There's at least dozen players from east coast Canada that would love to go to worlds but can't justify the expense. Netrunner was hot at first. Core sets sold quick, easier to get into, no card pool to catch up on. Lot of us selling netrunner collections. I even demoed it for some of my computer science friends and they still prefer thrones. Our thrones player base is bigger. Our Regionals last year was 16 attendace. Netrunner-11( 3 of us who no longer play)

Just to give another set of numbers to counter this (now old) argument;

Gencon 2013: AGOT Joust (107), Netrunner (188)

Worlds 2013: AGOT Joust (138), Netrunner (~160, I've heard 158 and 168)

The gap between the games, if you're judging purely based on attendance to large competitive tournaments (a decidedly biased metric), is certainly not "continuing to widen". This closing of the gap is despite the increased publicity associated with the Plugged-In Tour promoting A:NR.

And for fun: Stahleck 2013: Agot Joust estimate 200+, Netrunner (0).

And for fun: Stahleck 2013: Agot Joust estimate 200+, Netrunner (0).

Thats probably not quite true, there will be a NR side event on sunday.

we talked about this alot at worlds and the general consensus seems to be that netrunner clearly has the bigger player base, but thrones has the more dedicated player base. I have nothing to back this up because I do not know anything about the netrunner community, but it seems to me that there is a HUGE overlap in 138 that attended worlds and the 107 that attended gencon for thrones. I'd guess that over half were same people.

we talked about this alot at worlds and the general consensus seems to be that netrunner clearly has the bigger player base, but thrones has the more dedicated player base. I have nothing to back this up because I do not know anything about the netrunner community, but it seems to me that there is a HUGE overlap in 138 that attended worlds and the 107 that attended gencon for thrones. I'd guess that over half were same people.

My hunch is that you are correct. I hate admitting it, but I think that AGoT would grow exponentially with the introduction of another format, in which only the core set, expansions, and current cycle or two were legal for play. It would be good to have two modes, one in which all of the card pool is available (aside from the restricted list, etc., akin to MTG Legacy), and another in which the card pool is limited, allowing for easier buy-in for new players.

we talked about this alot at worlds and the general consensus seems to be that netrunner clearly has the bigger player base, but thrones has the more dedicated player base. I have nothing to back this up because I do not know anything about the netrunner community, but it seems to me that there is a HUGE overlap in 138 that attended worlds and the 107 that attended gencon for thrones. I'd guess that over half were same people.

My hunch is that you are correct. I hate admitting it, but I think that AGoT would grow exponentially with the introduction of another format, in which only the core set, expansions, and current cycle or two were legal for play. It would be good to have two modes, one in which all of the card pool is available (aside from the restricted list, etc., akin to MTG Legacy), and another in which the card pool is limited, allowing for easier buy-in for new players.

I wouldn't mind having an alternative mode that limits what sets cards are legal for. That is part of why I thought the draft packs were really fun. It turned many weak cards into something quite useful. For example, you won't see Ser Ilyn Payne played today because he is an expensive Ally, but in a limited card pool without Ally hate, he could have a place. Albeit, 4 gold to kill a weaker character each round is still a lot, but I'm just trying to make a point.

I'm wondering if Netrunner is continuing to get a large number of new players or if their large player base are mostly players that used to play the CCG version back in the day.

What kind of attendance did Netrunner have in Worlds 2012?

I'm leary of the Netrunner numbers. I'm pretty sure Netrunner actually sells out where as AGoT doesn't. The recent Netrunner tournament I ran actually had to turn away the last few entrants due to inadequate space for gaming.

I also would argue against dcdennis's theory a bit. We regularly get between 10 and 20 people at our Netrunner gaming nights and they are consistently the same people. Most of the best players in my meta also went to worlds.

AGoT > netrunner

I'm leary of the Netrunner numbers. I'm pretty sure Netrunner actually sells out where as AGoT doesn't. The recent Netrunner tournament I ran actually had to turn away the last few entrants due to inadequate space for gaming.

I also would argue against dcdennis's theory a bit. We regularly get between 10 and 20 people at our Netrunner gaming nights and they are consistently the same people. Most of the best players in my meta also went to worlds.

What is the definition of selling out? I can tell you that I'm not going to buy out a store of AGoT stuff when I already have most of it.

Anyways, I know no one locally that plays Netrunner. AGoT may simply have a larger player base because a large number of AGoT players are casual and unknown to many of us. Netrunner clearly has the competitive player base edge with the number of major tournament attendees.

Europe also seems to be Netrunner lite when they attract 200+ for AGoT at Stahleck. Is there much of a Netrunner player base in Europe?

It may be a regional thing and potentially a competitive attraction compared to AGoT. I think AGoT has a significant casual player base.

I'm sure it's not the point here, but why not take matters into our own hands?
Instead of waiting for FFG to step up, just organize the tour for yourselves like the EU players did this passing year ( European AGOT Circuit consisted of 4 tourneys and was crowned with Stahleck European Championships as 5th event). I understand that the point of above discussion is comparing the state of the game (pun intended) of AGOT vs some other popular LCGs from FFG, but I always prefered more DIY approach over demanding attitude.
Nevertheless, have fun playing.

Greetings from Poland, where AGOT is growing strong!


EDIT: Also no Netrunner side event was played at Stahleck as only 5 players turned up as witnessed in this report .

I play a lot of board games as well. I see people playing board games jumping on the netrunner train easily. It started one year ago. Not many people are really coming from the CCG base. This is a different game in many ways. Easy to catch up, easier to learn as well. It does not have a huge FAQ block with a set of restricted cards or errata. I see many people giving up on Thrones instead. There are more people giving up than people jumping on board. In Europe it's the same. Most of the people are playing netrunner now. I would say the ratio is 1 to 4. Not all of them play tournaments, but you can ask FFG which game sells more . Organized play really needs a boost in many ways. Here they seem more concerned about releasing hundreds of LCGs instead of trying to make the best of the ones that work well (Thrones and Netrunner). Please stop coming up with other LCGs if you do not mean to support organized play for what is already there. You get a brand, and there you go a new LCG comes up. LOTR, CoC, WH (I believe this died), SW... and I am sure some more stuff is coming out.