Michael Barnes wrote:
What's more worrisome is this talk of "factions". That means there may be some rules changes to generate synergy between faction cards and to create hooks to sell booster packs. Uh oh! Don't have enough cards for your "Anarch" deck (come on, where are the Brujah and Ventrue)? I guess you'll need to buy three of the "Anarch n' Roll" booster pack coming out next month!
The LCG format is a sham, just because it's a finite, fixed purchase doesn't mean it's not a crock of shit that they sell you only SOME of the cards you need. Remember LOTR? There were factions in the base game that sucked and were almost unplayable without boosters, as well as card effects that were practically useless without buying more cards
I'm not really sure what any of this means. The LCG format means that I can buy a pack of cards that cost about the same as a starter set of any CCG and know that I'm getting a full playset of whatever is in there. And the fact that they're fixed means that I can choose to either buy or not buy, depending on whether there are relevant cards in the set or not. I've skipped about half of the current cycle and I'm not experiencing any issues with needing cards that I'm somehow now forced to buy. I used to play three or four different CCGs at the same time, and I can say unequivocally that this system is superior in every way.
Netrunner, even though it was a CCG, was one of the most balanced and accomodating ones ever published because you were rarely in a situation buying packs that you got cards that were useless. It wasn't like Magic, where if you were a Bruise player you were screwed if you got a white rare, a pair of green uncommons, and several red commons. The synergy was in the cards, not in factions or divisions.
I know it's already been said, but Netrunner was only really balanced out of the starters, as I recall. Constructed was pretty degenerate. But I think what you mean by balanced was more on the purchasing side? If so, then I don't really see how you can defend blind buy on the premise that you only get stuff that was useful while calling fixed, known purchases in the LCG model a crock of shit. I don't think you can have it both ways.
So I'm guardedly excited, obviously this is a day one purchase but I think the question as to whether this is going to be a Cosmic/Wiz-War class FFG reprint or a Rex/DungeonQuest one is already answered. And the answer is troubling.
But hey, there may be some good news in the updating...this is a game that's never really had a significant update or revision, maybe FFG will do it some good.
I actually think they've done pretty well with their card games. I'm pretty excited about this.