Netrunner cancelled!

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www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2018/6/8/jacking-out/

Bit surprised! Seems earlier than I would expect given its success.

Seems like a licensing failure.
Even though they stopped making new stuff for CoC LCG, they still sell it.
Unlike netrunner after the end of October.

I still have Netrunner cards from the original game back in the '90s. The frustrating thing about when a CCG or LCG goes out of print is that no matter how good the game was, nobody will play it anymore. The deckbuilding aspect is so crucial to the enjoyment of the game for most people, and they won't be happy for long if they are playing old decks and can't get some new cards to keep the game interesting.

Trying to get in touch with a regular tournament player I know to see if there's any inside info. Why would they release a new core set if licensing negotiations weren't going well? Was FFG disturbed by sales of the new set and expansions, such that they decided to pull the plug before getting into another long-term arrangement? Did WotC decide they have a better offer from someone else? Weird.

I bet somewhere there is a Haas Bioblob or whatever android wiping away an oily tear with a metal hand.

Welp. Time to move this design over to RUNERUNNER, an all new LCG set in the exciting fantasy world of Terrinoth.

This is a shame. FFG was seemingly trying to make a go at an "Android" universe and it looks like from here on out you can say goodbye to anything that isn't licensed IP.

If I were in the market to play an LCG, this is the one I would have chosen. It was interesting and different, and I liked the setting and mechanisms. Sadly, my days of pre-game deck construction and "meta" are gone (and good riddance to the latter). I might try to pick up a set anyhow, in case I get over that.

I loved this game, but I’ve been out of it for ages. I didn’t really like how the factions weren’t built evenly. Eachrelease seemed to give a big boost to one Runner faction and one Corp and it everyone else felt lopsided until they got around to it. A shame, 2 player gaming doesn’t really get any better.

Ashes: Rise of the Pheonixborn might be worth a look for those who want this sort of thing without deckbuilding. It’s a very reactive play structure like Netrunner. Best game from Plaid Hat by far.

Josh Look wrote: I loved this game, but I’ve been out of it for ages. I didn’t really like how the factions weren’t built evenly. Eachrelease seemed to give a big boost to one Runner faction and one Corp and it everyone else felt lopsided until they got around to it. A shame, 2 player gaming doesn’t really get any better.

You would think they would have learned from the example of the original Netrunner. That base game set favored the Corp player. The first expansion swung the game balance too far in favor of the Runner player. By that point, most players lost interest, so they cancelled the new base game that was in development. Then they released a small expansion (just a portion of the cancelled base game set), but called it Classic Netrunner. Fans were confused and thought it was a reprint set, and ignored it.

I'm feeling devasted.

This game meant a lot to me. It pulled me out of years-long depression and made me meet friends and new people from all over the world. I found something fun, of value and went out of my house at a time where I felt I was doing nothing of value. All my most popular writing, all the people who waited for my articles and so on were originally Netrunner players. I've gotten somuch out of this game. I'm like 2300 plays into the game and loving it still. I've met so many amazing people, it hurts.

But beyond my personal stake on it, this is such an incredible game. I've always thought it truly is one of the best games ever made, as much as Chess it not more and seein git dissapear...man it hurts. The game will still exist, but it's not Civilization or Dune or whatever, this is a game with a learning curve that doesn't show itself fully after 1, 10 or even 100 plays. I feel we are losing the game forever, the real game, the one that exists beyond the cardboard. I fear a future where this amazing game will be ignored and wrote off because people don't go beyond the basics.

Jackwraith wrote: Trying to get in touch with a regular tournament player I know to see if there's any inside info. Why would they release a new core set if licensing negotiations weren't going well? Was FFG disturbed by sales of the new set and expansions, such that they decided to pull the plug before getting into another long-term arrangement? Did WotC decide they have a better offer from someone else? Weird.

Chances are it's all on WotC's court. FFG was clearly invested into the game and had very long-term plans for it (Rotation, new core, new deluxe set, the way certain cards were designed etc.). And the new core was selling well, not utterly fantastic but more than enough to rekindle interest and see where things were going.

Why Wotc decided to cut the cord is a mystery. There was no notice, either, not even the game designers expected this.

Michael Barnes wrote: Welp. Time to move this design over to RUNERUNNER, an all new LCG set in the exciting fantasy world of Terrinoth.

The terrible part is: It's WotC who owns the core mechanics and the Cyberpunk guys own some of the terms (Including Netrunner). They still retain the rights to Android and all the theme of Android: Netrunner but not the actual game.

Awful news all-around.

One optimistic scenario is that WotC saw that the game was doing well and they wanted to take it back and not share the profits. So maybe WotC will announce at GenCon that they are starting production on a new Netrunner game.

Shellhead wrote: One optimistic scenario is that WotC saw that the game was doing well and they wanted to take it back and not share the profits. So maybe WotC will announce at GenCon that they are starting production on a new Netrunner game.

Optimistic, yes, but WotC’s track record for not fucking something up isn’t great. Aside from M:tG and D&D, each of which have had their low moments, I’m drawing a blank. Some of their really great product lines were abandoned after they didn’t know what do with them. Dreamblade, Heroscape, Arena of the Planeswalkers, Gamma World, just to name a few. I hate to be that guy, but I don’t see any good news here.

I have never done anything like this but I felt I had to make a video on the game, its end and what it meant for me and gaming. It's an ad hoc video, but I felt I had to:

Shellhead wrote: One optimistic scenario is that WotC saw that the game was doing well and they wanted to take it back and not share the profits. So maybe WotC will announce at GenCon that they are starting production on a new Netrunner game.

I'm not sure if that's an optimistic scenario. I don't have much faith in WotC making a good version of the game.

For starters, if they made a new version of the game it would contain gambling elements in the form of boosters. And that's quite bad, but it's not just bad because of the gambling aspect but in the way it affects the whole game. People cannot compete as well, your wallet becomes a game component and theft rises. People become meaner and the metagame more static as people can't try out new things. One of the greatest things about Netrunner is that everyone had the same cards. If you built a new deck,e veryone could try it and metagame against it or try that funny, combo deck that never worked. This doesn't happen in Magic, because trying becomes expensive. Money permeates the game and the community and a lot of fun is sucked out.

And, well, I doubt it would have the same audience. If they truly care about re-releasing ths game I doubt it's to target it at the same small amount of picky nerds the current version does. They would probably want a broader audience and I have yet to see anything improve when changed for a broader audience. And that wider audience won't probably be as gay-friendly and nice as
the current community is.

But, above all, I'm just sad. And I feel guilty for not having played the game, for having been busy with other stuff thinking Netrunner would be around forever. Now my chances are dwindling

Ugh, so sorry, Eric. NETRUNNER is an amazing game and it's one I wish I was more into. I have never had a bad time playing it, I just didn't have a group that would gel around it. I feel bad it's being taken away, but I honestly believe it will come back. Zvi resurected it once, FFG a second time, and so on. There are some real diehard fans (like yourself) that go the extra mile to make sure NETRUNNER is around even if some years are taken off here and there.

WotC dropped the ball with a couple of other CCGs that I liked, but subsequent events may give reason for hope.

WotC licensed the World of Darkness for the excellent Jyhad CCG, but got nervous about the name after the first attack on the World Trade Center, in 1993. So they changed the name of the game and more importantly, the backs of all the cards published after that, to the long and clumsy name of Vampire: the Eternal Struggle. After reprinting the base set with the new name, they did two expansions and then a new base set for the Sabbat vampires, then pulled the plug on the game in 1996. Two years later, White Wolf took back the license and brought back Vampire for more than a decade, including many expansions and multiple base sets. Until some power creep in the last couple of expansions, Vampire was a better game after White Wolf took over the game.

Legend of the Five Rings was originally published in 1995 by Alderac. WotC took over the subsidiary of Alderac that published L5R in 1997 and kept the same creative team. Hasbro took over WotC, and eventually Alderac got L5R back, and the game stayed continuously in print with ongoing expansions, until 2015. Then FFG bought the rights to L5R and the Rokugan setting, and brought out a new version of L5R last year. The new version of L5R is incompatible with the old CCG, but seems to be a better game.