It doesn’t matter which side of the ideological divide you stand on, as the idea of power being shared between the haves and the have-nots is an idea that is as old as time itself. Ugnar had the best sticks and muscles with which to clobber his fellow Neanderthals with during the dawn of Homo Stupidus, Rome used pure manpower to create an empire across the globe and the industrialists forged a new dynasty in the age of iron and steam.
These days? Money talks. It’s not governments that run the world, but rather corporations. From Nestle literally copying the plot of the worst James Bond movie ever as they cement their control over one of the largest aquifers of purified water in South America to Disney’s ever-growing accumulation of all pop culture, corporations will run the world in the near future. More than usual anyway.
That’s an idea that’s prevalent in CD Projekt Red’s Cyberpunk 2077, as that eye towards the future is kind of a political statement. “Cyberpunk 2077 is a game about people with power at the top and people at the bottom with none”, CD Projekt Red quest designer Patrick Mills said to Official Xbox Magazine via PC Gamer.
That power can come from money, hierarchies, technology and violence. The original Cyberpunk 2020 setting, like the setting of The Witcher stories, was a complex critique of the author’s world, and we don’t shy away from that in our games. On the contrary I think it’s one of the things that sets us apart. Cyberpunk is an inherently political genre and it’s an inherently political franchise.
Also mentioned? Cyberpunk 2077’s decision to go first-person into that corporate intrigue:
There’s a lot of things we get from first person, and part of it is being closer to the character and to feel like you’re inhabiting that character. But at the same time I would also say this: go play a third-person game, go play The Witcher 3, and look up. Just try to look straight up. You’ll find that the [immersion] never truly works. It never feels like you are looking up. It feels like you’re moving a camera around.
I for one, welcome our new corporate overlords. I’d just like to remind them, that as a trusted website personality I can be helpful in rounding up others, to toil away in the Cadbury sugar caves.
Last Updated: July 30, 2018
