Read the announcement of the Plugged-in Tour here . Then make your plans to plug-in!
What Is the Plugged-in Tour?
Really sad the limits in locations. Do better.
Only North America. Really? This is FFG's best seller worldwide and they cannot support it worldwide?
very disappointing for non american players indeed...
This is a terrible distribution of venues. Nothing in the Central US, and five within 2.5 hours of Chicago! Who thought that was a good idea. There will likely just be lots of the same people going to those Chicago area venues. Not good at all for the game.
I'm very disappointing in the venue distribution.
There are definite clusters, and with so few venues it's very location-biased.
Multiple locations in the NY/NJ area, multiple in NE, multiple in WI, and a ton in California and WA.
And none at all in the entire Southeast of the US.
I guess I should move to participate in netrunner events?
I am also very disappointed in the poor spread of events. You had 28 events and you couldn't cover each region of the US? You put multiple events in the same states before giving others the opportunity.
First time I have been very disappointed in Fantasy Flight Games. This will leave a sour taste in many players' mouths.
First I wanted to say that I think this tour looks excellent. I think the vote, prizes, basically everything is awesome.
Living in Atlanta, however, I have to say that the locations picked are less than ideal. I'm no stranger to traveling out of state for a big card game event, that's not generally a problem, but having to drive a minimum of 8 hours is pretty rough. Obviously I'm biased, but Atlanta has a nice Netrunner scene that's continuing to grow, several venues that I think would be appropriate, and is fairly central for the Southeast and therefore pretty easy to travel to. Even ignoring my bias, an event in Nashville, Charlotte, or Montgomery would be acceptable and still an easy drive for most people in the South, I think.
I don't want this comment to be completely sour, as I appreciate the obvious effort to push Netrunner and provide another level of play support and options. That said, it feels really weird to have 3 separate events in Texas and none in the entire rest of the Southeast.
While I understand it is probably not feasible for FFG to run this project in conjunction with their distribution partners in Europe due to the organizational hassle, I'm still sad that I'm not going to be able to participate. I'm also sorry for the North-American players whose regions got overlooked.
Aside from the location issues, this looks like a fantastic program, and I'm happy to see FFG more actively promoting Netrunner through such an interesting organized play program. It's sad that only one of these identities will make it into the card pool, they both are pretty cool. Despite the recent influx of Shaper IDs, my vote would go to The Collective -- the flavor is super interesting, the ability is nuts, and it's making more extreme use of the deck and influence limits. Having another criminal would be really cool, but Fisk has a stupid haircut
A nice graphical representation of the locations of the tour: https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit?mid=zx1usfRcWePo.kkieA73IrY_g
6.9 Million people (Washington) get 2 Locations, but 60.5 Million (the entire southeast have to drive over 6 hours minimum to get to one? I guess none of us southerners count unless we live in Texas, eh?
I find it baffling that so many people ascribe the location selection to ill will on FFG's part rather than thinking about the time and money restrictions that are behind a project such as this. Since FFG staff is planned to be present at all events, and FFGs staff is not unlimited, they require travel arrangements and accomodation, and have also other work to do besides touring the country, don't you think FFG would have organized events in your area if they'd have the time and money to do so?
While it is unfortunate for many people who'd like to participate but won't be able to, the sense of entitlement displayed by many is unfortunate as well.
So, i guess that the game is only sold in US and Canada ?
It is a shame !
NO this kind of event that meks the game should be available in all other country !
US nationals had some special item , and once again new item that are not available for all of us .
@ FFG, did you ask for TO in the world or Foreign editors ?
This is not acceptable
I had a think about it and this what seems to be the case.
While a lot of US players are complaining about not having this sort of game shaping (new identities) event in their proximity, there still seems to be a much more sound conclusion which can be drawn from this. It is evident that FFG current course is to limit FFG support for A:NR to North America only. This not something you will hear announced on their main page but they must have made analysis of the sales and customer base and know where their assets lie. European, Asian and other sales are apparently not large enough altogether to justify even a single event in those continents. They don't want to bother to do events outside North America as probably this is of very limited value. Sad, but seems to be the case.
If they don't want European (or other) players to have a say on what's next in A:NR they they are not overly worried about loosing sales in those regions and decided to limit the scope of this game to one continent. I just hope they will remain consistent and have guts to stop calling November event - Worlds! ;-)
I find it baffling that so many people ascribe the location selection to ill will on FFG's part rather than thinking about the time and money restrictions that are behind a project such as this. Since FFG staff is planned to be present at all events, and FFGs staff is not unlimited, they require travel arrangements and accomodation, and have also other work to do besides touring the country, don't you think FFG would have organized events in your area if they'd have the time and money to do so?
While it is unfortunate for many people who'd like to participate but won't be able to, the sense of entitlement displayed by many is unfortunate as well.
I don't think it's a sense of entitlement to express disappointment that a national tour is less than national when a whole segment of the US is left out.
As players who pay a lot of money to buy multiple core sets, data packs, etc..., do we not have a right to express our disappoint/frustration that Fantasy Flight did not consider it worth their time/money to have an event in the Southeast? If nobody says anything, then how will they know that there is a large segment of Netrunner players in the Southeast who are disappointed that they will be unable to attend this event, and thus hopefully consider this in the future when planning a schedule for future events?
If everyone just praises FF on their location selection, how will they ever know that there are disappointed players who were excited, but unable to attend to do an absence of locations near their area?
You're telling me they had time and money to have 8 events in the Northeast, and not enough for a single event in the Southeast?
@ FFG
I am a huge fan of Android: Netrunner The Card Game and am very pleased with its success and popularity so far. I am very supportive of both Android: Netrunner and my local play community, as well as understanding that issues such as limited numbers of Game Night Kits and data pack shortages are a sign of growth and a problem for the games industry as a whole.
I cannot, however, accept that the way in which the Plugged-In Tour is being conducted.
First, there are no tournaments outside the USA. Being an EU resident, it would be very expensive to come over and play in these tournaments. Further, the tournaments in the USA seem limited in number. It would be better if we, in Europe and other non-US locations, could have the chance of running similar tournaments and give our players a similar experience.
Also, there is prize support to consider. While players in non-US countries understand that the GenCon promos and prizes were exclusive to a large convention, none of the prizes given at GenCon reduced our enjoyment of the game and the organised play experience. Yes, some players were disappointed about missing out on an alternate-art "Private Security Force" and exclusive playmats, but they were given away for a large convention that only occurs in America.
Giving away alternate-art "Gabriel Santiago", which is widely played in the Netrunner scene and is contained in the Android: Netrunner Core Set, is a large insult to non-US players. We fear that we may be never given the opportunity to obtain such a promo. As players in other countries have no idea whether we have access to such a promo in the future, I wish that some communication could have been given to non-US players on what we could get in the future that can make up for such an error in customer service and support.
Outside the US, we have a very large player base ranging from the UK (which held 8 regionals), Germany (holding 5 regionals) and Australia (holding 11 regionals). All of these were well-attended and received, which goes to show the dedication and passion Netrunner players outside the US have for the game.
By not having the chance to participate in such tournaments, we feel let down by Fantasy Fight Games and feel undervalued both as consumers of FFG products and players of Android: Netrunner.
Finally, being able to shape the future of Android: Netrunner is a big deal to us. We don't have the chance to give our views on the new runner identity cards nor participate in important Android: Netrunner events. Because of this, we feel that FFG is not taking other countries seriously in organised play, as we miss out on important events, tournaments, and the chance to get goods that US countries may not have access to.
However, I do not wish for other countries to get exclusive promos that the US cannot obtain, as this would cause the same distress to US players that we are experiencing at the moment by not being included in the Plugged-In Tour.
To conclude, I feel alienated by the FFG Organised Play program for not being able to partake in such a large project as the Plugged-In Tour. I hope that my concerns are used to improve the FFG Oganised Play program and that other countries are given the opportunity to run and play in important Android: Netrunner community events like the Plugged-In Tour.
Yours Faithfully,
Edited by GabrielOmega
I find it baffling that so many people ascribe the location selection to ill will on FFG's part rather than thinking about the time and money restrictions that are behind a project such as this. Since FFG staff is planned to be present at all events, and FFGs staff is not unlimited, they require travel arrangements and accomodation, and have also other work to do besides touring the country, don't you think FFG would have organized events in your area if they'd have the time and money to do so?
While it is unfortunate for many people who'd like to participate but won't be able to, the sense of entitlement displayed by many is unfortunate as well.
It's not a sense of entitlement or feeling ill will from FFG, it's looking at the locations and seeing a problem. If they can schedule travel and spend money to get to the coastal locations, they surely could have gone to other locations around the country and not spent any more money. As a matter of fact I'm sure some of the locations they are going to will cost even more money than others. If they would have done a few less locations in the Northeast and spread them around the country more more people would have an opportunity to participate. The same for the other clusters. Perhaps only had one event in the cities with two events in extremely close proximity. Those being Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago. That's five more venues around the country that could have participated. Say put them in Denver, Phoenix,St. Louis, Atlanta, and Columbus. That would have given a much broader selection of people an opportunity to more easily participate. I'm sure there would be a lot less complaining. Sure there would still be some complaining, but it would be much better.
On the surface this just doesn't make sense. After thinking about it some, I have come up with a reasonable explanation. I suspect they looked at the attendance records of the Regional tournaments and decided to place these in the areas with the highest turnouts. They placed them in these locations because they had the highest chance of people attending. They don't want big events and only have a handful of people attending. There weren't huge numbers in my two local Regional tournaments this summer, if I remember there were about 20 at the one I attended and I'm guessing there were similar at the other. So it's no surprise there aren't any close. However I know that in my circle there are five more people playing who weren't playing when the Regionals were here. I know that at least two of them would have probably played if they were playing then. I'm sure the same can be said for the other groups in my area and in the other lesser attended areas. Netrunner popularity keeps increasing.
I also feel for the international fans. I'm sure they aren't doing any international events because international travel is just too expensive. They just don't want to spend the money. I don't know if there are any big European gaming conventions but maybe they could have sent someone there and had a European venue that coincided with the convention.
I just think it could have been organized better. Right now I'm positive that some of the same people will be attending those events in the cluster cities. I know from talking to various people that many people attended multiple regional tournaments, especially in the Chicago area. I know you can't stop people from attending multiple events, but why make it easy for some to attend multiple and make it very difficult for many to participate at all? How is that good for Netrunner? Just doesn't make sense to me.
Gabriel Omega, your letter is wrong. There is one location outside of the USA, Toronto has two events on the same weekend and Toronto is in Canada, not the US.
Still a pathetic distribution. No it is not entitlement to complain about this it is fact. FFG needs to get their dis-organized play actually organized. They have been doing LCGs for years now and yet cannot seem to get their act together. Hire some of the WoW TCG OP folks now that Blizzards has killed that game and put them to work fixing your issues.
I agree and will remove it - I've set up a separate post for it. Sorry for misinformation!
I'm not saying it is wrong to express your disappointment, but by the manner in which some people choose to express themselves you'd think FFG just drowned a sack of puppies. Some people would be less angry at FFG if they'd never announced such a program in the first place -- and that is what baffles me. I think we can all agree that FFG is behind when it comes to organized play. It is something they a clearly wishing to improve, but you can't go from zero to hero. The whole card game and miniatures section is just a fragment of their catalogue, and the competitive players in those are just a small fragment of the whole consumer base for these products. So I imagine the allocation of any company ressources towards organized play for these products is a difficult budget decision fraught with uncertainty with regards return of income. Since an event tour like this is a bit of new ground for them, I think it's understandable that their "pilot" project is limited to "low-risk" locations, and I would think that future event programs will show a more diverse schedule if this tour is successful.
tl;dr
Less "give me or GTFO!" and more "good luck and I hope you can expand to include my region in the future", please
Edited by SaturnineI agree with what you're saying - it's just the things they offer seem a bit too integral to the Netrunner play community to be ignored.
I just wish they at least considered the rest of the world before doing this. I would like to see its conclusion and how it benefits the global play community, however.
The first thing this reminded me of was AEG's plot-turning tournaments for Legend of the 5 Rings. They were, of course, played up as ways for players to have an effect on development of the game, but I always thought they sounded really gimmicky. This also feels really gimmicky.
Giving players a choice between two IDs which have already been created and playtested doesn't give the kind of player participation I like. Allowing tournament winners to create a new card (as was done for Call of Cthulhu) is awesome. This is just doing R&D for two new IDs, and then throwing half of that away. It seems like such a waste.
Full Disclosure: One of the events is being run in my FLGS but I promise you my response would have been the same even if this was happening halfway around the world
The responses here have quite honestly been very sad. FFG decides to do something nice for the community and instead of praise they get attacked. "How dare they do something live where not every single person who wishes to participate is able to?" This is a cool idea. Have an entire development team travel and interact with some of the community members from different areas. See what their take is on the game and maybe throw in a bonus or two. The logistics of this type can quite honestly be a nightmare so clearly they are going to want to stay within a relatively close area. North America is HUGE. They can't travel to every single place so it makes sense that they picked the east and west coasts (the most densely populated areas in the US) and the midwest because their headquarters are in MN. The decisions make perfect sense. They are not being capricious, they are not trying to purposefully spite anyone, this is just the way the cards fall (pun semi-intended). If they would set this up world-wide and have their team travel all over from Johannesburg to Sevastopol trying to placate every single person who plays their game the next data pack would have cost $100 to cover the cost and would take 3 years to come out because the team would be too busy flying around the world instead of actually doing their jobs developing the game.
As far as a select few making the decisions I highly doubt that the meta in the three regions they picked is somehow completely different from the rest of the world. I would be very surprised if the results would turn out differently if they did open this up universally so even that argument isn't very valid. But yeah guys grow up, your offense to this is just silly.
Seeing how FFG handles the organized play makes me really hope Wizards of the Coast would start releasing Netrunner again instead. It is their licence anyway.
Edited by SurrealSeeing how FFG handles the organized play makes me really hope Wizards of the Coast would start releasing Netrunner again instead. It is their licence anyway.
I hope this is just spite talking, and you don't really believe this. Wizards has killed every good thing it's touched, recently. Look at what they did with D&D.