Five Years of Netrunning

by Jens Kreutzer

Five years ago, in March 1996, the conflict in Netspace between nefarious corporations and daredevil runners, before then only incarnated in novels, comic books, movies, and roleplaying games (notably Cyberpunk 2.0.2.0.), materialized itself as a collectible card game as well. While the background had appeal in itself to fans of the cyberpunk or science-fiction genre, and the artwork had a very "cool" flavor to it (no elves and orcs!), the game mechanics of Netrunner were soon recognized as being among the best ever created in the world of collectible card games: INQUEST magazine awarded Netrunner the full score of 6 out of 6, a rating that had been unprecedented at the time. Even today (December 2000 issue, page 96), the INQUEST team is still grieving about Netrunner's apparent demise. Although the game proved a smaller success commercially than envisioned by Wizards of the Coast, five years later, we're still here and playing, against all odds.

Five years is quite a long time in terms of CCGs; the granddaddy of them all, Magic: The Gathering, is only eight years old itself, and countless other CCGs have more or less passed into oblivion in the meantime. That said, Netrunner might still see a rebirth (as an Emergency Self-Construct?), if Zvi Mowshowitz' deal with Wizards works out so that he can do a reprint on his own. His efforts are laudable indeed, and you can read for yourself what his plans are in the interview on page 5 [in the print version]. Despite all the bad news we have had to endure in those five years, there have also been very good times, and I'd like to thank all the people who have dedicated their time and efforts to Netrunner (you know who you are), especially Jennifer Clarke Wilkes, who is still keeping the faith. To mark the occasion, I've put together all "Famous Netrunner Stacks" and "Netrunner Trivia" articles from previous issues of the TRQ to form a special issue which I dubbed "AI Advisor". It ended up 22 pages thick, and maybe would make a nice tournament prize if printed out and bound into a booklet. You can download it at the same website at which you found this Top Runners' Quarterly. As more "Famous Decks" and "Trivia" articles are being written for the TRQ, I will update the contents of "AI Advisor", so that checking it out from time to time might be worth your while. Please enjoy, and keep runnin' for the next five years as well!

Yours, Jens Kreutzer (TRQ Editor).