You can write a cyberpunk story that’s not in a capitalist dystopia you know bro.
Help_An_Irishman
It’s gotten a lot worse since Cyberpunk 2077 and the accompanying anime, but the number of times I’ve seen people going on about something being cyberpunk when it’s just robotics and neon lights and mohawks is depressing.
Then again if I wasn’t drawn toward depressing things, I probably wouldn’t have been a superfan of the genre since 1993.
magnaton117
Why don’t people that say this go write such a story themselves?
Jeoshua
It’s mostly because, to some people, “Cyberpunk” just means shiny pretty lights and big cities. Watch r/cyberpunk and the pictures that get posted there all the time: Just shiny.
dickparrot
Hot take: cyberpunk is absolutely primarily about the aesthetic.
Bladerunner without rain, neon, and cool coats? Utterly forgettable. Neuromancer and sequels spend a lot more time describing cool clothes than they do the evils of capitalism or whatever.
The capitalist dystopia is just a backdrop for cool people to do cool shit in rain-soaked neon cities. It’s fun escapism.
Pretending like the genre is anything significantly deeper than that is annoying… (e.g. just look at how cringey r/solarpunk is)
NoKiaYesHyundai
Cyberpunk is only about capitalism when it’s commentary on Korean socioeconomics made by a smug teenager who just now learned Korea isn’t a region of Japan. Otherwise it’s the cool genre where you can be a cyborg warrior!
lifesizedgundam
cyberpunk is inherently political
SavageKitten456
Absolute galaxy brains in this thread
“Hur dur it’s just cool lights”
Thanks for proving OP’s point
Enviritas
Every regime has its defenders.
TheGreatSockMan
I don’t think it’s inherently against as much as a criticism of it.
10 Comments
You can write a cyberpunk story that’s not in a capitalist dystopia you know bro.
It’s gotten a lot worse since Cyberpunk 2077 and the accompanying anime, but the number of times I’ve seen people going on about something being cyberpunk when it’s just robotics and neon lights and mohawks is depressing.
Then again if I wasn’t drawn toward depressing things, I probably wouldn’t have been a superfan of the genre since 1993.
Why don’t people that say this go write such a story themselves?
It’s mostly because, to some people, “Cyberpunk” just means shiny pretty lights and big cities. Watch r/cyberpunk and the pictures that get posted there all the time: Just shiny.
Hot take: cyberpunk is absolutely primarily about the aesthetic.
Bladerunner without rain, neon, and cool coats? Utterly forgettable. Neuromancer and sequels spend a lot more time describing cool clothes than they do the evils of capitalism or whatever.
The capitalist dystopia is just a backdrop for cool people to do cool shit in rain-soaked neon cities. It’s fun escapism.
Pretending like the genre is anything significantly deeper than that is annoying… (e.g. just look at how cringey r/solarpunk is)
Cyberpunk is only about capitalism when it’s commentary on Korean socioeconomics made by a smug teenager who just now learned Korea isn’t a region of Japan. Otherwise it’s the cool genre where you can be a cyborg warrior!
cyberpunk is inherently political
Absolute galaxy brains in this thread
“Hur dur it’s just cool lights”
Thanks for proving OP’s point
Every regime has its defenders.
I don’t think it’s inherently against as much as a criticism of it.
Criticism =/= against (necessarily)