because this wave of cyberpunk is the pop-punk version

January 19, 2021, 3:17 pm
because this wave of cyberpunk is the pop-punk version
because this wave of cyberpunk is the pop-punk version where corporations are trying to make money off aesthetic and not understanding the actual substance of what it`s actually about?

They really have just turned it into an aesthetic. All style for profit, and zero substance.

I think people mostly miss that neither punk rock, nor cyberpunk in their day where any more than small niche genres understood by a few, and most of the capitalist 80s just didn`t care.

The blade runner sequel was pretty good though.

Maybe cause it already reminds one too much of reality.

I think the key is how should a modern take on the genre look? Hows does one take today, add +50 years, then describe a rebellion against that system?

Love it, completely on point. I say this unironically: Sunset Overdrive is the most cyberpunk game weve had in a long while. Nothing else even actually pushes cyberpunk, and its a SHAME

perfectly articulated what we felt and couldn`t express...

With that being said, the aesthetic is still really good.

Because Cyberpunk has always been cheesy and lame. Check out Johnny Mnemonic for the last true cyberpunk story.

We`re making more honest, less glitzy, meaningful cyberpunk games: Spinnortality, my management sim about corrupt corporations: Silicon Dreams, our upcoming android-interrogating conversation game about living in oppression: Because we are in cyberpunk. Who is Henry Case in this story? Assange,Snowden,Navalny?

Cyberpunk 2077`s story and world does. The actual business surrounding it, not so much.

Too often the action scenes seem unreal - Imaginary or digitally generated.

I saw someone call this form of it "neonliberal" and I`ve been laughing crying since

because its not science fiction anymore?

Meanwhile the cyberpunk OGs at Harebrained put out two games which are the *distillation* of proper CP. They`re properly cyber, and they`re properly *punk*.

The article doesn`t say that

Cyberpunk has now become a retro futurism, playing off tropes that we`re popular in its heyday, not an extension of the modern day into the future. So it loses its appeal

It seems like a bazillion dollar game literally called Cyberpunk [2077] that didn`t work is the perfect metaphor for this situation...

This is the best review of Cyberpunk 2077 I`ve seen specifically from someone who loves the cyberpunk genre. Love to see any other reviews people have come across from that perspective (preferably from people who have played it in full). Exactly, it`s not cyberpunk, it`s neonliberal. (OP of that term deleted the tweet, here`s their credit) Because it`s excellent and relatively cheap I`m just going to plug Neofeud by as my contribution to this discussion

lol i like pop punk music

I honestly like 80s pop more than punk anyway. Cyberpop sounds fine to me.

Yeah `The eighties almost killed me, let`s not recall them quite so fondly`, like several times "almost", so we have become cyberpunk, that`s always indicative of great scifi, personally I think `The future`s uncertain, and the end is always near`, perhaps now more than ever...

far from being "punk". I love the way someone was referring to it as "neonliberalism".

When did the punker cross the road?

TRUTH!!

Well put ! Even Mr. Gibson agrees with you.

And didn`t audiences in fact care quite a bit about 2049 which actually had some stuff to say

Isnt it therefore the PERFECT expression of cyberpunk? Its endlessly self-referential. What if Cyberpunk 2077 had real product placement and ads?

Besmirching pop punk this cannot stand

Very well said. It applies to every genre they`ve re-manufactured.

2049 was excellent, however.

We need a new counterculture

Embrace the Sun instead one reviewer did a good job of saying "no videogame made with over 11 million dollars has any right to be called punk"

Lots of 80s sci fi movies were about the dangers of media, corporations, capitalism and the advancement of science over social welfare, but basically, a lot of people forgot the messages in those films and just wanted to make new content emulating it.

Blade runner 2049 seemed to understand, but I think youre right and I dont think we can really go back to that enthusiasm for those aesthetics

have we considered possibly creating a postmodern cyberpunk?

I heard it called neonliberal today and honestly that sounds like a good name for this

I think its also hard to want to delve into fiction that at this point has become more factual than fiction, Cyberpunk was always kinda corporate anyway, like actual punk music that came before it.

Yeah I think they went too hard on the cyber, and not enough on the punk. A good story wouldn`t hurt either. Conquerors can only once faithfully tell the story of their conquered, for they would need to slay themselves by it`s end.

Pop Punk is more genuine at it`s worst than this wave of Cyberpunk has been.

One of my favorite bits of Cyberpunk media that gets disregarded pretty regularly because of its main titled side character was Max Headroom. An entire 14 episode series setting fire to capitalism, commercialism, evil corporate run governments, it was kind of amazing it got made.

Neonliberial or Cyberpop. It`s both a harsh reality that it`s gone through the industrial wringer. While I`m still a sucker for the aesthetic the actual material has been white washed into conformist non-critical slop.

Which is why Cyberpunk 2077 feels so disingenuous

they absolutely understand what it`s about. they`re *actively and intentionally* co-opting it.

to be fair (bc that was the image they used) the new blade runner has arguably more to do with critiquing capitalism and corporate influence on society than the original

I`m a disabled, unemployed trans woman who keeps being denied my disability insurance. please help me get medical needs and food while i fight to get the help i need? Cyberpunk was all about rebelling against greedy corporations that want to use to technology to basically control us completely. When corporations try to sell Cyberpunk stuff, it`s like hearing a racist person praising MLK. It`s hollow and only being done for money.

"Shiny chrome, neon, cybernetics, crime!" Wheres the punk ? The whole point is the systems buggered and people are lashing out.

Cyberpunk lost its edge when the neon totalitarian future it railed against became our modern day mundane dystopia. All it has left is the aesthetics, which in their own, aren`t much to talk about.

Literally being pushed by the evil megacorporations

"CyberPUNK"? I guess we should call this "push" something more like "neonliberal" Because that`s what it is

Yeah, i say thats about right

this article is like 2 years old and it mentions Ready Player One as something to look forward to what is wrong with games journalists

See also: It`s hard to take seriously pieces of entertainment which take a critical stance against corporate exploitation, which themselves are the products of corporate exploitation.

Blade runner 2049 is far superior than cyberpunk 2077

good luck finding something criticizing neoliberalism, these days. we`re badly in need of a cyberpunk renaissance.

Also possibly because the aesthetics and worries of the genre are still sitting heavily on the ideas of the 1980s and things have changed from that.

intentionally, at that, cyberpunk is inherently anti-capitalist, and they all funded Trump for a reason.

The issue being if they actually made Cyberpunk what its about, it would be insanely hypocritical as it would be a direct commentary on their horrific practices and would shine a light on how they opperate.

All cyber, no punk.

100% bingo this yes right here

The only miss in this tweet is the implication that pop-punk isn`t at least fun music as opposed to the cynical cash grab of capitalist pseudo-cyberpunk

Cybermainstream just doesnt have the same ring to it

I am a steampunk. That is my asthetic. I love the anti-industrial philosophy that goes with it. I can appreciate because of the substance of it. People seem to forget it`s cyberPUNK or steamPUNK. Punk has always been counter culture.

Agreed! Theres so much more thats relevant to conversations today. Globalization failing at intercultural understanding but succeeding wildly at culture as fashion. Religion as syncretic with technology, a hard deviation from corporate visions, deeply rooted in identity.

corporations trying to make money off an aesthetic criticising them iiiiironic

 
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