An Inclusive, Cyberpunk Future Is In the Cards

It’s the cyberpunk future — a world even darker than the one we’re living in now. The line between humans and robots is blurred. You’re on a mission either to hack into a corporation and steal its secret plans, or to advance those agendas on behalf of a powerful conglomerate.

This is the plot of Android: Netrunner, a card game we’ve both played dozens of times during the pandemic, and neither of us is done getting vengeance on our opponent. After long days staring at our respective computer screens, we look forward to sitting down for a game where hackers install programs to access corporate servers.

And it’s not just us. Even though the game went out of print in 2018, a fan group called Project NISEI has kept the enthusiasm alive by organizing tournaments and even designing and printing new cards that fans can add to their existing sets.

A selling point of Netrunner is its inclusivity, which contrasts with many games that tend to feature American cities and characters that appear largely white and cis-gendered. The New Angeles of Android: Netrunner is in Ecuador. Much of its action happens around modern-day Mumbai and an up-and-coming megaproject in Kampala, Uganda. By one person's count, out of dozens of playable characters, there are two white men. Gender is fluid in a world where body modification is the norm.

“There’s a very powerful thing, seeing yourself represented in a game,” says Serenity Westfield, NISEI’s community manager, who is a trans woman living near London. “So if you’re trans, if you’re black, if you’re female, if you’re nonbinary, being able to flip through the list of characters and see someone that looks like you helps you get invested in it.”