Honestly, while this Bazinga Brain take is fucking rancid, Cyberpunk 2077 is awful at portraying capitalism. The reason you can even have a take like this is because instead of showing the mundane horror that is late stage capitalism and all it brings, it over exaggerates it into this bonkers, ridiculously over the top parody that G*mers can point to and go "Ha glad we'll never be like that".
Of course if you tried to actually portray capitalism the G*mers would tell you it's political so fuck it.
it over exaggerates it into this bonkers, ridiculously over the top parody
I'd say it's more mask off than over the top. The capitalism it portrays fundamentally is just normal capitalism without any of the pretenses: it strips away the niceties of the imperial core and dials up the fascist death cult shit to the point where violence is a constant facet of life, but all the corruption and brutality that maintain capitalist hegemony are just done out in the open instead of behind closed doors or off in the periphery, far from the doorsteps of the people giving the orders.
Its failing is that it doesn't offer any sort of coherent critique. Satire can't just accurately and honestly portray something that's bad and leave it at that unless it's being made exclusively for an audience that already understands the subject, it has to contain its own refutation of its target. Cyberpunk 2077 includes a lot of shallow critiques of capitalism, but it fails to bring that together and present anything other than individualist solutions about minimizing the harm it does to oneself or a select few people one cares about. The closest it comes are some of Johnny's rants, but that always circles back to his own hyper-individualist adventurist bullshit and personal grudges, de-fanging everything that he is right about. Not to mention all the times where he's just objectively wrong, like his praise for Joshua's plan to be crucified as if that's not just more corporate death cult bullshit.
The capitalism it portrays fundamentally is just normal capitalism without any of the pretenses: it strips away the niceties of the imperial core and dials up the fascist death cult shit to the point where violence is a constant facet of life, but all the corruption and brutality that maintain capitalist hegemony are just done out in the open instead of behind closed doors or off in the periphery, far from the doorsteps of the people giving the orders.
I think it's this bit that loses me with their attempt at critique. Like part of capitalism's horror is the mask, trying to keep things as livable as possible for as long as possible, trying to sell you on the positives. Like yeah, you know the slop you're eating is corn syrup and microplastics, but you get sold on warm advertising and nostalgic brands, whereas in Cyberpunk 2077 they throw it all out and just go "Yeah you're eating a bar of microplastics, what of it, piggie?" It kinda adds deniability to it for G*mers to go "Well see it's not actually capitalism because capitalism isn't that bad" even though it fundamentally is the same.
Then again G*mers can't understand subtlety so fair enough.
I think consumers in general can't understand subtlety. That's why I strongly advocate that anyone with a point to make should make it as hamfisted and on the nose as possible, just straight up beat the viewer the viewer over and about the head with the point to the point of directly telling it to them. That's not to say that all art has to do that, but that if one wants to convey a message with it it should be as clear and direct as possible.
I think it's a fundamental problem with trying to create a dystopia with an interesting aesthetic. At best people ignore the dystopian critiques in favor of just soaking in the atmosphere, and at worst people wish for it to happen because of the aesthetic.
Cyberpunk and Warhammer 40k are examples that immediately spring to mind.
Making a 'realistic' cyberpunk game with capital as a central critique is honestly kind of a hard sell. It's too close to home, and all your adventures are about making rent, which you already do in real life. Might be easier as a computer game
I could imagine a small indie game like Papers Please in a cyberpunk setting where the goal is to make rent. I understand that Cruetly Squad is about a gig economy hitman, which is also pretty close.
Honestly, while this Bazinga Brain take is fucking rancid, Cyberpunk 2077 is awful at portraying capitalism. The reason you can even have a take like this is because instead of showing the mundane horror that is late stage capitalism and all it brings, it over exaggerates it into this bonkers, ridiculously over the top parody that G*mers can point to and go "Ha glad we'll never be like that".
Of course if you tried to actually portray capitalism the G*mers would tell you it's political so fuck it.
I'd say it's more mask off than over the top. The capitalism it portrays fundamentally is just normal capitalism without any of the pretenses: it strips away the niceties of the imperial core and dials up the fascist death cult shit to the point where violence is a constant facet of life, but all the corruption and brutality that maintain capitalist hegemony are just done out in the open instead of behind closed doors or off in the periphery, far from the doorsteps of the people giving the orders.
Its failing is that it doesn't offer any sort of coherent critique. Satire can't just accurately and honestly portray something that's bad and leave it at that unless it's being made exclusively for an audience that already understands the subject, it has to contain its own refutation of its target. Cyberpunk 2077 includes a lot of shallow critiques of capitalism, but it fails to bring that together and present anything other than individualist solutions about minimizing the harm it does to oneself or a select few people one cares about. The closest it comes are some of Johnny's rants, but that always circles back to his own hyper-individualist adventurist bullshit and personal grudges, de-fanging everything that he is right about. Not to mention all the times where he's just objectively wrong, like his praise for Joshua's plan to be crucified as if that's not just more corporate death cult bullshit.
I think it's this bit that loses me with their attempt at critique. Like part of capitalism's horror is the mask, trying to keep things as livable as possible for as long as possible, trying to sell you on the positives. Like yeah, you know the slop you're eating is corn syrup and microplastics, but you get sold on warm advertising and nostalgic brands, whereas in Cyberpunk 2077 they throw it all out and just go "Yeah you're eating a bar of microplastics, what of it, piggie?" It kinda adds deniability to it for G*mers to go "Well see it's not actually capitalism because capitalism isn't that bad" even though it fundamentally is the same.
Then again G*mers can't understand subtlety so fair enough.
I think consumers in general can't understand subtlety. That's why I strongly advocate that anyone with a point to make should make it as hamfisted and on the nose as possible, just straight up beat the viewer the viewer over and about the head with the point to the point of directly telling it to them. That's not to say that all art has to do that, but that if one wants to convey a message with it it should be as clear and direct as possible.
I think it's a fundamental problem with trying to create a dystopia with an interesting aesthetic. At best people ignore the dystopian critiques in favor of just soaking in the atmosphere, and at worst people wish for it to happen because of the aesthetic.
Cyberpunk and Warhammer 40k are examples that immediately spring to mind.
Making a 'realistic' cyberpunk game with capital as a central critique is honestly kind of a hard sell. It's too close to home, and all your adventures are about making rent, which you already do in real life. Might be easier as a computer game
I could imagine a small indie game like Papers Please in a cyberpunk setting where the goal is to make rent. I understand that Cruetly Squad is about a gig economy hitman, which is also pretty close.
Making a rent mod for cyberpunk 2077 that only ends if you kill your landlord and break the line of inheritance
Citizen Sleeper is more or less this. One of the main mechanics is scrounging money for medicine so your robot body doesn't fall apart. It's great!
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The legend plot motivation was so banal to me.
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