At first I thought this blog, on this website would be a little like preaching to the choir but recently an article came out that made me re-think my assumptions. The article was about Cyberpunk 2077 and in it the author made a big deal about how a slummy part of town was inhabited largely by Haitian immigrants. The author tried to insinuate that this was institutionalized racism (what the fuck does that even mean anyway? Call a spade a spade. If it's racist, it's fucking racist. You don't need fancy qualifiers to make you look more intelligent than you aren't) in all it's ugly glory. After the smack down was given by the creator of the Cyberpunk tabletop game I realized that something this author was missing was what the cyberpunk genre is really all about. So with that in mind, as a life long fan of the genre I thought I'd re-introduce the world to what are basically the three tenents of Cyberpunk.
There are no heroes in Cyberpunk:
Let that sink for a minute. The character you will be playing in Cyberpunk 2077 or the tabletop games will not be a good person. They won't even be an anti-hero, they are a straight up bad person. In their mind the world has gone to hell and the only thing left to do is grab all you can in the short amount of time that you're still above ground. They have a chip on their shoulder, a personal grudge or just a general shitty attitude about society and everyone in it. Last but not least they care about #1 above all else, themselves. Sure they have a few loyal confidants they keep around but the classic cyberpunk protagonist is always waiting for the knife in the back or the gunshot to the back of their head. They trust no one and will very often strike first if they so much as sniff betrayal, consequences be damned.
It is a non-stop war between the rich and the desperate.
And you're caught in the middle but you wouldn't have it any other way. Your role in the Cyberpunk genre be it Cyberpunk 2077, Shadowrun or Cyberpunk Red is to fight the fights no one wants. You're the roving gun for hire. You don't care who pays you as long as you're getting paid. Corporate wallet, street gang, it's all credits baby and in this world business is booming. Literally. In this world you may retire a rich slug but more than likely you're just going to end up a bloody pile of broken flesh and circuits. That's fine. The reward is more than worth the risk and any collateral damage you may cause along the way. Who wants to live forever anyway?
You are the ultimate rebel.
Society can go fuck itself. You don't care if your last job cost 40 corporate wage slaves their lives and caused the company to go bankrupt leaving 1,100 people out of work. They're all better off because they aren't under the thumb of the man anymore. Who's the man? Who the fuck ever made this mess. In your mind there's no real single adversary and why should there be? As I mentioned, you already think the whole world is fucked so let the God damn thing BURN. Corporations may be your favorite target or you may even think they're the only things holding this society together. Whatever your feelings about the "good guys" everyone and everything else has to go. And I don't mean vote them out, I mean blow them the fuck up. What about the good people caught in the cross fire you may ask? You didn't read rule #1 did you?
Above all else the Cyberpunk genre is a dystopian future from which there is no escape. Sure you can blind yourself from the realities of your hopeless existence for a while but open your eyes even a little and you'll see just how shitty it is for everyone. Well... Everyone that isn't filthy, stinking rich. Cyberpunk is the beginning of the end of society. Governments have little if any real power and corporations are in a constant struggle to be the big one on top of everything. Justice is bought and paid for by the highest bidder and you can either play by the rules and be enslaved or fight against the system and maybe die young. The harsh reality of Cyberpunk is that despite being corrupt and evil the system always wins. You can join the cadre of those with hope who remember the good times and are actually trying to make real change but you're going to fail. As a main character in this universe you have given up on trying to work within the system to change it. You're fed up and you're going to get back at "them" using the only tools you have left. Slick tech, powerful computers in your head and some really, really big fucking guns. You start your crusade with a glimmer of hope that you'll somehow come out of this whole mess alive and living a somewhat decent life. However, you know damn well that the odds are stacked against you.
The shadow of death or confinement in prison is a constant companion that never goes away. Nothing you do can save you now and that constant pressure to retain what little freedom you have left is all you have to keep you going. Every score you earn you have to spend on bigger and better stuff. You're always on the move from one place to another. You live your life with one eye always looking over your shoulder. You cringe at every text message, phone call and e-mail wondering which one is going to be the one that sets up your ultimate, untimely demise. Every job you take could be your last and you're just as likely to die to the one who hired you as you are to the cops or whatever enemies lie in wait for you around the next corner or down the next alleyway. This is life in the Cyberpunk genre.
Now, when it comes to Cyberpunk 2077 there are several things I also feel need to be pointed out. Like any good science fiction sub-genre CD Projekt Red and R. Talsorian Games have their finger on the pulse of current day society. If you think back to classic titles in the genre to anime like Akira and Bubblegum Crisis you'll recognize a common theme. The so called: "Heroes" were struggling against characters that could become so powerful they would annihilate society as we know it in a single instant. The boomers of Bubblegum Crisis and Akira were all super secret government black ops projects gone horribly wrong and it should make sense if you think about when they were made. During the Cold War when nuclear proliferation was first and foremost on everyone's mind society was waiting with baited breath while President Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbechev rattled sabers back and forth across the iron curtain. Weapons of mass destruction were a world wide threat and those titles were a commentary on how the advancement of technology could make the problem worse instead of better. Thankfully, the rise of "Perestroika" in the Soviet Union as well as the collapse of Communism would bring an end to the cold war and nuclear weapons would be dismantled for decades after.
Fast forward to today and the "new" targets (I say new but in reality Cyberpunk table top games were always against the rise of corporate power) are corporations and the scary tech is an implant that can grant immortality. This is no coincidence. Anti-aging research is advancing at an alarming rate along with the technology to extend our lifespans. Cyberpunk 2077 deals directly with the moral dilemmas this kind of technology can create in society and you, as "V" are the non-consensual profit of this new tech. Choose how you will use it, wisely.
Last but not least I want to explain why the so-called "racism" of Cyberpunk was so hotly slammed by Mike Pondsmith himself. In the Cyberpunk genre it is an everyday struggle just to survive. Workers lose their jobs and their homes and wind up dead in the street every single day. This constant struggle with your employers to make enough to feed yourself is the binding force of society. As rebels in this society you must struggle against the system to find your own way but how do you do that when the system always wins? The Haitians, a.k.a. the Voodoo Kings figured it out.
What most of white America (Err... New California) see is a rotting dump not worth the nuke it would take to wipe it off the planet. What the Voodoo Kings see is potential. Potential to create a home away from corporate control and away from the corrupt police that enforce it. Most importantly, what they see is a place to call their own. A place that can't be taken away from them by some fat, greedy fuck who only cares about you as long as you're making money for them. In Pacifica, the Voodoo Kings can carve out their own corner of the city and literally re-make a society from scratch in their own image. If all you see is a dump that impoverished citizens are forced to live in then you're looking through the wrong lens. You don't get Cyberpunk at all. This is the only way anyone can get ahead in this world. By saying "Fuck off" to the mainstream and existing outside the boundaries of what is considered "normal living." Sure it may not look like much but to the Voodoo Kings this is a finer kingdom than Camelot and no corporate fat fuck is going to take it away from them without a fight. It's theirs and theirs alone and you may think it sucks but they take pride in their home.
However, a darkness hangs over this territory they've carved out for themselves. The Voodoo Kings aren't the only ones who want to make their own way in the world and other gangs are keen to get out from under the corporate thumb the same way they did. Plus there is always the constant corporate threat. That someday, some corp is going to come rolling back into Pacifica with their money and their bulldozers and an army of cyber'd out cops to back them up is an ever present fear in the minds of every gang that moves into Pacifica. That's why they're so territorial. They worked hard for this home and they don't want to give it up. They know they can only stay as long as the corps don't give a fuck about the rotting hellhole they've taken over so they use that to their advantage but that advantage is fleeting. Like everyone else in this shit hole of a world the Voodoo Kings know they will eventually lose to the system.
The system always wins.