I'm legit surprised at how hyped people were for this (Gaming)

by Cody Miller , Music of the Spheres - Never Forgot, Tuesday, December 15, 2020, 10:48 (1227 days ago) @ cheapLEY

I think you are right. The game appears to use the aesthetic in a fairly superficial way.

There was a controversy prerelease about the Chromanticore ads. The ad depicts a woman with a very prominent penis in an ad for an energy drink with the tag line "Mix it up", seeming to imply that gender identity is somethign you can just pick and choose on a whim. The drink name, Chromanticore, seems like a combination of chromosome and Manticore. The manticore being a fictional beast that is cobbled together from various animal parts. Uh, yikes. But to defend it the artist said something along the lines of "it's just a fictional ad, and I like the way this person looks".

I think that kind of encapsulates everything about the game. They just like the way it looks. But under I don't really see the setting re-enforcing themes, of having things be explored with much depth. The game is loaded with queer and trans imagery , and yet it's all aesthetic. I've met only one character who MIGHT be coded as queer, and he's a giant degenerate. There's no real exploration of what body modification does to gender identity and the role of queer people in society (a cyberpunk game that actually does this is Red Strings Club). It all seems there to give the illusion of edge, which itself is kind of troubling.

I kind of think in general, history has proven the ethos of cyberpunk to just be flat out wrong. The idea that technology is the equalizer - that rougue hackers can win the hearts and minds of the public and fight the corporate machine with their intrusions. The idea that networking and technology lets you be who you are. That things would be okay if the TRUTH got out. That's… kind of bullshit isn't it? We're seeing how the real way to fight back against the 'man' is to disconnect. Delete your facebook. Stop performing on social media. Buy local and not from Amazon. Get off your computer and organize grassroots. The idea of hackers changing the world seems just like another narcissistic fantasy from those who are themselves disconnected from reality. Why else would hackers adopt aliases that they use everywhere? To create an identity. The identity they wish they were. As time goes on the genre seems as a means of escape and wish fulfillment rather than prescriptive action.

This sort of superficial quest to define your own identity is embraced by the game. Drinks get named after legendary mercs who go out in a blaze of glory. Jackie and others talk about wanting to "be remembered" so they can live on forever. As if outside the little community of crooks this matters at all. As you say, there's not much thought given to the social situations the game presents beyond spectacle or challenge.

I am somewhat impressed with the depth of some of the characters… however this doesn't have much to do with the 'cyberpunk' setting or theming of the game.