Open Letter of Thanks

By bcavalier, in The Plugged-in Tour

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I just wanted to say thanks to FFGs, I went to the Pasadena event on Saturday and got crushed, but I got to see some amazing decks, got beaten by a Cerebral Overwriter deck who scored all 7 points in one turn, and played against an Exile deck who was more than competitive, really more amazing games than I could remember. All my wins were 6/7, it was so much fun to play. It was great, a friend and I drove up from San Diego, and it was more than worth it, not for the prizes, but to see a huge tourney in action and to be able to say a few words with the FFGs guys.


Though they aren't organizing every tournament, they were still working incredibly hard. I think they had driven overnight from Texas, and I know they hadn't even checked into their hotel. I asked if they were getting a couple weekdays off since they were sacrificing several weekends in a row to traveling and the tour, and Damon said 'I would ... if I wasn't also working on GoT's new release as well'.


The highlight of the day was watching Damon teaching someone who had never played before using their demo decks, and then getting to play Damon with my Darwin Deck. Damon had a really rough starting hand and few draws, and was clearly exhausted from all the travel and work but played his heart out. I wound up scratching a victory out barely, even through a fair amount of taunting and trash talk from Damon, and a Swordsman taking out my Whale. I accessed NAPD Contract 3 TIMES before managing to steal it! That card will be a beast! I also had one of those magical Jinteki moments where you have 2 cards in hand and access a Fetal AI ... and can't STEAL IT!

Damon also corrected my pronunciation of Kati Jones, it is NOT Katie Jones, but 'Kah-tea' Jones. For those who wonder, the actual Kati will at the very least give you an earful, and if you catch her on a bad day, flat line you via meat damage if you call her Katie.


My friend and I both dropped as we were clearly not in the top 8 and had a long drive home, he had to get into a cramped car with hair pudgy white guy who was recovering from the Jinteki sweats for a 2 hour drive home.


All in all, I just wanted to say thanks to the FFG guys and gals for all their hard work, for the long hours, for their time and creativity, for their graciousness and for making a game that is so fun and challenging to play.


I can't wait for the next tour, but I do hope they make it to San Diego next time, I don't think my friend will carpool with me if the FFG guys play a Jinteki deck again.


Thanks again,

Brendan

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I just participated in a Plugged In Tour event yesterday in Austin, Texas, and wanted to second this letter of thanks. Damon Stone and Mark Larson did a fantastic job, and getting to meet them both was a real treat. A face to the faceless corporation, as it were ;)

This was my first "competitive" gaming event, ever, so I was rather apprehensive. The fact that FFG supported and made this event happen, and the fact that Martin, at Dragon's Lair Austin, was excellent in his TO duties, made losing 7 of 8 games a more pleasant experience. Fantastic job all around, and I'm very hopeful FFG will do this sort of thing in future years, even if they don't hit Austin.

Thanks again!

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I also want to extend my thanks to FFG, Damon, Mark, and Jaffer (sp?). I booked my tickets to Austin in order to play in those events before they included the Colorado Springs stop. And it was just fine. I had a great time at all three events. Doing these types of tours which allow for more personal interaction that large cons will go a long way to promoting the game, the company, and the community.

While the 21st century allows us to communicate about anything and everything there is not much that can replace the high-touch aspect of sitting across from professionals who love their craft. With the growth of the game it's my sincerest hope that tours like this, while intense and demanding of the staff, can be done on some scale on a regular basis.

There was a lot of negativity about the limits of the tour when it was first announced. I think those voices are in the minority. I understand the sadness that comes from seeing that a tour wasn't coming to a city near you - heck I spent hundreds of dollars going to Texas - but I wouldn't take it back. This was a first for FFG and I would hope that a lot was learned about planning, announcing, and timelines for such things.

I hope there is a next tour. If so, I advise a bit more notice than one month. PI was announced in early September and ran over five weeks starting in early October. A longer timeline between announcement and execution would allow people to make plans to make the trip if they choose.

As we talked on Sunday, I think each employee has a year to be "young and stupid" in a new job. Well, FFG has been at this Netrunner gig just over a year. They've done some AMAZING THINGS with this game. It's been a rocky road at some times but overall I'd say the first year closed out very well.

My two cents.

-tpl

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There was a write up of some of the tours (the OK and TX ones) on CardgameDB and it sounds like both Mark and Damon have agreed that it is highly unlikely that FFG will do another one of these tours because of how negative the internet response was from everyone who wasn't getting a tour. This is very unfortunate but I guess this is why we can't have nice things.

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Well, if you want another tour, make some positive noise.

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I was unaware of the negative feedback. That's disappointing.

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Damon also corrected my pronunciation of Kati Jones, it is NOT Katie Jones, but 'Kah-tea' Jones. For those who wonder, the actual Kati will at the very least give you an earful, and if you catch her on a bad day, flat line you via meat damage if you call her Katie.

Aaarrgghh! I knew it! That's the way I wanted to pronounce it originally, but everybody was saying "Kay-tee", and I thought "Well, women's names have lots of different spellings..."

I know if I say "Kah-tea" I'm going to get some weird looks across the table.