I almost gave up on Netrunner. Not because of over powered cards, over represented factions and archetypes, stale meta, MWLs, or design leader...
I enjoyed reading this post on /r/netrunner -- reflections on what it was like for one formerly-competitive player after everyone in his local playgroup quit, leaving him teaching new players and playing in a much less competitive environment. One part in particular struck me:
There are a lot of other things I realised during this journey to rebuild a meta, like how amazing the Core set is and that there are a ton of cards out there I've never touched that aren't necessarily tier one, but are actually really good and fun. Maybe a lot of what I've said so far seems like common sense, and maybe these things that were hard for me to learn won't be for many of you. But I wanted to share my experience in the hopes that some of you who are struggling with the idea of giving up on a game you love would be encouraged to keep trying. Perhaps that new meta is just one person away.
Our playgroup has shrunken from about a dozen people two years ago to maybe six to eight last year to about four regulars, and about 3-4 new people who show up every so often. I’ve never been a particularly successful player, but I have grown to like the competitive nature of the game. I was just thinking today, though, about how I’ve had much more fun teaching the game as of late.
In recent months, we had a man and a woman who bought a core set come in every so often to get tips on learning the game. Last week, we had a father and his pre-teen son come in with their core and smattering of datapacks to do the same. I enjoy trying out competitive decks, but it’s just so much more fun to see new players learn the game, and to see how they bring new approaches to the game to our tiny playgroup.
So, it’s nice to see people echoing similar feelings. There have been some high profile players quitting the game lately, and perhaps that’s due to Mumbad or due to fatigue for people who have been playing since the beginning. I’m seeing new people getting excited by this game all the time and I’m increasingly optimistic that even if the international competitive game goes down the tubes, we can still have fun in our local group.