The problem with the Star Wars analogies, is that SW was primarily 2 factions. The empire(dark side) vs the Rebels(light side). L5R is 9 factions. Which is why having the primary antagonist as a playable faction works for SW but didnt for spider. In the 8 vs 1 scenario, either the antagonist is heavily featured a which is unfair to 8/9 of the player base, or they receive equal time and cease to be a credible threat. It's a lose lose scenario.

I think this is a really good point, and deserves to be called out. the game badly needs a solution to this problem. i mean, granted, AEG never solved it and they kept the game going for 20 years, so its not what i'd call an imminent threat to the games survival, but i think that it would make the game overall better.

i say this as a spider player too. its not like we're not aware of the problems that the current arrangement causes, because it causes us grief too. we have lost SO MUCH the last few years, because every story is us vs rokugan, and we can't possibly win even half of them. especially not when we've been as terrible as we've been. Thats honestly why i was kind of looking forward to onyx: i was hoping that it would remove us, in a weird way. the clans would be playing for various survival prizes, trying to setup their eventual victory in the next edition, and when that came along the spider or whatever we were then would probably have not been the same. i dunno. i don't honestly know what the solution is.

I don't think there is a solution. I said it a few times before on AEG boards, but wanting to be the Evil Antagonist, while still being a Clan is a "have pie and eat it" desire. The Shadowlands situation works because they are the Evil Antagonists but they are also clearly painted as an outside force, a power that can keep 8 clans in check.... but at the same time, so alien and corrupted by that power that no one in their right mind would invite one of them for dinner.

The "Walk the Light" Spider could work, even if they'd still be fighting for the same "spot" as the Scorpion and would (in-game) have a tremendously difficult time after Kanpeki... but it would still be a risky gamble, IMHO.

People have said as much above, but I think it bears repeating: AEG doing the reboot in-house, with the same announcement and timing, would have been excoriated by the players. Moving to FFG resets the goodwill counter, with most choosing to look at this with optimism.

Late Emperor and early Ivory may have been a low ebb for the game, but the work done to make Twenty Festivals a solid play environment was bearing fruit, as was the repopulated Story Team and the player engagement with the Clan Path Choices. It's a shame that the cutoff happens here, in the middle, with the incredible story beats and card environment planned for Onyx never getting a chance to fully play out.

Not to mention that once they decided that it was time to go LCG/ECG it would have required a full redesign for that format. That's at least a year, maybe two or even three of paying salaries, commissioning new art, etc, all while bleeding resentful players. All of this while their flagship brand wasn't making a dime.

It's possible that an in house version of L5R LCG would have been great. It would have also been extremely costly for them to do. FFG has the resources to spend two years designing a game, and experience with design in the format. My understanding is that it'll also be one of the only brands that is completely owned and licensed in house for them. That's an exciting thing.

Two years is a long time to go without revenue on a product, much less being profitable. My hope is that they can get out of the red with L5R fast enough to make it worth their investment.

True. Then I'll reformulate to "A lot of the ideas are brand, and implementation is the story team left to figure out how to make Brand's vision work".

And it's worth noting, as DWRR I think was indicating above, that while it's easier to point at situations and say something like Brand v. Story v. Design when something is a bit wrong (at least from the point of view of whoever is making the judgment), Brand is also making decisions when it's stuff we all like.

True. Brand has done good stuff, but a lot of what story and design catch the flak for is stuff they didn't have so much control on.

Sorry to say this put if people don´t object if the y think something goes wrong than they are also responsible for it. So while some of the stuff the design team get the flak for is not directly under their control as long as I can´t be sure they at least tried to change this and talk with the high up over the probelms their decsion would bring they are equaly resposible for it. Yes I know what this can mean and yes I do this myself even if I risk my job with it.