Information AboutCyberpunk |
|
Cyberpunk is a Science Fiction Genre noted for its focus on " High Tech and Low Life ". The name, derived from '' Cybernetics '' and '' Punk '', was originally developed as a marketing term and coined by Bruce Bethke in his short story “Cyberpunk” written in 1980, but popularized well before its publication by editor Gardner Dozois . It features advanced science such as Information Technology and cybernetics, coupled with a degree of breakdown or a radical change in the Social Order . According to Lawrence Person : "Classic cyberpunk characters were marginalized, alienated loners who lived on the edge of society in generally dystopic futures where daily life was impacted by rapid technological change, an ubiquitous datasphere of computerized information, and invasive modification of the human body. Cyberpunk plots often center on a conflict among Hacker s, Artificial Intelligence s, and Mega Corporations . They tend to be set in a near-future Earth , rather than the far future settings or galactic vistas found in novels like Isaac Asimov 's '' Foundation '' or Frank Herbert 's '' Dune ''. The settings are usually Post-industrial Dystopia s, but tend to be marked by extraordinary cultural ferment and the use of technology in ways never anticipated by its creators ("the street finds its own uses for things" Gibson, William from ''Burning Chrome'' published in 1981). Much of the genre's atmosphere echoes Film Noir , and written works in the genre often use techniques from Detective Fiction . Primary exponents of the cyberpunk field include William Gibson , Bruce Sterling , Pat Cadigan , Rudy Rucker and John Shirley . Postmodernist investigation of cyberpunk became a fashionable topic in Academic Circles , and the genre reached Hollywood to become one of cinema's staple science-fiction styles. Many influential films such as '' Blade Runner '', the ''Matrix'' Trilogy or the more recent adaptation of Philip K. Dick's '' A Scanner Darkly '' can be seen as prominent examples of the cyberpunk style and theme. Computer Game s, Board Games and Role-playing Game s (such as '' Shadowrun '' or '' Cyberpunk 2020 '') often feature storylines that are heavily influenced by cyberpunk writing and movies. Beginning in the early 1990s, some trends in Fashion and Music were also labeled as cyberpunk. As a wider variety of writers began to work with cyberpunk concepts, new-subgenres of science fiction emerged, playing off the cyberpunk label, and focusing on technology and its social effects in different ways. Examples include Steampunk (cyberpunk themes in the early Industrial Age ), pioneered by Tim Powers , K. W. Jeter , and James Blaylock , and Biopunk (cyberpunk themes dominated by Biotechnology , including Paul Di Filippo ’s half-serious Ribofunk ). In addition, some people consider works such as Neal Stephenson’s '' The Diamond Age '' to be Postcyberpunk . STYLE AND ETHOS series "'' Serial Experiments Lain ''".]] Setting Cyberpunk writers tend to use elements from the Hard-boiled Detective Novel , Film Noir , and Postmodernist prose to describe the often Nihilistic underground side of an electronic society. The genre's vision of a Troubled Future is often called the antithesis of the generally Utopia n visions of the future popular in the 1940s and 1950s. (Gibson defined cyberpunk's antipathy towards utopian SF in his 1981 Short Story '' The Gernsback Continuum '', which pokes fun of and, to a certain extent, condemns utopian SF.) In some cyberpunk writing, much of the action takes place Online , in Cyberspace , blurring the border between the actual and the Virtual Reality . A typical Trope in such work is a direct connection between the Human Brain and Computer System s. Cyberpunk depicts the world as a dark, sinister place with Networked computers which dominate every aspect of life. Giant, Multinational Corporation s have for the most part replaced governments as centers of political, economic and even military power. The Alienated outsider's battle against a Totalitarian or quasi-totalitarian system is a common theme in science fiction (cf. '' Nineteen Eighty-Four '') and cyberpunk in particular, though in conventional science fiction the totalitarian systems tend to be sterile, ordered, and state controlled. Cyberpunk author Bruce Sterling summarized the cyberpunk ethos in ''Cyberpunk in the Nineties'' as follows: "Anything that can be done to a rat can be done to a human being. And we can do most anything to rats. This is a hard thing to think about, but it's the truth. It won't go away because we cover our eyes. That is cyberpunk." Protagonists , Zorro , etc. They are often disenfranchised people placed in extraordinary situations, rather than brilliant scientists or starship captains intentionally seeking advance or adventure, and are not always true "heroes"; an apt comparison might be to the moral ambiguity of Clint Eastwood's character in the Man With No Name trilogy. One of the cyberpunk genre's prototype characters is Case, from Gibson's '' Neuromancer .'' Case is a "console cowboy," a brilliant hacker, who betrays his organized criminal partners. Robbed of his talent through a crippling injury inflicted by the vengeful partners, Case unexpectedly receives a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be healed by expert medical care, but only if he participates in another criminal enterprise with a new crew. Like Case, many cyberpunk protagonists are manipulated, placed in situations where they have little or no choice, and although they might see things through, they do not necessarily come out any further ahead than they previously were. These " Hero's Journey ", like the protagonist of a Homer ic Epic or an Alexandre Dumas, Père novel. Instead, they call to mind the Private Eye of Detective Novel s, who might solve the trickiest cases but never receives a just reward. This emphasis on the misfits and the malcontents (what Thomas Pynchon called the "preterite") is the "punk" component of cyberpunk. Society and government Cyberpunk literature is often used as a Metaphor for the present day-worries about the failings of corporations, Corruption in governments, alienation and Surveillance Technology . Cyberpunk can be intended to disquiet readers and call them to action. It often expresses a sense of rebellion, suggesting that one could describe it as a type of culture revolution in science fiction. In the words of author and critic David Brin , "… a closer look at authors reveals that they nearly always portray future societies in which governments have become wimpy and pathetic … Popular science fiction tales by Gibson, Williams, Cadigan and others Cyberpunk stories have also been seen as fictional forecasts of the evolution of the Internet . The Virtual World of what is now known as the Internet often appears under various names, including "cyberspace", "the Wired", "the Metaverse" or "the Matrix". In this context it is important to note that the earliest descriptions of a global communications network came long before the World Wide Web entered popular awareness, though not before traditional science fiction writers such as Arthur C. Clarke and some social commentators such as James Burke began predicting that such networks would eventually form.'' The Last Question '' - Clarke, Arthur C. ; Science Fiction Quarterly, 1956 Interesting questions about possible A.I. rights have been introduced using cyberpunk stories as a springboard. Uploads of human minds, such as the Dixie Flatline ('' Neuromancer '') and the Franklin Collective ('' Accelerando ''), as well as pure A.I.s such as 'Wintermute' (''Neuromancer'') or those depicted in '' A.I. '', consider themselves to have intelligence and self-awareness. This raises the question as to whether intelligence comparable to humans should give them comparable legal and moral standing. LITERATURE Overview The science fiction editor ; 1999 '' novels are the most famous early cyberpunk novels.]] William Gibson with his novel '' Neuromancer '' (1984) is likely the most famous writer connected with the term cyberpunk. He created a literary genre of the dark, urban sci-fi. He emphasized style, a fascination with surfaces and the "look and feel" of the future, and atmosphere over traditional science-fiction Trope s. Regarded as ground-breaking, and sometimes as "the archetypal cyberpunk work", ''Neuromancer'' was awarded the Hugo , Nebula , and Philip K. Dick Awards. After his popular decoct novel, '' Count Zero '' (1986) and '' Mona Lisa Overdrive '' (1988) followed, Gibson was then acknowledged as the father of cyberpunks. According to the Jargon File , "Gibson's near-total ignorance of computers and the present-day hacker culture enabled him to speculate about the role of computers and hackers in the future in ways hackers have since found both irritatingly naïve and tremendously stimulating." Jargon File definition ; see also "Cyberpunk" at the Jargon Wiki . Early on, cyberpunk was hailed as a radical departure from science-fiction standards and a new manifestation of vitality. Brians, Paul. “Study Guide for William Gibson: Neuromancer (1984)” Washington State University, {Link without Title} Shortly thereafter, however, many critics arose to challenge its status as a revolutionary movement. These critics said that the SF "'' is based on one of his books. Humans linked to machines are found in Pohl and Kornbluth's '' Wolfbane '' (1959) and Roger Zelazny 's '' Creatures Of Light And Darkness '' (1968). In 1994, scholar Brian Stonehill suggested that , England, November 1994. Other important predecessors include Alfred Bester's two most celebrated novels, '' The Demolished Man '' and '' The Stars My Destination ,'' as well as Vernor Vinge 's novella '' True Names ''. Science-fiction writer and to the visual arts generally. Although the "self-important rhetoric and whines of persecution" on the part of cyberpunk fans were irritating at worst and humorous at best, Brin declares that the "rebels did shake things up. We owe them a debt." David Brin , Review of ''The Matrix'' . Cyberpunk further inspired many professional writers who were not among the "original" cyberpunks to incorporate cyberpunk ideas into their own works, such as Walter Jon Williams' Hardwired and Voice Of The Whirlwind , and George Alec Effinger 's When Gravity Fails . These types of writings do not only form into the work of a book, but cyberpunk knowledge is also leaking into the pages of our magazines. Wired magazine, created by Louis Rossetto and Jane Metcalfe, mixes new technology, art, literature, and today’s important topics. It is meant to strike the interest of today’s cyberpunks and has been flying off the newsstands, “Which proves that hardcore hackers, multimedia junkies, cyberpunks and cellular freaks are poised to take over the world.”Yoo, Paula. “CYBERPUNK - IN PRINT -- HACKER GENERATION GETS PLUGGED INTO NEW MAGAZINE” Seattle Times. Seattle, Wash.: Feb 18, 1993. pg. G.3 As new writers and artists began to experiment with cyberpunk ideas, new varieties of fiction emerged, sometimes addressing the criticisms leveled at the original cyberpunk stories. Lawrence Person writes, in an essay he posted to the Internet forum Slashdot , "Many writers who grew up reading in the 1980s are just now starting to have their stories and novels published. To them cyberpunk was not a revolution or alien philosophy invading SF, but rather just another flavor of SF. Like the writers of the 1970s and 80s who assimilated the New Wave's classics and stylistic techniques without necessarily knowing or even caring about the manifestos and ideologies that birthed them, today's new writers might very well have read Person's essay advocates using the term " Postcyberpunk " to label the new works such writers produce. In this view, typical postcyberpunk stories continue the focus on a ubiquitous datasphere of computerized information and cybernetic augmentation of the human body, but without the assumption of Dystopia . Good examples are Neal Stephenson 's '' The Diamond Age '' or Charles Stross 's '' Accelerando .'' Like all categories discerned within science fiction, the boundaries of postcyberpunk are likely to be fluid or ill-defined. To complicate matters, there is a continuing market for "pure" cyberpunk novels strongly influenced by Gibson's early work, such as Richard Morgan's Altered Carbon . Subgenres and connected genres See also: List Of Precursors To Cyberpunk and List Of Cyberpunk Print Media As a wider variety of writers began to work with cyberpunk concepts, new sub-genres of science fiction emerged, playing off the cyberpunk label, and focusing on technology and its social effects in different ways. A prominent subgenre is Steampunk (cyberpunk themes in the early Industrial Age ), which is set in an Alternative History Victorian Era that combines anachronistic techonology with cyberpunk's bleak Film Noir world view. The term was originally coined around 1987 as a joke to describe some of the novels of Tim Powers , James P. Blaylock , and K.W. Jeter , but by the time Gibson and Sterling entered the subgenre with their collaborative novel '' The Difference Engine '' the term was being used earnestly as well.Michael Berry, "Wacko Victorian Fantasy Follows 'Cyberpunk' Mold," '' The San Francisco Chronicle ,'' 25 June, 1987; quoted online by Wordspy . Another subgenre is Biopunk (cyberpunk themes dominated by Biotechnology ) from the early 1990s, a derivative style building on biotechnology rather than informational technology. In these stories, people are changed in some way not by mechanical means, but by Genetic Manipulation of their very chromosomes. Paul Di Filippo is seen as the most prominent biopunk writer, including his half-serious Ribofunk . Bruce Sterling 's Shaper/Mechanist cycle is also seen as a major influence. In addition, some people consider works such as Neal Stephenson 's '' The Diamond Age '' to be Postcyberpunk . FILM AND TELEVISION See also: List Of Films Borrowing Cyberpunk Elements , List Of Cyberpunk Films , List Of Cyberpunk Documentary Films , and List Of Cyberpunk Television Series The film '' Blade Runner '' (1982), adapted from Philip K. Dick's '' Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? '', is set in 2019 in a dystopian future in which manufactured beings called Replicant s are slaves used on space colonies and are legal prey on Earth to various bounty hunters who "retire" (kill) them. Although ''Blade Runner'' was not successful in its first theatrical release, it found a wide viewership in the home video market. Since the movie omits the religious and mythical elements of Dick's original novel (''e.g.,'' empathy boxes and Wilbur Mercer), it falls more strictly within the cyberpunk genre than the novel does. William Gibson would later reveal that upon first viewing the film, he was surprised at how the look of this film matched his vision when he was working on '' Neuromancer ''. The police station of Blade Runner is the perfect copy (angle of sight included) of one of the gothic skyscrapers of Fritz Lang 's '' Metropolis '', the earliest cyberpunk reference. The short-lived television series '' Max Headroom '' also spread cyberpunk tropes, perhaps with more popular success than the genre's first written works. The number of films in the genre or at least using a few genre elements has grown steadily since ''Blade Runner.'' Several of Philip K. Dick's works have been adapted to the silver screen, with cyberpunk elements typically becoming dominant; examples include '' Screamers '' (1996), '' Minority Report '' (2002), '' Paycheck '' (2003) and '' A Scanner Darkly '' (2006). But unfortunately for cyberpunk's arguable originator, the films '' Johnny Mnemonic '' (1995) and '' New Rose Hotel '' (1998) were both flops, commercially and critically. Director Darren Aronofsky set his debut feature '' π '' (1998) in a present-day New York City , but built its script with influences from cyberpunk aesthetic. According to the DVD commentary, he and his production team deliberately used antiquated machines (like 5-1/4 inch Floppy Disk s), echoing the technological style of '' Brazil '' (1985), to create a cyberpunk "feel". Aronofsky describes Chinatown , where the film is set, as "New York's last cyberpunk neighborhood". The '' RoboCop '' series has a more near-futuristic setting where at least one Corporation , Omni Consumer Products, is an all-powerful presence in the city of Detroit . '' Until The End Of The World '' (1991) shows another example where cyberpunk provides an assumed background, and a plot device, to an otherwise mood and character-driven story. '' Gattaca '' (1997) directed by Andrew Niccol is a futuristic ''film noir'' whose mood-drenched dystopia provides a good example of Biopunk . The ''Matrix'' Series , which began with 1999's '' The Matrix '' (and now also contains '' The Matrix Reloaded '', '' The Matrix Revolutions '', and '' The Animatrix '') uses a wide variety of cyberpunk elements. Also worth mentioning is 1995's '' Strange Days ''. Set on New Year's Eve 1999, it features many key elements of the cyberpunk genre, both technological and social. ANIME AND MANGA See also: List Of Cyberpunk Anime Works Cyberpunk has been used widely in Anime (animation) and Manga (comics). In Japan , where “ Cosplay ” is popular and not only teenagers display such fashion styles, cyberpunk has been accepted and its influence is widespread. William Gibson ’s '' Neuromancer '', whose influence dominated the early cyberpunk movement, was also set in Chiba , one of Japan’s largest industrial areas, although at the time of writing the novel Gibson did not know the location of Chiba and had no idea how perfectly it fit his vision in some ways. The exposure to cyberpunk ideas and fiction in the time mid 1980s has allowed it to seep into the Japanese culture. Even though most anime and manga is written in Japan, the cyberpunk anime and manga have a more futuristic and therefore international feel to them so they are widely accepted by all. “The conceptualization involved in cyberpunk is more of forging ahead, looking at the new global culture. It is a culture that does not exist right now, so the Japanese concept of a cyberpunk future, seems just as valid as a Western one, especially as Western cyberpunk often incorporates many Japanese elements.”Ruh, Brian (2000), " Liberating Cels: Forms of the Female in Japanese Cyberpunk Animation ". AnimeResearch.com December 2000. William Gibson is now a frequent visitor to Japan, and he came to see that many of his visions of Japan have become a reality: "Modern Japan simply was cyberpunk. The Japanese themselves knew it and delighted in it. I remember my first glimpse of Shibuya , when one of the young Tokyo journalists who had taken me there, his face drenched with the light of a thousand media-suns — all that towering, animated crawl of commercial information — said, 'You see? You see? It is Mamoru Oshii ’s '' Ghost In The Shell '' is an excellent example of cyberpunk Anime (which was in turn based on Masamune Shirow 's Manga ) ,as is Katsuhiro Otomo 's '' Akira '', based on his manga, and are both the sources of the ideas for '' The Matrix Series '' by the Wachowski Brothers , particularly Ghost In The Shell , but an Akira influence can also definitely be seen in the Matrix films.Ruh, Brian (2003), " The Animatrix and Anime's Burgeoning Influence ". PopMatters.com June 26, 2003. The story takes place in the future where we are entirely dependent on Cyborg s and “illustrates the fluid nature of crime, espionage and geopolitical skullduggery in a world where human personality, vast data networks, and cybernetic technology have essentially fused into a single social matrix.”Anonymous “Ghost in the Shell” 12-06-2004 Publishers Weekly ''Ghost in the Shell'' asks the question whether or not a trace of humanity can remain in a cyborg and the vast span of the Net. Another anime of note is Texhnolyze . Texhnolyze takes place in an underground city called Lux which is aggressively controlled by three rival gangs, all who are "texhnolyzed" (a scientific procedure in which a person's limbs are replaced with artificial limbs) . Although this series may not be as cyberpunk as Ghost in the Shell, it does have most of the hallmarks of a cyberpunk work; a hard-boiled dystopia, human evolution through science and it's consequences and ruminations on humanity's will to survive. Cyberpunk has influenced many anime and manga including '' Appleseed '', where the focus is on the urban cyberpunk conflict in a post World War III environment. '' Akira '' would be a representation of Armageddon. In director Rintaro 's movie'' Metropolis '' which was rewritten by anime legend Katsuhiro Otomo from the original comic by Osamu Tezuka the main plot concentrates on a “Puppet Master” for the cyborgs, just like the hunt for one in ''Ghost in the Shell''. Anime has also provided examples of the " Steampunk " sub-genre, particularly in much of the work of Hayao Miyazaki , but also notably in '' Last Exile '' (2003), created by studio GONZO and director Koichi Chigira , which features a curious blend of Victorian society and futuristic battles between ships of the sky. Also of note is 2004's '' Steamboy '' directed by Katsuhiro Otomo . Here Otomo focuses on a nuclear holocaust and the arms race and how a cyborg is less human and more machine. '' Sakura Taisen '', originally a video game released in 1996 by SEGA , features mecha and turn of the century technology literally powered by steam, set in an alternate reality 1920s Japan. Another series with both steampunk and biopunk elements in its script is '' Ergo Proxy '', released in 2006 by Manglobe. MUSIC See also: List Of Cyberpunk Bands The term "cyberpunk music" can refer to two rather overlapping categories. First, it may denote the varied range of musical works which cyberpunk films use as soundtrack material. These works occur in genres from Classical Music and Jazz — used, in Blade Runner and elsewhere, to evoke a ''film noir'' ambience — to " Noize " and Electronica . Electronica, Electronic Body Music , Industrial , Noise , Futurepop , Alternative Rock , Goth Rock , and IDM are at times associated with the Cyberpunk genre.That kind of music more than often produces powerful club hits ranked highly at numerous national alternative charts like the Deutsche (German) Alternative Charts or the Hellenic Alternative Charts . The same principles apply to computer and video games; see the discussion of '' Rez '' below. Of course, while written works may not come with associated soundtracks as frequently as movies do, allusions to musical works are used for the same effect. For example, the graphic novel '' Kling Klang Klatch '' (1992), a dark fantasy about a world of living toys, features a hard-bitten Teddy Bear detective with a sugar habit and a predilection for Jazz . "Cyberpunk music" also describes the works associated with the fashion trend which emerged from the SF developments. The Detroit Techno group Cybotron , which arose in the early 1980s, drew influences both from European synthesizer pioneers Kraftwerk and from Toffler's '' Future Shock ,'' producing songs which evoke a distinctly dystopian mood. In the same era, Styx released the concept album '' Kilroy Was Here '' (1983), the story of a rock star living in a dark future where music has been outlawed. ''Kilroy'' and in particular its hit single "Mr. Roboto" may easily be "appropriated" into the cyberpunk genre, whether or not the term was applied at the time. However, starting around the year 1990, Popular Culture began to include a movement in both music and fashion which called itself "cyberpunk", and which became particularly associated with the Rave and Techno subcultures. Cyberpunk artists used technology in their music just because they could; it was “the wizardry of the hacker meets the alienation of the punk.”Cobb, Nathan. “CYBERPUNK: TERMINAL CHIC Technology is moving out of computers and into the culture” The Boston Globe, 11-24-1992 A good example of a cyberpunk would be Lisa Sirois: By day she is a free-lance graphic designer who hunkers down over a computer keyboard. By night, she simply switches terminals to help make the aggressive, dissonant, computer-generated music of D.D.T., a local band. She talks warmly of the computer hacker/cracker mantra that information should not be proprietary. And she speaks the musical language of Apple rather than Fender. ''"We're no longer playing instruments, we're programming,"'' she explains. "''We sequence the music on a computer, store it on a hard disc, and then record it onto digital audio tape. Then, when we perform, we supplement it with live drums and keyboards. We're `live' and on tape. We play on an electronic stage." ''Cobb, Nathan. “CYBERPUNK: TERMINAL CHIC Technology is moving out of computers and into the culture” The Boston Globe, 11-24-1992 With the new millennium came a new movement of industrial bands making "laptop" music. Homeless traveling squatter punks armed themselves with digital equipment and fused technology into their street sounds- El-wire And The Vagabond Choir . The Hacker subculture, documented in places like the Jargon File , regards this movement with mixed feelings, since self-proclaimed cyberpunks are often "trendoids" with affection for black leather and chrome who speak enthusiastically about technology instead of learning about it or becoming involved with it. ("Attitude is no substitute for competence," quips the File.) However, these self-proclaimed cyberpunks are at least "excited about the right things" and typically respect the people who actually work with it — those with "the hacker nature". Arriving toward the tail end of both the initial cyberpunk boom and his own career, pop singer Billy Idol released an album called '' Cyberpunk '', which included a song called "Neuromancer." The album contained a floppy disc on which “compactly combines full lyrics, a biography, wild graphics, snippets of sound from the CD and a bibliography for compuphiles to learn more about computer subculture.”Saunders, Michael. “Billy Idol turns `Cyberpunk' on new CD” The Boston Globe 05-19-1993 The album was neither a critical nor commercial success. A current band that claims to “emit the kind of sound William Gibson must have heard in his head in the 1980s when he invented the cyberpunk novel,” is Aerodrone . They are a neo-retro dancepunk band from Eugene, Oregon. The band’s use of synths, heavy beats, guitar riffs could all “fit right in with the pre-Windows world of hard-core hacking in "Neuromancer."Bowers, Tom. “FOR THE LOVE OF CYBERDANCE” Spokane Spokesman Review, 12-15-2006 Popular Japanese DJ Ken Ishii supports the cyberpunk rebel image. His techno music is experimental and yet danceable; “Ishii's brand of sound — a mix of hard-driving dance beats and weird synthetic noises — invokes postapocalyptic visions of Tokyo straight out of cyberpunk fantasies like Akira, Neuromancer and Blade Runner. The award-winning manga-style video that accompanied his 1995 single EXTRA cemented his radical underground image in the West.”Kawashima, Ken. “The Beat Goes On Coming soon to a club near you: Japanese techno rebel Ken Ishii” Tokyo Time International, 12-17-2001 Ken Ishii used the anime video to back up his claim as a rebel. FASHION In cyberwear, function comes after Fashion ; the belief of many cyberpunks is that a real cyberpunk should be chromed out, with clothes and equipment that not only can actually perform, but also enhance you. The Cyberpunk Project "Cyberfashion" The Cyberpunk Project says that “To be able to talk the talk on the streets, look the part and be able to take them out when you need to be the ultimate goal for any cyberpunk.” This means cyberfashion consists of plugs, neural processors, reflex boosts, shine and bling that you can’t buy in any regular clothing store. One girl may be wearing a “cyberarm,” and another “chromed cyberoptics.” It seems that as long as your clothes are functional, dark and looking slick, you are then dressed in cyberpunk fashion. Cyberpunk fashion is a modern fashion movement, seen mostly in Underground nightclubs. It combines aspects of Industrial Fashion , Gothic Fashion , and BDSM Fashion with post modern computer components, such as wiring electronics. Hair is usually wire-like and stacked upward. Some goths have come to calling cyberpunks 'pineapple-heads', because of this unusual hairstyle. In the United Kingdom this is better known as cybergoth, and is tied into the EBM side of the Goth scene. Cyberdog, a clothing shop in Camden Market, London, is probably the best-known exponent of this look in the region. Cyberprep fashion is a derogatory term used to refer to yuppie trends that reflect the flip side of cyberpunk fashion. Cyberpunk fashion GAMES Roleplaying Several '' and ''Cyberpunk v3'' (aka Cyberpunk 203X), by R. Talsorian Games , and '' GURPS Cyberpunk '', published by Steve Jackson Games as a module of the GURPS family of RPGs. ''Cyberpunk 2020'' was designed with the settings of William Gibson 's writings in mind, and to some extent with his approval, unlike the approach taken by FASA in producing the transgenre '' Shadowrun '' game (see below). Both are set in the near future, in a world where Cybernetics are prominent. In addition, Iron Crown Enterprises released an RPG named '' Cyberspace '', which was out of print for several years until recently being rereleased in online PDF form. In 1990, in an odd convergence of cyberpunk art and reality, the , Steve Jackson Games website, Friday 19 April 1990 Steve Jackson Games later won a lawsuit against the Secret Service, aided by the freshly minted Electronic Frontier Foundation . This event has achieved a sort of notoriety, which has extended to the book itself as well. All published editions of ''GURPS Cyberpunk'' have a tagline on the front cover, which reads "The book that was seized by the U.S. Secret Service!" Inside, the book provides a summary of the raid and its aftermath. 2004 brought the publication of a number of new cyberpunk RPGs, chief among which was '' Ex Machina ,'' a more cinematic game including four complete settings and a focus on updating the gaming side of the genre to current themes among cyberpunk fiction. These tropes include a stronger political angle, conveying the alienation of the genre and even incorporating some Transhuman themes. 2006 saw the long-awaited publication of R. Talsorian's ''Cyberpunk v3'', the followup to ''Cyberpunk 2020'', although many see the new edition as more Transhumanist or Postcyberpunk than truly Cyberpunk. 2006 also saw James Norbury's ''Corporation'' published, taking an unusual viewpoint in that rather than having players take on the traditional cyberpunk role of the lone anarchist fighting an oppressive social order they instead take the role of agents for one of the five great megacorporations of the world. Taking inspiration from videogames such as ''Syndicate'' and '' Deus Ex '', ''Corporation'' includes themes of Transhumanism , particularly Cybernetic and Biopunk elements - agents are universally exceptional individuals who's capabilities are pushed far beyond the human by cybernetic and genetic enhancements. '' Shadowrun '' combines aspects of cyberpunk and Fantasy .]] Role-playing has also produced one of the more original takes on the genre in the form of the 1989 game '' Shadowrun ''. Here, the setting is still that of the dystopian near future; however, it also incorporates heavy elements of Fantasy , such as magic, spirits, elves, and dragons. ''Shadowrun'' The trans-genre RPG '' Torg '' (published by West End Games ) also included a variant cyberpunk setting (or "cosm") called the ''Cyberpapacy''. This setting was originally a medieval religious dystopia which underwent a sudden ''Tech Surge''. Instead of corporations or corrupt governments, the Cyberpapacy was dominated by the " False Papacy Of Avignon ". Instead of an Internet , hackers roamed the " GodNet ", a computer network rife with overtly religious symbolism, home to Angel s, Demon s, and other Biblical figures. Another "cosm" setting that was part of the ''Torg'' gameworld was ''Nippon Tech'', which incorporated other aspects of cyberpunk, such as dominant corporations with professional Assassins . It did not, however, deal with computer networks as a major part of the setting. Computer games Computer Games have frequently used cyberpunk as a source of inspiration. Some of them, like '' Blade Runner '' and '' The Matrix '' games, are based upon genre movies, while many others like '' Deus Ex '', '' System Shock '', '' Fear Effect '', '' Syndicate '', '' Snatcher '', '' Policenauts '' and the ''Metal Gear'' Series are original works. Cyberpunk has also been used in computer adventure games, most notably the now freeware '' are also a cyberpunk games. Tabletop games Cyberpunk has also inspired several Tabletop , Miniature and Board Game s. Most notably Games Workshop ’s game '' Necromunda '' which is a branch of their '' Warhammer 40k '' line of games. However there are several other examples, such as '' Dark Future '' and '' Etherscope '', while '' Warmachine '' is a miniature game that incorporates some elements of Steampunk . These games allow artists to not only work out new story lines for their cyberpunk universes but also to give their audiences a chance to design and designate groups of cyberpunk warriors. '' Netrunner '' is a collectible card game introduced in 1996, based on the '' Cyberpunk 2020 '' role-playing game; it launched with a popular online alternate reality game called '' Webrunner '', which let players hack into an evil futuristic corporation's mainframe. SEE ALSO REFERENCES |
|
|