News Digest: E3 News for Cyberpunk, Paranoia, and Baldur's Gate, Stargate RPG Announced, Free RPG Da

Jeffrey Robbins · Jun 13, 2019

Keanu Reeves is playing Johnny Silverhand, not Johnny Depp. You might want to edit that.

David Anderson · Jun 13, 2019

Great report Darryl. Thanks for the hard work so I don't have to go out and find all this on my own.

Rhianni32 · Jun 13, 2019

$50 for the wooden ship? No artwork. No coloring.
Seems way overpriced but yeah I know, to each their own and I'm happy this is out there for those that want it they can buy it. I would have thought the picture with the ladder and the details would be what you'd get for $50. Then again I suppose this may be why there are only 30 backers.

Abstruse · Jun 13, 2019

Jeffrey Robbins said:
Keanu Reeves is playing Johnny Silverhand, not Johnny Depp. You might want to edit that.

Ugh, this is what I get for writing the column at 1 AM. I just didn't want to get Baldur's Gate III'd again this week.

Abstruse · Jun 13, 2019

Rhianni32 said:
$50 for the wooden ship? No artwork. No coloring.
Seems way overpriced but yeah I know, to each their own and I'm happy this is out there for those that want it they can buy it. I would have thought the picture with the ladder and the details would be what you'd get for $50. Then again I suppose this may be why there are only 30 backers.

That's actually on-par with what you'd expect to pay for other to-scale models for tabletop gaming. There's only a handful on the market (not counting the massive $250 prepainted one from WizKids), and they're all about the same size, unpainted, and cost about $40-75.

So it's not expensive for what you get...but it is pricey for a miniature that you may get very limited use out of.

barasawa · Jun 16, 2019

It's almost funny that people are complaining about an advertisement seen in a cyberpunk setting.

Cyberpunk is pretty much a corporate dystopia. The world is screwed, and corporations are more powerful than governments. Their ads are barely regulated if at all, and they don't give a rodents donkey about anyones sensitivity unless they can make bank off of it.

Next thing you know, people will be complaining about a WW2 game because it has hitler killing jews.

I guess after that super heroes won't be fighting super villains but rather spend entire issues dispensing safety and politeness tips.

If bad guys don't do bad things, they aren't bad guys, now are they...

Gradine · Jun 17, 2019

barasawa said:
It's almost funny that people are complaining about an advertisement seen in a cyberpunk setting.

Cyberpunk is pretty much a corporate dystopia. The world is screwed, and corporations are more powerful than governments. Their ads are barely regulated if at all, and they don't give a rodents donkey about anyones sensitivity unless they can make bank off of it.

It's a matter of representation. If this is literally the only trans representation in the game, then even if the intention is satire it's completely pointless, because it's no different than any modern day fetishization of trans people (more neon lighting, though, I guess). They claim there is better representation in the game itself, but given their past track record in the build up to the game, I don't think it's that strange that folx are skeptical.

To say nothing of whether a soulless corporation infamous for crunch time worker exploitation is the best vehicle to be satirizing soulless corporations.

Or the extremely outdated and gross cyberpunk genre trope of "modifying your body destroys your human soul essence!" nonsense.

I'm probably still gonna play it, though, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

barasawa · Jun 18, 2019

Gradine said:
It's a matter of representation. If this is literally the only trans representation in the game, then even if the intention is satire it's completely pointless, because it's no different than any modern day fetishization of trans people (more neon lighting, though, I guess). They claim there is better representation in the game itself, but given their past track record in the build up to the game, I don't think it's that strange that folx are skeptical.

To say nothing of whether a soulless corporation infamous for crunch time worker exploitation is the best vehicle to be satirizing soulless corporations.

Or the extremely outdated and gross cyberpunk genre trope of "modifying your body destroys your human soul essence!" nonsense.

I'm probably still gonna play it, though, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Representation: We've seen almost nothing of the game, and that's just something in the background people are spazzing about.

People do this now: Ok, and it's disliked. But you aren't supposed to like the cyberpunk corps, so why would anyone expect them to be any different, they should be even worse at it if they think it'll get them and dosh at all. Real world expectations of play nice aren't going to exist in cyberpunk, and they shouldn't. Anyone upset by that is in a whole different fictional world. Not saying that at you, but it's directed at those complaining about bad guys in a fictional game doing bad things.

Past Track Record: Don't know, and I don't pin much in the way of expecting much out of producers for anything these days. But all I can recall is some poorly made comments, though I also feel the outrage about them were overblown far too much. But that's just my opinion, if that's the track record you were talking about.

Soulless Corporation: Well a soulless corporation would be better acquainted with soulless corporations activities I guess. To be honest, pretty much all game dev is awful in how they treat, abuse, and throw away the talent. If you aren't one of those very rare and unbelievably luck star programmers, you get treated pretty awful at most companies making games. As to satirizing soulless corporations, I don't think cyberpunk ever intended the corporations in the settings to be any kind of satire. Commentary on the evils of runaway corporate capitalism certainly, but not satire.

Modifying your body destroys your humanity: Like it or not, it's been one of the keystones of cyberpunk since it's inception. Cyberpsychosis is part and parcel with the setting.

You might play it: I intend to, but it's going to be a while since I have to get my desktop fixed first. This laptop is barely able to handle the web, it sure can't play any decent games. I hope it's good, but if you're worried (so am I), wait for the reviews from people you know have the same tastes as you.

As to those complaining about the things in the cyberpunk setting, they probably shouldn't play it. If they made it cyberpunk, it's a dirty, nasty, corporate dystopia where people are cheap and disposable, and cybernetics ubiquitous, both among the downtrodden masses and the ultrapowerful rich elites.
I'm lousy at describing things, and I don't think I really made the point clear on cyberpunk, but at least I tried. B-)

Gradine · Jun 18, 2019

Meh, I'm fairly new to both trans identity and trans discourse, so I can't speak too much to what has come out of CD Projekt Red prior, but I find it's good policy to take people at their words. On the other hand, I've always found it fruitful to be critical of media, even as I'm consuming (and even otherwise enjoying!) it.

I've always liked the concept of cyberpunk but there have also always been certain aspects of it that have weirdly turned me off to it (though I've got a pretty good idea why now!). That said, the concept of "cyberpsychosis" and body modification damaging your "human soul energy" or whatever is both (a) transphobic and ableist (no feel good stories about a little girl getting a new 3D printed arm here!) and (b) not actually necessary for good cyberpunk. When genre tropes get outdated they are generally left behind. Generally, anyway. I'm not actually that familiar with CDPR's The Witcher games but their approach to the women-as-reward trope has also always struck me as ~~traditionalist~~ backwards, so it might be asking too much for them to approach Cyberpunk with a little more care towards current discourse.

It's still important to ask anyway, though.