Can caprice be trashed regardless of the result of the psi game?

If only. But no. If you lose the psi game it's GTFO and you don't access anything. The same as an EtR on a piece of ice.

After quite some time has passed, playing and watching this card still leaves a weird feeling. Entire games have come down to a game sequence that was lovingly called "psi", but in reality is nothing more than a gamble in the general case. The basic premise of the "money as a motivator" is a really neat design, but only when caught in a particular situation, a "Netrunner" situation of calculated risk. Yet there are more times when economy doesn't really matter, you just want to protect your agenda for this very run. And then you prey, and gamble.

Thinking on the Psi mechanic not only on this card, but on all the rest of the "Psi" collection (pretty small, actually), they all leave a mixed emotion. Either they don't work at all, or they work too well for their own good. Knowing your enemy is half winning this game, so... why wasn't it taken a step further? It is still an experiment over economy - players spend credits, and if the Corp has none - well, tough luck, blank card. Weird thing to say for a 5-star deck winner, isn't it?

Now that I spoke my pain, I might as well explain what is on my mind - a better "Psi" game would be one that does not depend on the current game situation, but on a general "Runner" knowledge, a.k.a meta knowledge. It should also be simple, and maybe provide some insight for the opposing side. Something like this: "Choose a card type: Event, Program, Hardware or Resource. The Runner reveals his Grip. If there are more cards (or tied) of the named type than any other type..." and then the rest of the card finishes - EtR, Resolve Subroutine etc.

Depending on the card it may also be less cards (or none), or even reverse the process and the Runner names, the Corp reveals (such Jinteki thing to do). Of course, it would have changed the rez/play costs of current cards, but would have made the Psi game much more engaging without actually being much more cumbersome.

And it would have made Caprice feel like a real detective, and not a pay-me-or-beat-it rogue ex-officer.

I don't like that idea at all. The whole reason Caprice isn't entirely OP is because of the economic aspect. She can be countered through Vamp, Account Siphon, or simply forcing the corp to rez something they would really prefer to not rez.

As to your alternative design ideas:

- A corp card that forces the corp to reveal their grip would be wildly unpopular. Celebrity Gift is popular because the corp can wait for an opportune time to play it. If Caprice functioned in this manner it may deny access to the scoring server, but instead reveal a badly agenda-flooded HQ for the runner to pound.

- Naming and revealing a runner card is less detrimental, but predicting what cards your opponent has in hand at any given moment is sheer guesswork. By contrast, economic spending has a greater chance of being accurately predicted by reading the board state. As you say, there are times when economy doesn't matter, in which case, yes, it really is a crap shoot, but those times are not all of the times.

All you imply is correct, I was just giving my thoughts on the subject. For me personally, seeing several top cut matches that come down to a couple Caprice Psi games (basic gamble as both players had 10+ credits and were on winning point against the scoring server) was really a turn-off, so I gave my feeble attempt for different design. It might have been already playtested and rejected, but it sounds more fun to me. Of course, your preference may be entirely different

About the guesswork - there are tools that reveal the Runner's grip so you can know prior to the Psi game what is there. Also, there are more than 1 Caprice in the deck, and there are numerous cases when after one is trashed another is installed on the very next turn. It would have given you some insight. Also, against Noise for example the guesswork has good odds - it is either Event or Program. Additionally, Caprice is best utilized in glacier taxing builds, so even if you fail scoring this turn, you can see that the Runner has no burst tools in hand to contest next turn, for example.

Councilman (Democracy and Dogma, 47) is soon to be released. He will alleviate your troubles with Caprice.

Councilman (Democracy and Dogma, 47) is soon to be released. He will alleviate your troubles with Caprice.

Political Operative (Democracy and Dogma) will also get some work done in this regard. It'll be a little tougher to get into play against Caprice, but it'll have a stronger effect.

I know, I know, there are fixes for everything, I am just kind of let down by the design itself. Personally for me a greater issue gameplay wise is Astroscript, but that is another topic.