tberton

I will say that I like both of these cover legendaries leagues more than anything since Lugia and Ho-oh.

But the Nazi party's goal was just the same as that of the US and USSR in the Cold War: become the world's dominant superpower, like you said. The end for which they desired to gain that power might be questioned, but in my mind, as soon as "become a superpower" is your goal, power has become an end in itself. Germany, the US and USSR all sought power and they all did reprehensible things in service of that pursuit. I'm not blaming Ananda for not wanting to design a game where a player is put in the shoes of a Nazi. But I do believe that it's important to look at the things that make us squeamish and those that don't and analyze the reasons why. I think it's probably the case here that popular culture exposure to the atrocities of Nazi Germany and the association of the Nazi with clear and irredeemable evil makes us more likely to want to disassociate ourselves from them, while we've been less exposed to (or differently exposed to) the atrocities of the Cold War and therefore don't have the same problem with them. The mythology of World War II has characterized it as a "just war" with clearly defined sides of good and evil, so we don't want to force a player to play as the evil side. The Cold War, however, is considerably murkier and much harder to define in terms of good vs. evil. We therefore have no problem playing either side, because both sides are nebulous greys, so neither is reprehensible. I think, however, that is the wrong way to view it. First of all, there are many more shades of grey in World War II than most people like to admit. Second, the lack of bad guys in the Cold War shouldn't make us feel comfortable; rather, the lack of good guys should make us feel all the more uncomfortable.

Knowing this, X is definitely my choice right now. I'm a big fan of Xerneas and Clauncher. Swirlix is pretty cool too.

He also mentions that they're considering texturing parts of the touchpads, which would alleviate this problem. The controller still has triggers.

I don't know, there are cards in Twilight Struggle like Red Scare/Purge, Latin American Death Squads, Reagan Bombs Libya and a whole host of others referencing various atrocities and wars.

Interesting to listen to Ananda talk about his reluctance to put somebody in Hitler's shoes, but didn't seem to have the same problems putting somebody in Stalin's shoes. It's a strange contrast.

I like that depending on how you look at Doublade, its either an X or a Y.

They play pretty differently. The Runner factions are probably more similar to each other than the Corp factions are, but there's still definitely a feeling of "Okay, I'm playing Shapers, this is what I can expect." This is emphasized by the Influence and Identity systems: your Identity gives you a special power, so you'll probably build around that; each Identity has an Influence limit, which dictates how many cards from other factions can be in the deck. This means that, let's say, a Shaper deck with the Kate identity is going to play a lot differently from a Criminal deck with Gabriel Santiago.

There are two types of expansions: Data Packs (of which there are currently 6) and Deluxe Expansions (of which there is currently 1). Data Packs contain 60 cards (3 copies each of 20 unique cards). It's always 2-3 cards for each faction, including both Neutrals. Lots of them have agendas. Deluxe expansions contain 165 cards (3 copies each of 55 unique cards). So far there's only been one Deluxe Expansion, which had only Haas-Bioroid, Shaper and Neutral cards. Presumably, future deluxe expansions will have a similar focus on a Corp faction and a Runner faction. If you'd like to explore what cards are out there and which packs they come in, I recommend netrunnercards.info. It's very thorough (even including revealed spoilers of as-yet-unreleased cards) and easily searchable.

I keep thinking this is a kooky sequel to World of Goo. But it's not, is it?

Yeah, I suppose the team play is a big factor. Off-topic, I'm playing Mark of the Ninja right now and really loving it. Good work! I can't wait to see what Campo Santo does.

I've never played DOTA, but whenever Sean talks about its seemingly-bloated-but-in-reality-intricately-elegant design, my mind immediately turns to Netrunner. Also, "drip this honey" sounds really gross.

Hey Nels, now that you and Vanaman work together, you should teach him Netrunner! I get the feeling that it's very much his kind of game.

Yes it does.

Regarding the Gone Home discussion, I often hear people say that it the setting is a lot of the reason for why people love it, but, like Chris, I feel that the game's appeal has more to do with its universal themes. I have little in common with Sam, other than that were both white, upper middle class North Americans. But I'm not a woman, I'm not gay, I've never been to Portland, I hadn't heard of Riot Grrl until I saw a trailer for this game and I have no nostalgia for X-Files VHS tapes. But I do know what it feels like to fall in love, to get hurt, to feel unfulfilled or unfaithful. Those themes have far more resonance than TV Guides and trapper keepers.

I'm really glad you're liking it clyde. It gets even more fun when you get into the deckbuilding aspect.

You can't use a click in the middle of spending another click, unless a card explicitly says you can. Since the only time you're going to be encountering a trace is during a run (which is using a click) or during the Corp's turn (at which point, you have no clicks), you can't use a click in the middle of a trace to gain credits.

Glad you enjoyed it, clyde. While I can understand some people enjoying the 90s are for it's crazy style, it's absolutely unbearable for me to look at. I really like the art on most of the cards from the Android version.

I really hope Chespin's final evolutions isn't Grass/Ground. That's such a boring combination. But I like it's design so much.

Yeah, if you want to play competitively, you'll have to get at least a few expansions and likely a second core set, since there are several very good cards that the Core set only has 1 or 2 copies of. But if you just want to play with friends, you can go online, see which expansions have the cards you want and get those, or find a friend to play with and split expansions between each other.

Dangit.

Just spent all this time taking over La Marche, trying to found the Duchy of Bourbon, only to realize that I can't create a title that is the same rank or higher than that of my liege. My son is married to my liege, the Duchess of Aquitaine. When I die, will I be able to control Aquitaine or will it just be his wife and I'll have to wait for my grandson to take power?

Thanks for the help! One last thing: does the game update automatically or do I need to manually download patches?

So I've started playing this and I'm having a great time. Maybe playing as a loowly French count was a bad idea, but I couldn't resist a Dynasty in which every leader for ever and ever was named Archambaud. I've done pretty well for myself: just had my first succession and since my son had inherited his mother's claim to Auvergne, I've now got two counties. The problem is that France is in a serious civil war situation and it's confusing as fuck. Here's the situation: the (former) King of France is an ally of mine. He's my new heir's brother in law by two connections. Problem is, one of his Duke's deposed him. So now my liege is the new King Robert of France, but my ally is the old (now Duke) Philip. Then the Duke of Toulouse went and started a war to put Philip back on the throne and all hell is still breaking loose. Toulouse is occupying both of my counties, which I don't understand because Philip is my ally. But I guess I can't join the war? When I click on the war, it's tough to tell if Philip or Robert is my enemy. Can anybody help? Also, if a holding in our of your counties is occupied, is there anything you can do about it?

Doppleganger and Joshua B. Build up to a turn where I get the extra click from Joshua B, run archives and HQ click 1, run R&D click 2, then clicks 2, 3 and 4 are Notoriety. Hopefully that wins the game right there, but if it doesn't, I've got a Data Dealer which turns every Notoriety into a huge threat. Do you really want to lay down an Agenda when you know I can click for nine credits whenever I want? The only problem right now is that the deck is too slow, mainly because I don't have the influence to spend on good breakers. Once I get Opening Moves, I'll swap out some Joshuas for Hostages, freeing up influence to replace Aurora and Peacock with Corroder and Yog.