Monthly Archives: July 2017

Cyberpunk 2077 remains one of the most highly anticipated RPGs, between the developers pedigree and the Cyberpunk setting.

Mike Pondsmith, the creator of the tabletop roleplaying game in 1988 and a consultant on the game, appeared today in a video interview with GameReactor. While the legendary writer and game designer remained fairly tight-lipped (otherwise there are tall Polish people waiting to kill me), he did provide some new details.

His tabletop features unconventional classes like journalist, rockstar, executive, and others. The interviewer asked whether those will actually be in Cyberpunk 2077 and Mike Pondsmith replied positively.

Yes, you can. Theyre all going to be there, but I can tell youre going to find some surprises about how weve done it and I think youre really going to like it. Theres a lot of subtlety going on there. Adam (Kiciski, CD Projekt REDs President and co-CEO) and I spent literally like a whole week messing with the ways of implementing that, so you get the most feel for your character.

In case youre wondering, the classes (actually called roles) in the Cyberpunk tabletop RPG are nine:Cop, Corporate, Fixer, Media, Netrunner, Nomad, Rockerboy, Solo, Techie, and Med-Tech.

Will CD Projekt RED deliver them all in the final game? Its hard to say. Cyberpunk 2077 feels like its been in development forever, given that it was announced in May 2012, though the Polish studio only focused on it once The Witcher III: Wild Hunt was completed. There are reportedly more developers working on Cyberpunk 2077 now than there ever were on The Witcher III, though, which provides some hope that we wont be waiting too long to get a full reveal.

Meanwhile, Mike Pondsmith said that the project is shaping up exactly like he wanted to.

The vision is really pretty close to what I had in my head years ago. When did the CGI trailer, I looked at it and said, Oh my God, thats like perfect. And there were all these little touches from Cyberpunk in the background, because theyre fans. I said to me, They really did it! Thats awesome. So, the feeling has stayed the same and weve also been continually developing it to keep that feeling.

The game will also have multiplayer features. Whether that means drop in/drop out cooperative multiplayer, competitive multiplayer or maybe even an MMO-like game world is anyones guess at this point. Stay tuned on Wccftech for all the latest rumors and official updates on Cyberpunk 2077.

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Cyberpunk 2077 Will Have Journalist/Executive Classes, Mike ... - Wccftech

(Last Updated On: July 13, 2017)

The creator of the Cyberpunk tabletop game franchise, Mike Pondsmith, has taken up an interview with another publication site to detail what its like to take Cyberpunk the board-game and turn it into the upcoming video game currently in development at CD Projekt Red.

According to the interview between Mike Pondsmith and publication site Rock, Paper, Shotgun, information on the progress of the game as well as Pondsmiths role in helping the development of Cyberpunk 2077 comes to light.

In an attempt to keep the whole thing short and readable, Pondsmith is said to be a key collaborator over the last four years of CD Projekt Reds involvement in the Cyberpunk 2077 game. Pondsmith shared that he feels he has been very important to the development process, and that his explanations surrounding the propertys world have been useful for the team:

At the beginning of the project, I talked to them a lot, every week. For a long time they didnt realise Id worked in digital, but Ive been doing pen and paper for 20 years and digital for fifteen. When I was explaining Cyberpunk to them, I was explaining the mechanics in a way that they understood and that helped them to realise I could contribute more to the actual design.

Although there are no videos showing any gameplay or in-game footage as of this moment, it is said that Pondsmith is trying to keep things level-headed along with CDPR so that the game can portray everything necessary at launch. Additionally, he explains how the team at CDPR is approaching putting content in the game that reflects features from the pen and paper version that will work in the 3D version of the tabletop game:

A lot of the conversations weve had on the team are not can we do this? We can do just about anything. Instead, its me explainingwhy I did it in pen and paper, and then we figure out if we need it again, and whether it serves a different purpose in a video game. I know why flying cars are there in the original but thats not necessarily the same functionality in 2077. Everything is taken apart in terms of what it does to the game, how it differs from tabletop, and getting the right feel.

In other words, both Pondsmith and CDPR know that they can put anything into Cyberpunk 2077, but instead of just throwing content into the game to make it cool, they instead are going through content and weighing what works in the pen and paper version and what will work in the 3D version. If each piece of content serves a purpose and propels the video game to becoming that much better, I can only hope that the content is well optimized and not a glitchfest.

Cyberpunk 2077 is in development as we speak, and although the game is slated to be for PC and the latest consoles, it will be ready when it is ready. Lastly, you can read the full interview between Mike Pondsmith and the publication site over on Rock, Paper, Shotgun.

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Mike Pondsmith Talks Creating Cyberpunk 2077 With CD Projekt Red - One Angry Gamer (blog)

The last few days have seen massive online demonstrations in favor of net neutrality, the principle that internet service providers should treat all online traffic equally. But they've also sparked a bit of an existential crisis over on r/cyberpunk, the subreddit dedicated to the drizzly, grimy, neon-drenched genre dominated by technology and pioneered by books like William Gibson's Neuromancer and Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash.

"You know, I feel like /r/cyberpunk should take a stand towards net neutrality," user MxP1nk wrote in a July 12 post, pointing out the subreddit's relative silence on the issue on a day when Reddit, alongside hundreds of the internet's most popular websites and millions of users, took a stand against the Trump Administration's plans to dismantle federal rules safeguarding net neutrality.

"The current situation with the FCC looking to repeal net neutrality should be talked about more, especially on a community like this where the internet and communication play such a big role," the user went on.

This sparked a lengthy and ongoing debate within the subreddit, which boasts nearly 140,000 subscribers. Is net neutrality a cyberpunk issue? And if so, what can be done about it?

Many responders to MxP1nk's post highlighted that, by nature of its very name, the cyberpunk community ought to fight against any plans to abolish net neutrality.

"Cyberpunk is more than neon lights, rainy streets and cybernetics, or the Punk part of it is supposed to be anyway," said Reddit user M0rtis86. "It's meant to be about opposing big business deciding on what you have access to. Something like ditching net neutrality really is taking a step to the dystopian side of things."

Others joked about how to actually get cyberpunks to care about the issue.

"You've exceeded the number of neon lights your plan allows you to view. Please upgrade your internet package to continue viewing neon lights," quipped snailboy.

But to truly live in the dystopian world where cyberpunk thrives, in fiction at least, wouldn't the big, web-throttling corporations have to win first? That way, the intrinsic purpose of punk would come alive and have something to fight against.

"We have one of the building blocks of a cyberpunk dystopia materializing before our eyes," wrote blookies. "I think net neutrality not only should be here, but belongs here."

Blookies explained how corporations pushing deregulation that only gives them more power over the "common folk" is a trope already firmly in place in cyberpunk settings.

Read more: After Net Neutrality 'Day of Action,' Internet Activists Face a Tough Fight Ahead

I asked MxP1nk whether they really believed net neutrality has a home in a cyberpunk universe.

"Net neutrality, in itself, is not a cyberpunk issue, let me say that first," MxP1nk wrote me via a Reddit private message. "However, the prospect of that being taken away from the people is very much so."

"Considering cyberpunk has many themes of freeing information or taking back rights or what have you, that have been taken by greedy mega corporations, I would think the prospect of losing net neutrality is totally cyberpunk," MxP1nk added. "Even if, realistically, I would not want it to happen."

Obviously, at the end of the day, the fight for net neutrality affects anyone who uses the internet. And while protesters this week hailed the massive day of action a success, the fight is an uphill battleone that will be fought alongside several other fictions-cum-realities we thought were firmly staying in the land of make-believe.

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Is Net Neutrality Cyberpunk? - Motherboard