter taste in my mouth. The last few years have not been good for LCG players, so many players may hesitate to invest on a new LCG with the rate these are dying off. I think the LCG model will have more success in the future if it adopts a less frequent release schedule, with each expansion having more meat and being focused on single factions. If FFG does that and stop asking me to buy boxes and cards and then throw them away, I will consider investing again on a LCG.
cartoon80s90s YES. The LCG format was cool back when EVERY card game was collectible with random packs. Now that the card game environment is different, all their advantages are outdated.
Yeah, I should mention that I did not mean their coop games, LotR and AH. I find that for me it is easier to take LotR out of the box and play (I assume it's the same with AH for those who have it) even with players who have not had prior experience. Something I find very boring these days is deck building. Having to go through hundreds or even thousands of cards was fun in the past when I was playing tcgs, mostly MtG, but now it feels like a chore. That's another reason why I have stepped away from card games the last 2-3 years.
The triple core set was a little ridiculous. They could have at least modified it so you only needed 2 core set (one for introduction, one for serious players) or even just a core "upgrade pack" that included the missing cards. While I understand the business reasons behind expecting players to buy multiple cores, its a very bitter pill to swallow. Thankfully, the hype and enjoyment I have for the game helps to sweeten that pill as I was more excited to add 2nd and 3rd copies of certain cards to my deck.
If this is about strategy between competititors, then it is more likely to be between Hasbro (who owns Wotc) and Asmodee (FFG), two of the biggest entities in boardgames.
From my understanding you couldn't own game mechanics, wizards owned the IP "Netrunner" which was originally an RPG that Richard Garfield made a CCG for. So perhaps we will see the game again as "Android: CyberWar" or something. P.S. I loved 2049 but I guessed the reveal 40 minutes into the 3 hour film so my experience was a bit spoiled
FFF still has to be careful though. If FFG sets the precedent of copying the mechanics from a game they licensed, that would damage their reputation and discourage other companies from giving them licenses.
Copyright doesn't support that and when it is taken to court, they usually don't agree with the claimant. The current precedent is that game mechanics cannot be copyrighted.
I think FFG should of put more support into netrunner. They let it get to a make or break state before they did anything so it makes since the corporate higher ups didn’t think the money drain was worth it. FFG has too many games to support so they need to drop some dead weight
I think there's a few more ideas that are worth considering / exploring here. MTG has been tanking since 2014, and there have been rumors that Hasbro is considering selling WOTC in the next few years. Assuming it is true, regaining Netrunner license may play into either making WOTC seem more lucrative to a potential buyer or they want to throw another game into the market as a last ditch attempt to make WOTC more profitable / viable.
I feel a bit guilty for not supporting it. At the time I was very into FFG's Star Wars LCG and I could only afford that. I kept telling myself at some point I would start playing and collecting Netrunner, it looked so good, but I waited too long. =(
When I think of WotC as a casino, (and not a gaming company), I understand them better. I still hate them, but I have no expectations of them that don't involve trying to crush dreams and rob you blind.
I order revised core from LGS next day game is cancelled FML. Destiny is my first CCG and saw a NEtrunner tournament weekend before cancel announcement at same LGS. Looked awesome. Now? Forget it..next!
As long as your success depends on something licensed from someone else, you should never feel comfortable. FFG got a touch prideful on this one. I'd be wary of all their sandcastles built on Star Wars too. Terrinoth has to be made into something successful if they want some level of stability. My opinion at least.
From my perspective FFG could have handled things better with Netrunner over the last few years. I started collecting shortly after the rotation was announced. I made every effort to buy product I knew I would use for a while first, three Core sets and all the deluxe boxes, which FFG said would be evergreen, along with the newer data packs. And for the record I hated having a bunch of extra cards and tokens I'd never use from having to buy three Core sets. I tried to future proof myself as well as not wasting money on cards I'd only be able to use for a few months before they rotated out. Then the campaign box comes out and again I'm wasting money buying a bunch of stuff I'll never use just for a handful of cards to use in constructed. Fast forward and now the Core set isn't evergreen and I have to buy THREE MORE core sets including cards from data packs I specifically didn't buy because the cards would not be legal according to the rotation. Then boom, Netrunner is dead. Lets just say the sequence of events left a sour taste in my mouth. FFG has made me feel like they nickle and dime you to death as of late. Having to buy ships you wont use just for upgrade cards in X-Wing and Armada, wasting money on extra product because they specifically designed their LCG core sets to require multiple purchases and expansion packs with only 1-3 cards per faction in them. Just my $0.02.
I had been pretty much like Steven where I was one (or two) step away from getting back into the game, and I don't mean to troll the people who did, but if they bought the IP to make it into their own card game (digital or otherwise), I would actually be more excited than just getting back in the same game again. #AskCovenant So if WotC puts out a physical card game will you guys stock/support it? I don't know if you guys have a beef with WotC, but I don't think you've every really dealt with their products.
Ultimately they are a retail store. Whether the two of them are dissapointed with the decision, that shouldn't affect their professional relationship with any companies. They have a responsibility to their employees and shareholders to pursue profit and refusing to stock a product in protest would undermine that responsibility.
If there's one thing we can learn from this tragedy: Never buy into games with borrowed licenses again. Only buy games where the license is owned by the developer. Otherwise, you're setting yourself up to disappointment.
I just bought the revised core a few weeks ago.. as a gamer, Netrunner had been on my radar ever since the very first addition. I finally decide to engage with it, and it gets pulled. I am.. pissed to say the least.. I feel like I am on a deadline now to buy packs and expansions before they run out or become stupidly expensive. Its not going to happen. Wages are finite. I don't blame FFG at all, I think WotC saw the success and wanted it back. I'll still be buying Arkham and L5R.
It would! At mimimun the revised core alone would let you play, and any packs after that are just icing on the cake. If you can grab two revised cores, we definately would! That would allow you to really dive into some deckbuilding, and have extra cards for anyone else who might want to play with you. Plus two revised cores and one copy of Reign and Reverie all fit inside one revised core set box!
Maybe I'm projecting, but Steven's emotions are just emanating from his face/brain. You have the unenviable task of looking at it from a business angle and as well as a member of our ANR community. I've said it other places, but there's just something so...damn sad about this. I'm an adult (late 30s!) and this was my first "lifestyle" game where I made many good friends due to the game, the meet-ups, the online community, and the general enthusiasm about hacking nets. #askcovenant Do you see your store still running events/weekly meet-ups once the game has no new content to sell?
@Steven if you love shows or movies with a lot of depth and art. I would highly recommend Dark on Netflix. Please check it out for your own sack. The director only wants to make 3 seasons and that was always the intent on this show. My take on Netrunner now is that if WotC started making Netrunner some how. I will not play because then they would turn it into Magic. I would however play Fantasy Flight Netrunner. I play games now video games and board games etc. based on how companies are ran. Being someone who started playing now that's it's not being printed is proof that that game just doesnt die. New players will come around. If not create new players by playing with people. The cards that the game has now is so vast that many combos can be made. I myself will hunt my local players through Facebook and board game store for those players who still play. If it's a few of us, showing others the love we have will make the player base grow.
Growing up, my son was and still is an Artist, he wasn’t into sports, or fishing, or any traditional father/son activities. So we weren’t as close as I wished we could of been. He is now an adult, and up to December of 2017 our relationship was still distant, we loved each other, but we had nothing that we both loved and could do together. During Christmas of 2017 I taught him how to play Android Netrunner, and he loved it, so now we get together twice a week and play, and our relationship is closer then it has ever been. That is what Netrunner means to me, it brought my son and I closer, which I will always be greatful.
Thats awesome. I hope you guys continue to play or find another game you guys can learn and play together.
Clint Riley - Well Clint since you inquired, it so happens we do, we now play Thrones, L5R, and a game called Aventuria. It really is Awsome . 👍👍👍
Try out destiny, it's also awesome!
*Grateful
Looks like the corps scored that last agenda.
end run
I'm new runner and I intend on keep running. I found someone to selling me almost all the cards.
About 6 months ago I watched the whole Learning Netrunner series (and again this month) and it's been a magnificient journey.
The effort put into the videos and the sheer joy that you two have playing have made me buy two cores (old, revised never came here in spain), the whole genesis and spin cycle.
Since then I've been bringing the game to my board game group trying that any of them wants to get into it for real because man is the game good..
Thanks a lot for your work :)
As retailers, the loss of a subscriber base is ROUGH, no doubt, but I bought into Netrunner in the wake of the cancellation and I probably wouldn't have if I hadn't stumbled onto the Learning Netrunner series. You've created something really cool. Props for that.
Thanks Zack!
Thanks for the shout-out, guys. Steven, I've watched that video so many times I could not possibly give you a number. I started to rebuild a Netrunner player base at the beginning of this year from the ashes of the dark times. And I showed that video to everyone who was just beginning to play and could grasp the intensity and nervousness of that moment. As crushing as it was, it was, without a doubt, my favorite game of Netrunner and will always be my favorite memory of Netrunner. Sometimes you do everything right and it still doesn't work out. (For the record there were 2 agendas left in my 21 card deck - a 9.5238% chance on your one card access...) I'm so incredibly fortunate to have had that experience and to have played a game that is someone else's favorite memory. Thanks for all your contributions to building the fan-base for this wonderful game and I hope to see you in September in Minneapolis.
- Mason Hans
PS Here's the game in question: th-cam.com/video/-FK7HRmpurk/w-d-xo.html
Thanks Mason! It is great to hear from you!
#askcovenant
God, I could feel the hurt emanating from Steven throughout this video. It was primarily your energy when discussing the game on this cast that convinced me to try it properly for the first time.
I got in only a few months back with the Revised Core, but I've been having a blast. Thank you guys so much for your Learn to Play videos. The value in the insights, explanations and enthusiasm is extraordinary - I must have watched each one 5+ times.
My answer to your question is, as you guys have always emphasised, one of the moments when I bent over backwards to discover the solution to a problem. One such moment involved Scavenging an important breaker for an Egret as Kit and Tinkering another piece of ice in order to cut through 3 pieces of ice with a Gordian Blade. It was all for one Hail Mary multi access on R&D at game point on both sides that won me the game.
My question to you is: Will you continue making efforts into continuing the legacy of Android Netrunner? I saw Tim's name associated with the NISEI project and I know Steven's enthusiasm for this game could move mountains. Would you ever be involved with fan-based content and if so, what would you envision that to look like?
Thanks for commenting Jason, we have your question on the list for an upcoming podcast!
heh just watched this! I just got into Netrunner a few weeks ago. I absolutely love this game and I missed everything :( I have purchased a complete collection via secondary markets and I am so glad I bought these cards. Although there wont be any new cards or sanctioned tournaments the game itself will live on forever and the people who love playing it will keep it alive. Thanks for creating all of your learning Netrunner series as it is what allowed me to dive into and learn this awesome game. Favorite moment ---> Zack getting pantsed on camera. lol
Netrunner without Jinteki, Weyland, NBN and HB? No chance at all that I would buy into that. After the LCG model there is no way we will accept a CCG as it would just be too greedy in comparison. I could maybe buy into a digital version of netrunner. Either way I am devastated that this has happened. However, I still have people to play with so ANR isn't going anywhere, especially when I have a full collection to experiment with.
Sad days indeed. As a former Magic player, Netrunner showed me a positive community that was open and inviting. I met a ton of friends that I would have never encountered otherwise and thats how I found you guys! It was great to know that there were others totally smitten with this game I had fallen in love with. Thanks for being part of all the memories and the laughs. I firmly believe that ANR will live on through the community. Here's hoping.
Thanks for sharing Lance!
Netrunner was my first foray into LCGs and really card games for quite some time. I had played the LoTR CCG for a while, but that was about it. The community in my area was amazing, I traveled around to different tournaments and went to our weekly league nights often. I religiously watched the Netrunner videos from Team Covenant and really tried to study how great players like Steven made their choices to improve my own game.
My favorite memory playing Netrunner occurred during my first store championship final. I was playing Leela against a NBN deck and it was 5-4 in favor of the corp. On his turn, he goes install-advance-advance behind a single piece of ice. I didn't think I would be able to get into that server, so I went with the best chance I had-- a two-card Medium dig on R&D. So, I hit a Project Beale in that run, bounced the piece of ice protecting that new install and ran there and stole the agenda for the win and my first ever store championship.
I'll never forget what Netrunner meant to me in terms of my own gaming identity and the world it introduced me to. While I haven't played in quite some time, as I moved on to Destiny and X-Wing as my two main competitive games and Arkham Horror taking up quite a lot of time as well, Netrunner will always have a special place in my heart.
That is great Billy, thank you for commenting!
Over the last two days I have watched your intro to Netrunner, the basic deck building guide, the four example games and now this. With every video I found myself getting more and more interested and excited at the prospect of playing the game but I was finding it difficult to find products here in the UK. I wondered if that was just being based in the UK but then this video confirmed my fears. I feel like I've showed up to a party after the cops have already closed it down.
Sadly, I have been through the 'death' of a game before. I was an avid Vs System player and the end of that CCG was horrible.
I hope the suggestions that it might get rebooted or picked up again in one form or another, but it's a very odd feeling to have got so excited about a game which is already over. I can only commend your videos in the highest possible way for building that excitement and your passion has been clear in every video
"Objectively, whatever that means" Zach you're amazing
BR2049 ... fantastic.
End of an era. Glad to meet you guys through the fantastic game of ANR. Keep up the great work, and will hopefully will see you when Netrunner reboots again at some point.
Really late to this, but the loss of Netrunner was a big deal to me too. I found out about you guys back in the day because of your Netrunner tokens; maybe without that I wouldn’t be watching your throwback game streams today :)
My favorite Netrunner memory was going to my first ever store tournament at a new store playing a MaxX Wyldcakes deck that drew a million cards every turn to build up to a big Medium run on R&D with a Showing Off to score up from the bottom if necessary. I just remember one of my first opponents complimenting me on my deck and telling other people: hey did you see this guy’s deck? It was the first time I’d ever had a deck in any game complimented, and this from a stranger (at the time).
I played with that group off and on for years, and had the same arc you talked about, with not really buying into Mumbad cycle but getting excited about the one after it. It was pretty rough to hear the news, and our group tried Destiny, L5R and even Arkham. I remember getting the restock alert for Reign and Reverie during a Destiny game night with the ANR crew.
I did play a little in early 2020 in the SF scene with the new Nisei cards. The local meta was more competitive than janky like my old group but it was great to get the game to the table again.
My favorite deck ever was a Weyland Beanstalk-Vanity Project-Punitive Counterstrike deck. I had five agendas and would as often flatline a runner as score two Vanity Projects. SanSan was my favorite cycle, I loved the flavor and theming and built most of my decks out of that card pool. (Loved me a Stim Dealer, some cybernetics, and NBN’s whole vibe in that set.)
Anyway, thanks for the memories! Now that I’m thinking about older card games, I think it just might be time to get back into Netrunner! ^^
one advantage I see for netrunner at least compared to other LCG's is that it has two sides that use completely different cardpools. 1 person with a single collection has the ability to enjoy the game for years and still have the complete experience of deck construction and facing off against something unexpected. provided he has an opponent that is simply willing to learn (remember the opponent does not to invest anything into it its all 1 single collection). it just means in this case one side is playing corp continuously while the other side plays runner. and maybe after a day of doing this, you switch carpools and come back and do it again but with switched roles. while there is not going to be any new cards or official tournament play, i think there is still plenty of life for casual kitchen table games.
I’ve just finished putting together a complete Android Netrunner collection. Played it when it was alive, but didn’t start collecting it until after the announcement. I watched this video back in the day, but rewatched it again tonight (March 2024) while organising my collection. A great conversation about an amazing game.
TC netrunner coverage was some of the first videos I cottoned on to when I started learning the game. Steve’s “Anatomy of Anarchy” article was one of the best that I read when I was trying to play competitively. Thanks for the fun times.
Thanks Craig! Keep running!
I was there for the HAC finals, and it was one of my favorite Netrunner experiences by far. Rest in Power, Netrunner.
Netrunner was originally based on Cyberpunk. CD Projekt Red, the developers of Cyberpunk 2077, are known for making supplementary board games/card games (like Gwent in Witcher 3, and then the standalone version).
My theory is this: Cyberpunk 2077 will have a new version of Netrunner as a minigame. It'll then be spun off into a full new online game.
It'll be great, but it won't be an LCG, which will be unfortunate.
YB +1, I think this to be most likely. If I were a betting man that is.
This is a super late response to this, but CDProjekt RED confirmed that their is a card game in their upcoming video game cyberpunk 2077, so it looks like you may be right :)
Haha there was not even a card game in CP2077, but the game was a trash like a moneyless indie game :D
@@TheMelon9106 unfortunate but true. But I still have hope. Maybe a dlc?
Blade Runner 2049 was fantastic. Probably one of my favorite movies in a long time. I love that it lets you sort of live in that fully realized world. The guy I took with me to see it in the movie theatre fell asleep half way through. It's definitely a love it or hate it film :)
phillosmaster totally. Me: I loved it. My wife: not so much
Some more positive news (maybe it's already been mentioned here) --Denis Villeneuve (the director of Blade Runner 2049) is currently working on a Dune movie!
I didn't know that and now I'm super so excited.
My thoughts on Netrunner coming to end: Whoever was responsible within Asmodee or FFG for not agreeing to pay more for the license from Wizards of the Coast has made a huge mistake. If one is only to see things in business from a profitability point of view, most creative endeavours may not even get off the ground. Creativity and development takes money and investment in talent with no certainty of it paying off - some of business is a gamble and a commitment to make things work. For FFG to pull the plug on their no. 1 LCG was a massive error of judgement. It's actually quite disrespectful to all their development team, their in-house talent, their play testers, community and content creators (such as yourselves, TC, and Bad Publicity, etc. who have made video after video to encourage learning and understanding of their product).
If a revised core set came out a few months prior and now the plug is pulled - it signals to me that management have lost their way because it's clear the development team knew little/none of this. I am concerned for all the other FFG LCGs (Thrones, being the major licensed LCG product left). I can no longer be confident that FFG are committed to competitive LCGs and I am no longer confident that FFG will support their non-Star Wars/non-in-house products. When FFG lost the Games Workshop licence and Conquest LCG ended, we assumed that it was because GW wanted to walk away and nothing would stop them. Now, I think FFG simply just isn't willing to pay for their non-Star Wars licenses - and that's very alarming. I think a lot of people are being diplomatic here, but losing your no.1 LCG after a reboot is supremely damaging - and to justify the license loss as purely a profitability thing, is smoke and mirrors for not acknowledging that Asmodee/FFG as huge companies could have (if they were committed) kept their licences and let their investments for Netrunner continue - but they chose not to to the surprise and anger of many.
Damn. Well, now I can afford an Arkham subscription. In all honesty though, netrunner is probably the greatest game of all time.
No, that's golf. Golf is the best game of all time.
I'm fucking devastated.. Been on a hiatus due to sickness for about a year and was so looking forward to getting back in finally.. Fuck.
coyotemoon722 are you crazy? Golf isn't even the best GOLF game of all time. Mini golf is.
HerbJon maybe WoTC will make a CCG. Not optimal I know, but much better than nothing. In the meantime I have a huge back catalog of cards to hunt down and try out. Looking like I'll never get to play in a tournament.
I know.. I have a full collection.. x2 even.. I just wanted for this game to continue so frekkin much (under FFG..) as it's easily my fav game of all times.. But yeah, It's a game, it's over.. Not much to do about that. And hope something like Jinteki.net can still be an outlet as well for a while at least. Sure, WoTC could make something out of it.. Don't know.. Depends on the rout they choose to take for the game I guess. And my second fav game, SW: LCG also hit the bucket just a couple of months ago. Bitter times..
I could watch you guys all day, thanks for everything you guys are doing!
I got into anr cause of tc and Steven's passionate coverage of the game. The game and the underlying story remains intriguing to me and I feel lucky to have the game. Will continue to enjoy playing this game and teaching it to my kids. Thanks!!
Thank you Jason!
The universe will continue thankfully. They might even create an Android LCG of their own, probably similar to Arkham LCG.
Dez Bryant no catch game against the Packers reference along with a Taylor Swift concert. This is why you guys are the best.
Thanks Jamison!
Can't stop watching your vids. You dudes are awesome!
Best memory... first GNK, earlier this year. I took a Study Guide Kit deck with Egrets and Surfer (the only breaker is Study Guide). Ran this stacked remote... hit the first ice, he rezzes. I break and jack out. He looks puzzled. Then I Egret the ice, install Surfer, and run last click, Surf aaaaall the way in for the winning agenda. Priceless :D
Learnt to play thanks to your tutorials some months ago. I’m into it since February, bought everything ffg ever published about this game and made so many new friends to my local meta. Thanks for supporting this wonderful game and for your efforts in introducing ppl to this amazing cyber world.
Thank you Mirko!
Hey guys thanks for the shout out. As Steven said netrunner was never "the one" for me. Despite that I still loved game, the innovative design, and the community that came with it. I know everybody is saying this but I too was just a pinky tow away from getting back in myself. Sad to see such a great game have this happen, again rip the spoils, but it's always warms my heart to see people actually be emotional in response to the loss of these great games. With regards to your questions about favorite moments in netrunner, my favorite moment was the first netrunner regional held at covenant. I had recently moved away for graduate school but I was able to make the trip back to town for the regional. It was the largest event I had ever attended. I was so nervous I was going to get destroyed since I hadn't played a single game in over a month. Despite the odds I ended up being the number one seed in the swiss and was able to make top 4, only losing that day to Tim in what was a game I will never forget. Despite being upset about having to move away, it was amazing to be immediately welcomed back into the fold that day. Sadly it was due to this lack of community existing where I moved that I fell out with the game. Still heartbroken to see it go, but I know many of us will be reminiscing over memories from this game and others over a cold beer for years to come.
Thanks for sharing Drayton!
Is it possible to cut clips or at least a list of links to greatest netrunner moments within covent videos? Thanks so much either way!.......Also maybe Hasbro is seeing Asmodee as a growing threat so they told WotC not to give FFG the rights in hopes it would slow down their rise to the top.
A new mainstream digital version, (and maybe analog as well) of Netrunner from WOTC Vs. The Asmodee/FFG team Keyforge creation? Both games made possible by Richard Garfield ultimately. Lol, the irony. Also, Keyforge competing with not only possibly a new Netrunner game, but also MTG for their share of the market could prove quite daunting. Fascinating stuff going on behind the scenes here for sure. Interesting times.
Never heard about these guys before, but they're great. Very talented.
Thanks!
I only had a brief stint with Netrunner, so my biggest takeaway from it would be discovering you from your old data pack unboxing videos.
Ah man. Night before the announcement, I decide I want to get back into netrunner and sit down to start figuring out rotation, revised core, and what's still legal. I hadn't played since terminal directive got released, but mostly due to life business and a diminished community where I had been living. I want to get the packs, finish my collection, but sheesh the availability of Reign and Reverie is getting real thin.
I want to thank you guys for the videos and your enthusiasm over the years. I found Team Covenant specifically because of your data tokens and now I am a happy user of those, the mythos and the LotR tokens. If not for netrunner I wouldn't be listening to your podcasts each time they are released. I was crushed that it is ending, I tried L5R and as much as I like parts of it, it is such a slower game. Nothing will probably replace Netrunner for a long time.
I teared up when I heard the news. Netrunner is how I found you guys and Netrunner is how I bonded with a few friends. I’ve played at least once a week online and absolutely love this game to pieces. Such sad news. There are so many Magic clones I wonder how much you could actually take from Netrunner mechanically and get away with it. Makes me wanna develop a Netrunner clone but in a different universe.
So Reign and Reverie, as well as the Kitara cycle seem to be SOLD OUT?! Even prior to the printing of the expansion?! How do I get the stuff now?
I'm guessing some retailers will have it in stock upon official release?
Please build a cube and share the list with us ;)
This just came up in my algorithm for some reason - so glad that the game isn't actually dead, even through Covid. Got IRL play back up and running post pandemic, the third NISEI expansion coming up and multiple semi organised leagues on jnet.
Guys, please just keep playing netrunner games on a video, you are the only reason I need youtube.
I’ve been wishing to play netrunner since l have been 7 yo. And it’s not easy in Russia!
I was just reading William Gibson like a nuts, and somehow google (or what was that in early 2000) myself into this deck game.
Imagine me when I’m 27 and I could at least bought the very same game! (So I did!), and my disappointment when it’s cancelled when I’m 28!
I’ve just finishing teaching my girl to play it good (and she is literally kicking my ass as a wayland deck), and now - that’s it, she won, she doesn’t have to play with me anymore!
Now we’re playing shopping, again.
Meanwhile, to wash away a tear, I’ve never liked an idea that they are making those card packs so often anyway. I felt that it is getting further away from, like, chess, or Go, or some games so symmetrical and perfect, for which I’ve appreciated those hacker-megacorp battles.
So, guys, especially you - ginger/bold guy, hold your guts! And please, just keep playing, and thinking, and expressing on a camera, choose a new tactics with a perfect (a bit owerwhelmed) pack of tools of cards we have printed at the moment!
*and quit loosing already to the evil-mustaches guy, just score those agendas, just score them!
On another note (and mentioned by Gui below), you cannot copyright game mechanics. The best thing that could happen would be another company (or FFG themselves) to make the exact same game, but with a different theme and different terms/names for things.
THANK YOU for addressing the "LCG model doesn't work" junk - I'm so tired of hearing this from whoever can't grasp the reality of the industry. This question is NOT REAL. It means you don't understand any of the reasons behind Netrunner getting discontinued, which, as most of this video explains - nobody does. Just calm right down.
We don't know what exactly happen but we do know Michael Boggs turned the game around in a big way. Always a joy to play games made by talented developers and I am excited to play what he makes next, hopefully something in the Android universe.
Just an update to this saga. It seems as if Wizards of the Coast didn't offer the license back to FFG is 2018. In June of 2021 WotC trademarked "Netrunner" according to an article from last August.
Most of my netrunner memories are of kitchen table games. My very best memory is of trying to play with my brother over skype in the very early days of the game. He had a whole rig with his iPad dangling over his desktop tower. The visual quality was so bad we had to constantly be telling eachother what cards were. My other favorite memory is giving a guy I knew for. A brief period of time all my corp cards so that I would have someone to play with. We played quite a few games and he continued to play on jinteki for a long time afterwards.
For me netrunner continues to be my all time favorite game despite the fact that no one will play it with me. This is just another disappointment in a long and illustrious chain of nostalgia and missed opportunity. But I still have all the cards, and that's really all that I've had for the last several years. But I felt the momentum. I had the hope. I wanted to believe the game could come back for me and for the whole community.
Some other favorite memories are watching the early days of covenant. Stephens commentary will always be some of my favorite and most stuff. Unboxings amd predictions for metas and strategy, made the game so much fun. My brother (and sparring partner) bought that first run of tokens by you guys and we were in awe of how cool they were and they threw us right into the anr universe. Thanks for all the mems, anr community, I wish I could have been more a part of you and I even hope that I can break out some decks with some of you down the line. Thanks for all the mems covenant. Netrunner is a lot of the reason why I know you're here and incredibly awesome! You are making tabletop so good right now!
#askCovenant: do you foresee any non ffg game becoming awesome enough for you guys to cover and support it (I know you talked about the drop off with ashes, and Godtear keeps coming from up)?
Do you foresee any game filling the box of anr? Whether a competitive non-combat card game, or a bluffing game, or a game with such visceral pace, theme, and play? Or is anr unique?
Great question Caleb! We will do our best to discuss on an upcoming 'cast!
I also am sad about Netrunner's premature demise; and I have too think the timing of it all fairly screams this was WotC screwing over FFG just like GW did.
It also makes decisions like them buying L5R outright as opposed to licensing it make more sense. I suspect we will see them being much more cautious about entering into new licensing arrangements in the future.
Joel Tamburo I hope so
Netrunner will live on. The community is coming together so well.
I’m feeling shafted from them shifting the burden to the consumer. I just got into the game literally a month ago, bought pretty hard into it, and then found out it died. Agree with you that it doesn’t feel anything like anything else, especially not like magic. I don’t think I’m giving up on this game though, I have six years to catch up on!! :)
Aaron Noriega yup. There is a huge card pool out there.
Same here. This is literally the only card game I sincerely enjoyed hands down. I'm still seeking the data packs I don't have and share it with my godchildren.
Your videos with the Revised Core got me into this game. From a new players perspective, this game was intimidating. The terminology, massive card pool, and asymmetry make the game hard to grok. You guys made it very accessible. I wonder if this is a problem that others shared. I’m sad of the news, but I realized how great of a game this is. I was able to get a nice pool of cards. It will be played for many years.
I would play a CoOp NetRunner game in a heartbeat. As long as Runner and Corp are both playable, since I am a fan of playing the Corp, but even just one side, I'd still play it!!
I know we’ve seen Niesi pick up the Netrunner system and carry it forward, which is great!! But it would be interesting to see WotC actually do something with Netrunner. You mentioned Cyberpunk 2020, there was a CCG in that setting. You play as a sponsor(basically a Corp) and hire runners to complete objectives and mess with your opponents. Systematically, much more like MtG except there is are asymmetrical win conditions specific to each sponsor. Fun game and thematic to the same theme as NetRunner.
Been rewatching the TC LTP Netrunner series again, helps scratch the itch for NetRunner!! It really is such a great game and you two did a fantastic job highlighting the game itself!!
Its funny, you talk about a toxic community. MtG is definitely that, for the most part. But I was driven away from NetRunner partially because of a toxic community that would made fun of players who didn’t play the meta cards or play a Corp/Runner ID that they viewed as “bad”. This unfortunately happened when I moved and went to a few tourneys and weekly casual gaming nights and it was very disheartening, seeing as I loved the game so much.
My favorite NetRunner memory isn’t even from the community, per se. But my friend and I used to have our decks on us all the time and we would play a game while waiting for other people to show up for a different game. We would just power through games. It was a great pickup game for us; which sounds odd given how complex the game can be but it just worked for us. It helped that he preferred running and I preferred Corp-ing.
So, ANR was/is the first game I've gotten in to since I was a kid (15+ years ago). I bought in shortly after H&P, and consider Anatomy of an Anarch to be what sold me on the competitive game. Needless to say, the news hit me hard. I know that I want to get into another game like this, but the biggest problem I'm finding is discovering another game that I like enough to play competitively. What originally drew me to this get was the asymmetric strategy. My question for you is, do you think FFG is going to attempt another asymmetric LCG again soon?
Thanks for the question Ryan! Feel free to use #AskCovenant anywhere on social to tag us in a question you have!
This announcement had me gutted last week. It was one of those games I just assumed would always be there. I would go on stints with other games and always have reliable Netrunner to fall back on. Not anymore. Makes me want to spend as much time as I can with it, while it's still around.
Awesome you mentioned Vampire the Eternal Struggle - since they have been kept alive by VEKN (community) online for 10 years or so now, and they just got a new distributor (Drive thru cards) and publisher (Black Chantry) last month (working together with White Wolf since V5 is coming). A:NR is getting a community treatment to keep games going, and VtES has survived through some unbelievable times. The magic of old innovations just don't get the rest of decline; people just keep them alive. Unbelievable news for VtES - which keeps hope up for Netrunner as well.
@askcovenant Will you be taking a look at the development of White Wolf + Black Chantry co-development of V5 (rpg) and new starter set of VtES (cardgame)?
Great question Peetu! Look for it in an upcoming podcast!
Such a great podcast. You guys give really insightful analysis. I've never been really into Netrunner, but I wanted to learn more about what happened. I'm really looking forward to Keyforge though. Keep up the good content!
Thank you for the kind words! So glad to have you listening/watching.
My hatred of WotC and Magic grows daily.
DrugsForRobots MtG is great as a game. This, however, doesn't make the company morally "good" in any way of course.
Jonah McIntosh true, I forgot there were more ancient, more powerful evils afoot
.....maybe
Yeah, I've played MTG for many years and it kept my wallet empty and blind to so many of the other great games I could have been playing that entire time that I could have easily afforded with cash I was constantly sinking into magic. I had fun at times with MTG over the years here and there, but the more competitive it became, and the more expensive it became due to power creep and the business model, the less it captured the essence of what made it fun and accessible in the beginning. This is why I am excited for Keyforge. This is also what brought me to Netrunner. That combined with a long time love for the Cyberpunk genre.
However, I have said for a long time now that FFG should have tried to make a deal to promote Netrunner with a digital component available on the big platforms or at least one of them. Something akin to WoTC's various offerings on Sony and Microsoft's marketplace.
Great podcast as always. So, on Netrunner, I really don't think this is the end. I suspect WotC they are taking it in-house now that it is ready to be taken up a level - something the FFG just don't seem to want (or be able) to do. Friday Night Netrunner? Yes please! Regular blog / news content, regular professionally run and recorded tournaments? Yes again! A shed-ton of lore in short and long formats coming out on a regular basis, and a move over to the CCG format to bring into play arguably the best Magic formats: draft and sealed? Hell yeah. Hey, maybe I'm being overly optimistic, but I have a feeling in my water that this time next year we'll all have smiles on our faces.
Steven had the absolute best commentary at Netrunner worlds.
True love will do that.
I'm not through the entire podcast yet, but one factor to this Netrunner situation is Wizards is owned by Hasbro. So, they've got even more muscle to develop than they did before. So, the sky's the limit one what could happen to this license now. Hasbro has a lot of entities that could work this license in-house that's not just Wizards.
For me I just bought into the game with RC2.0, then to play outside of kitchen table I needed to get all the boxes and a handful of packs across a couple months. I still had fun and will, but now I'm in a weird state with almost a half collection. I guess I learned to buy into new big games slowly.
For casuals, there's more than enough Netrunner content to play in that universe for a very long time. Just waiting for my local games store to have a fire sale (which they say will happen soon) on the stuff and I'll pick up what I don't have. I'll still play it. But it is kinda sad that FFG won't be supporting such a great game (I like it so much more than MtG even though that's an enormous scene and I'm always hard-up to find opponents for Netrunner). Oh well.
Very sad that Netrunner is ending but it lead me to making some great friends and finding this channel along the way! I think playing very cerebral games like Netrunner connect opponents in a way that other games (certainly not online games) cannot do very easily. With that said, I hope you guys at TC get plenty of Reign and Reverie to go around, I keep reading horror stories about Netrunner fans trying to complete their collection and all retailers are out of stock!
Thanks Jake!
You guys make an interesting point about the Android universe. WotC was licensing Netrunner to FFG, but FFG owns the Android IP, sooo... what happens to ANR? They can't reboot Netrunner as a separate WotC product, because that would shaft everyone who bought into ANR - they'd lose that player base. You guys also talk about WotC having digital card games, but Magic Online is notorious for being clunky, unpolished, and a money sink as deep as paper-Magic. You speculate about WotC working with CD Project Red (the guys behind Witcher, Gwent, & Cyberpunk 2077) but so much of what makes Netrunner Netrunner was the Android universe. I can't even imagine Netrunner without Jinteki, Weyland, Haas, and NBN.
IDK, I'm really salty about this, and I hope it bites WotC in the ass.
DrugsForRobots if Netrunner returns to cyberpunk then it will be a true real come back.
Great video guys, as always. It was a nice farewell to the game from you. I'm also super sad to see Netrunner go. The community was great for this game and playing it was a very special experience, unlike any other card game out there. Although I'm guessing there will be a digital version by WOTC in the end, I'd still like to see a cooperative game launched by FFG in the Android world (since they still have that IP). Perhaps with the players as runners going against the corp encounter deck? I think that would be successful, keep some of the game alive and in-house, where it belongs, and the theme is sufficiently different from LOTR and Arkham Horror that it wouldn't compete too heavily with those other LCGs.
My favorite Netrunner memory was piling four nerds I barely knew into my little car, driving to my first Store Championship in the next town, and taking 2nd place with a janky combination of Whizzard/Keyhole and NBN Psycho/Beale decks. It should never have worked, and the guy that beat me for 1st was obviously a thousand times better than me -- but I had a little luck on my side, I guess. We all had a great time and I got to meet some fantastic people along the way.
Mind you FFG doesn't have the exclusive license on Star Wars games. FFG only has the licenses for Star Wars role-playing, card, and miniature games. They do not have the license for Star Wars boardgames in general. That belongs to Hasbro, which means that Imperial Assault and Rebellion are both products FFG/Asmodee can only sell by the good grace (and a lucretive deal, presumably) with Hasbro.
The same Hasbro, who also happens to own WotC...
Sorry if this has been asked and answered, but.... can FFG continue to print previously-released copies of data packs, etc until the October cutoff date? Judging from the huge supply of still-available-and-cheap Warhammer Quest Cardgame copies, I hope they’v e done it before (print up until deadline) and can do so again. #AskCovenant
Great question! Lets add an #AskCovenant tag here and get it discussed on a podcast!
This makes me so so so sad. I have yet to played a game of netrunner and only got into board gaming about 3 years ago. I have enjoyed Arkham Horror LCG, my first LCG, and Ashes. My friend and I love the cyber hacker theme of netrunner, funny you mention blade runner, and we were both excited to get our hands on the revised core set and were preparing our wallets to embark on this journey together, me the Corp player (naturally) and him the plucky and foolish hacker (bwahaha). Now, we are just utterly disappointed. I was so confused and baffled and aimlessly started looking up netrunner stuff to see if maybe I could get anything now but now I just... I just....
Sanjuro Shinjitsu there is a huge card pool out there, I find stuff for sale all over the internet. Plus soon I bet eBay and BGG marketplace will be flooded with second hand stuff. You and your friend can still play, and it'll be a long while before you get bored with what is available.
What happens to the old products? Can they still print more? Not clear on that
NO. They can't sell any product after October 2018, and it takes way to long to reprint things and ship them over here. The only new product announced since the deluxe is the 2017 Worlds decks...
:((((
Not only can they not print more, they have completely sold out already.
Are there plans to reprint the data tokens (revised)? I just purchased the game in the wake of last week announcement. Loved your learn to play series on the game as well :)
Thank you! More than likely we will place another order for Data Tokens.
Team Covenant great to hear 🤓
I'm not sure if you guys are aware, but the original game "Netrunner" was designed by WOTC, but the term and world were both liscensed from R. Talsorian games, the creaters of Cyberpunk 2020, the table top rpg that Cyberpunk 2077 is based on. So by default, if WOTC releases a new netrunner game, it WILL be in the cyberpunk 2020\2077 universe unless some other company gives them a different liscense.
Absolutely, nice catch!
The comments on Artifact at 0:59:40 didn't age well.
I recommend fans of Netrunner check into Doomtown: Reloaded. It is another unique LCG, and in my opinion quite different than other card games I've played. It has more luck than Netrunner, which turned some people off. But the element of chance is can be strategically mitigated, and there is still a high degree of skill to deck construction and play. Also, the chance element is highly thematic (wild west theme + making poker hands). I'm sure it isn't a replacement for die hard Netrunner fans, but maybe another fun option (and in current production).
Randy Jeffries I thought Doomtown had ended too?
Scott Wallbank it got picked back up by another publisher and they are supporting it again. I think AEG had it, then didn't want it anymore, and the original IP owner Pinnacle decided to keep it going. They didn't change rules, so all of the AEG cards are still useable.
I actually had just recently heard about Netrunner and decided to order the revised core set. Two days later I heard they were killing the game. Still got the set coming in the mail but man that's a bummer lol.
For me the biggest thing with physical card games is what you guys were talking about earlier. Other formats like Cube. Two-Headed Giant. Sellout (2v2 Netrunner). Not a single digital card game (to my knowledge) promotes playing with friends. Where is trading, guilds, 2v2 formats, PvE, etc? It seems silly that we've not seen any community features in any of these games. Hearthstone has Fireside games but that is not very well done or marketed all that well. Games like WoW had amazing community features. Where are those in the digital card game space? Give me a reason to be online the same times as my friends chatting with them and you'll have something great.
One can survive the end of the official print run of a game. Legend of the Five Rings was up in the air in 2000-01, Doomtown has had it twice. If you have a decent playgroup in your area, none of these games ever has to truly die off. Just play casually, even restrict the card base to Core sets and a particular cycle.
Particularly relevant now that Nisei Project has really done a great job.
Watching this in 2021, I wish Cyberpunk has picked up Netrunner. But the game came and went and no Netrunner. Thank god for Nisei taking a more active roll. System Gateway coming soon.
I also remember many games eaten by Wayland of the Coast. Don't blame FFG. Vampire a was killed when Wayland asked the publishers to pay ridiculous amount of money for tap mechanic. And hostile overtakes of FASA and Tsr and desipher, killed star wars, star trek, battletech, spell fire, shadow run, rage, vampire..... Weyland of the Coast always "Making a better Magic"
Seeing the Cyberpunk 2077 trailer I did get some Netrunner vibes. Maybe......????!!!???
Maybe!
Apparently there are 3 classes in 2077, and one of them is the Netrunner. Take that for what it's worth
Albino Wombat 2077 is based on the tabletop rpg Cyberpunk 2020, which was the setting for the original Netrunner CCG published by Wizards. That's probably where all the parallels come from. Still, I could see Wizards wanting to capitalize on that now.
OK that makes sense. I didn't know the history there
I swear if they make netrunner the gwent of 2077.
Any updates to netrunner on your guys’ end?
We're following NISEI - they seem to be doing a great job supporting the game. Hopefully we can be more involved at some point.
Looks exciting
#askcovenant I couldn't pick my best Netrunner memory, but I made some great new ones at our local meet up last Thursday.
I taught two new people to play the game. One of them brought decks built from the old Core and I got to play Precognition as my first click of the game, then scored Priority of Requisition to rez a Wall of Thorns. It was glorious. The other was the sharpest learner I've ever taught. We had a wicked game that ended with me whiffing on a 6-card R&D access at match point and then getting killed by a 1 per deck card that was sat on the table. Good old-fashioned Netrunner thrills.
After that I played a few great games with old friends. I got to 'Account Siphon' someone for the first time in almost a year with the new more-balanced reprint, had my eyes opened to the terrifying new deck that is Mti Mwekundu , and pulled off a smooth Blue Sun Punitive Counterstrike kill like it was 2014 again. All three experiences were, and I do not say this lightly, Effing Sweet.
On the way home I thought to myself, "Wow, they've really managed to get over the pre-rotation hump and make this game great again! Really excited for Regionals season!"
24hrs later and the game is dead. Kick in the teeth is putting it lightly.
That is how we felt too. Rough news.
FFG made a few mistakes with all their LCG titles which turned them into hardcore gamer's games and turned many casual players away despite the gameplay being good.
1. Asking players to buy a core box 3 times meant throwing away a lot of stuff, like duplicate cards, tokens and boxes, all of which add to the cost of the game. Many players felt like they were throwing money down the toilet. It would be a lot friendlier if the core box had only 2 factions with all 3x cards and then each additional starter for a faction had its own box, or perhaps a 1v1 box which introduced 2 factions. Honestly, it made FFG look very greedy and players - especially casual players - rarely respond well to that.
2. Having "expansion" packs each month with each of them having 2-3 cards of each faction - often only 1 card was good and 1-2 that were almost useless - meant that players had to buy everything in order to make a specific strategy work. What about the players who only want to focus on 2 factions? This made the game very expensive for the casual players. A more considerate release plan would be to release specific faction packs every 4-6 months with 60-80 cards, just like regular board games do, and everyone could have all the cards for their factions at a significantly lower cost.
These 2 reasons mostly, with the occasional unavailability of older packs which made some strategies impossible to use, were the cause for me to lose interest very quickly on some of the games; especially AGoT because I did not want to play (out of principle) Lannisters and Greyjoy, yet I had to buy all the cards. That left a bitter taste in my mouth.
The last few years have not been good for LCG players, so many players may hesitate to invest on a new LCG with the rate these are dying off. I think the LCG model will have more success in the future if it adopts a less frequent release schedule, with each expansion having more meat and being focused on single factions. If FFG does that and stop asking me to buy boxes and cards and then throw them away, I will consider investing again on a LCG.
cartoon80s90s YES. The LCG format was cool back when EVERY card game was collectible with random packs. Now that the card game environment is different, all their advantages are outdated.
Yeah but Arkham Horror lcg is doing it right! Only 2 cores for 4 players and you use almost all the cards every scenario!
Yeah, I should mention that I did not mean their coop games, LotR and AH. I find that for me it is easier to take LotR out of the box and play (I assume it's the same with AH for those who have it) even with players who have not had prior experience. Something I find very boring these days is deck building. Having to go through hundreds or even thousands of cards was fun in the past when I was playing tcgs, mostly MtG, but now it feels like a chore. That's another reason why I have stepped away from card games the last 2-3 years.
Travis Myers yeah, the coop model is more beneficial to players since all the enemy cards are used during scenarios
The triple core set was a little ridiculous. They could have at least modified it so you only needed 2 core set (one for introduction, one for serious players) or even just a core "upgrade pack" that included the missing cards. While I understand the business reasons behind expecting players to buy multiple cores, its a very bitter pill to swallow. Thankfully, the hype and enjoyment I have for the game helps to sweeten that pill as I was more excited to add 2nd and 3rd copies of certain cards to my deck.
If this is about strategy between competititors, then it is more likely to be between Hasbro (who owns Wotc) and Asmodee (FFG), two of the biggest entities in boardgames.
From my understanding you couldn't own game mechanics, wizards owned the IP "Netrunner" which was originally an RPG that Richard Garfield made a CCG for. So perhaps we will see the game again as "Android: CyberWar" or something.
P.S. I loved 2049 but I guessed the reveal 40 minutes into the 3 hour film so my experience was a bit spoiled
FFF still has to be careful though. If FFG sets the precedent of copying the mechanics from a game they licensed, that would damage their reputation and discourage other companies from giving them licenses.
You can absolutely own game mechanics. To a ridiculous degree even - Wizards of the Coast owns the concept of turning a card 90 degrees.
Copyright doesn't support that and when it is taken to court, they usually don't agree with the claimant. The current precedent is that game mechanics cannot be copyrighted.
I think FFG should of put more support into netrunner. They let it get to a make or break state before they did anything so it makes since the corporate higher ups didn’t think the money drain was worth it. FFG has too many games to support so they need to drop some dead weight
Captain Nwalps yea let's get a billion expansions for the fallout game instead/s
I think there's a few more ideas that are worth considering / exploring here. MTG has been tanking since 2014, and there have been rumors that Hasbro is considering selling WOTC in the next few years. Assuming it is true, regaining Netrunner license may play into either making WOTC seem more lucrative to a potential buyer or they want to throw another game into the market as a last ditch attempt to make WOTC more profitable / viable.
For sure! Thanks for commenting!
I feel a bit guilty for not supporting it. At the time I was very into FFG's Star Wars LCG and I could only afford that. I kept telling myself at some point I would start playing and collecting Netrunner, it looked so good, but I waited too long. =(
When I think of WotC as a casino, (and not a gaming company), I understand them better. I still hate them, but I have no expectations of them that don't involve trying to crush dreams and rob you blind.
I order revised core from LGS next day game is cancelled FML. Destiny is my first CCG and saw a NEtrunner tournament weekend before cancel announcement at same LGS. Looked awesome. Now? Forget it..next!
As long as your success depends on something licensed from someone else, you should never feel comfortable. FFG got a touch prideful on this one. I'd be wary of all their sandcastles built on Star Wars too. Terrinoth has to be made into something successful if they want some level of stability. My opinion at least.
From my perspective FFG could have handled things better with Netrunner over the last few years. I started collecting shortly after the rotation was announced. I made every effort to buy product I knew I would use for a while first, three Core sets and all the deluxe boxes, which FFG said would be evergreen, along with the newer data packs. And for the record I hated having a bunch of extra cards and tokens I'd never use from having to buy three Core sets. I tried to future proof myself as well as not wasting money on cards I'd only be able to use for a few months before they rotated out. Then the campaign box comes out and again I'm wasting money buying a bunch of stuff I'll never use just for a handful of cards to use in constructed. Fast forward and now the Core set isn't evergreen and I have to buy THREE MORE core sets including cards from data packs I specifically didn't buy because the cards would not be legal according to the rotation. Then boom, Netrunner is dead. Lets just say the sequence of events left a sour taste in my mouth.
FFG has made me feel like they nickle and dime you to death as of late. Having to buy ships you wont use just for upgrade cards in X-Wing and Armada, wasting money on extra product because they specifically designed their LCG core sets to require multiple purchases and expansion packs with only 1-3 cards per faction in them.
Just my $0.02.
Do you guys still play?
We actually played this weekend! Nothing "competitive", just pre-existing decks that we have ready to go.
@@teamcovenant I've noticed you have custom tokens do you know if you'll ever have more in-stock or no?
If you treat it as a normal card game like a board game it is not "dead". It is just static now with a fixed pool.
Absolutely! Thanks for commenting!
I saw this hilarious .gif of the spoon scene in the Matrix where someone edited in Netrunner cards. Any of you nerds know where I can find It? :)
~~CoNsPiRaCy tHeOry~~ WotC knows Netrunner is one of the best games ever made and has plans to release an actual Netrunner CCG.
Maybe!
I had been pretty much like Steven where I was one (or two) step away from getting back into the game, and I don't mean to troll the people who did, but if they bought the IP to make it into their own card game (digital or otherwise), I would actually be more excited than just getting back in the same game again.
#AskCovenant So if WotC puts out a physical card game will you guys stock/support it? I don't know if you guys have a beef with WotC, but I don't think you've every really dealt with their products.
Don't get me wrong, still sad, but more Android: Netrunner would have been sad as well because it wouldn't have some of its iconic cards anymore.
Great question, thank you for commenting! Will answer on one of the next podcasts.
Ultimately they are a retail store. Whether the two of them are dissapointed with the decision, that shouldn't affect their professional relationship with any companies. They have a responsibility to their employees and shareholders to pursue profit and refusing to stock a product in protest would undermine that responsibility.
Rage the card game from the 90's was my jam back in '95.
If there's one thing we can learn from this tragedy: Never buy into games with borrowed licenses again. Only buy games where the license is owned by the developer. Otherwise, you're setting yourself up to disappointment.
I just bought the revised core a few weeks ago.. as a gamer, Netrunner had been on my radar ever since the very first addition. I finally decide to engage with it, and it gets pulled. I am.. pissed to say the least.. I feel like I am on a deadline now to buy packs and expansions before they run out or become stupidly expensive. Its not going to happen. Wages are finite.
I don't blame FFG at all, I think WotC saw the success and wanted it back. I'll still be buying Arkham and L5R.
If I could get hold of a copy of Reign and Reverie plus the revised core set, would that be enough to play and enjoy the game ? Thanks
It would! At mimimun the revised core alone would let you play, and any packs after that are just icing on the cake. If you can grab two revised cores, we definately would! That would allow you to really dive into some deckbuilding, and have extra cards for anyone else who might want to play with you. Plus two revised cores and one copy of Reign and Reverie all fit inside one revised core set box!
Maybe I'm projecting, but Steven's emotions are just emanating from his face/brain. You have the unenviable task of looking at it from a business angle and as well as a member of our ANR community.
I've said it other places, but there's just something so...damn sad about this. I'm an adult (late 30s!) and this was my first "lifestyle" game where I made many good friends due to the game, the meet-ups, the online community, and the general enthusiasm about hacking nets.
#askcovenant Do you see your store still running events/weekly meet-ups once the game has no new content to sell?
Thank you for the question Anthony! We have it on the list for an upcoming podcast!
@Steven if you love shows or movies with a lot of depth and art. I would highly recommend Dark on Netflix. Please check it out for your own sack. The director only wants to make 3 seasons and that was always the intent on this show. My take on Netrunner now is that if WotC started making Netrunner some how. I will not play because then they would turn it into Magic. I would however play Fantasy Flight Netrunner. I play games now video games and board games etc. based on how companies are ran. Being someone who started playing now that's it's not being printed is proof that that game just doesnt die. New players will come around. If not create new players by playing with people. The cards that the game has now is so vast that many combos can be made. I myself will hunt my local players through Facebook and board game store for those players who still play. If it's a few of us, showing others the love we have will make the player base grow.
"your own sack"?