Cyberpunk is a terrific genre for an MMO
Posted by PsychochildAug 19
So, after bashing cyberpunk as an MMO genre, time for me to play “good developer” and show why my evil twin was wrong. Why is cyberpunk a great genre for an MMO?
MMOs are cyberspace
In their purest form, MMOs are the dreams of cyberspace revealed. Most worlds are more Snow Crash than Neuromancer, but MMOs are often built around the concept of a space that exists entirely in the virtual. The creators of Second Life had to have read Snow Crash in the past and comes pretty close to realizing that despite all its flaws.
An MMO set entirely in cyberspace would have a lot going for it, really. You wouldn’t have to worry about explaining away issues like lag or logging off, they’re part of the game. No more silly “camping” metaphors or convoluted explanations about why when a character “dies” they’re not really dead. Given the descriptions of cyberspace in Neuromancer, a game set in gibsonian cyberspace would be have fairly low requirements, even.
There is a dedicated fan base
The cyberpunk genre may be niche, but fans (that would be you, dear reader) are enthusiastic. For example, this site has grown fairly fast without a whole lot of advertising. (Of course, it could grow more, so get the word out!)
The audience for MMOs also overlaps with the audience for cyberpunk. People who read cyberpunk in the 80s or who watched the movies in the 90s and 2000s are the same people who got into MMOs. The audiences of both tend to be older, technologically savvy people with an interest in internet culture. Given that MMOs are cyberspace, as I argued above, it makes sense.
Cyberpunk demands to be brought up-to-date
As I was doing research for this site, I found Afrocyberpunk. I love that site because it’s an intelligent writer looking at his home city of Accra, Ghana and seeing how it will develop in the future. This is exciting because if Africa is cyberpunk, it shows that the genre has life in it yet.
As I argued in the first post of this site, Cyberpunk is dead. Cyberspace has come to pass, and we know that the Alpha Centauri aren’t dreaming. The genre cries out to move forward, perhaps in the form of post-cyberpunk, but there’s a real future for it out there.
Let’s see if the newer medium of games, the incarnation of cyberspace, can move the genre forward into exciting new areas.
So, do you think that cyberpunk is a terrible genre or a terrific genre? Why?
12 comments
Comment by unwesen on August 19, 2010 at 5:02 AM
Well, personally I think cyberpunk is terrific, but the reason has little to do with cyberpunk as such. I just like shades of gray in my stories, and that’s something other genres don’t – generally – explore that well.
Comment by Ysharros on August 19, 2010 at 5:12 AM
Four pages of handwritten notes later…
I think I need to hit at least Notepad and clean that stuff up a bit. Listos: lots of reasons why a CP MMO would work, not least of which is the fact that most of us rabid MMOers will play any damn thing that moves (at least for the first 30 days).
Comment by Ysharros on August 19, 2010 at 5:14 AM
Totally off-topic but just hit me (hey, it’s 7AM here). You need a twitter presence. Make use of the POWA OF THA INTARWEBS! Or something.
Seriously though, there’s probably a #cyberpunk hash tag and it’ll certainly drive a little lookie-loo traffic. Besides, that way you can join the rest of us twitter zombies. (It’s not that bad. I check it a couple times of day and the rest of the time the umbilical cord is firmly unjacked.)
Comment by scopique on August 19, 2010 at 5:30 AM
I posted in the other thread as a mini-rebuttal, but here in a more positive light, I’d like to point to 21st century cyberpunk treatments like Ghost in the Shell and Appleseed, which portray the world as having moved on from war and destruction to return to law and order — but where cybernetics are commonplace, and the “net” is still a virtual space.
Both of these feature combat, which is what MMOs focus on as well, but neither are overly depressing. GitS in particular focuses on some weighty social issues in the series (like immigration, for example). By focusing JUST on the mechanics of what makes cyberpunk cyberpunk, it’s missing an opportunity to create a game set in a cyberpunk SETTING, which is more then just doom and gloom.
Comment by Haversack on August 19, 2010 at 8:12 AM
More than anything I thing that a cyberpunk MMO has the chance to change the usual formula for MMO gameplay. It bugs me that there are only two types of massively multi-player game types. You are either going to see a Battlefield type game or a WoW type game.
I look at Cyberpunk as a chance to put a little stealth and thinking into an MMO with good reason. A system for “Quest” that is based more on problem solving to complete a goal would be incredibly satisfying (to me anyways). You wouldn’t have to keep upping level to increase difficulty either, you would just have to adjust the mission parameters.
It would be like playing as Section 9 from GitS:SAC with your friends! Or you could be the ones on the other side. Making a plan and seeing it through. Very niche market, but I think puzzle players would go for it. Or you could look at it as Distilling the essence of Deus Ex missions and make it Multi-player.
Comment by Psychochild on August 19, 2010 at 5:49 PM
Hehe. I figured I’d get some activity from posting these two. Glad to see passions still run hot for some things!
And now for a tangent:
Ysharros wrote:
You need a twitter presence.
@InternetCrashed! You’re even a follower! :P Not that I do much with it beyond automated notification of postings on here. But, I do abuse the #cyberpunk hashtag.
If anyone can suggest a better way to use it, speak up! I’m not fond of Twitter, so I’m probably not making the best use of it.
Comment by Lighstagazi on August 20, 2010 at 5:59 PM
@Haversack
The problem there is that MMO players are often viewed as being very willing (and obviously able) to look things up on line. How do you make a game full of puzzles that people can’t look up? The dev time on that seems beyond comprehension.
The other option would be to create some groundwork showing that players of this specific type of game (puzzle mmo in a cyberpunk setting, so very tech savvy and internet literate even compared to other internet subcultures) would somehow not lookup the answers.
…if someone was going to make such an absurd claim, I’d suggest they try talking to the admins of sites like http://hackthissite.com, or other underground interactive training resources. Though even then, I can’t imagine garnering much support.
@PC
Very nicely done with the back to back posts. And the whole site in general. Any chance we can get a peek at some of your overall user stats? Or are they already up somewhere for us to see, and I just didn’t find them? Anything from average return trips, RSS vs surfing rates, overall usage numbers, browser demographics, OS demographics… I would love to dissect stats for this site for a day.
Comment by Haversack on August 20, 2010 at 7:07 PM
@Lighstagazi
I realize that would happen but the point of a system like that would be fore the scenarios to be diverse enough for online guides to like that to be more like guides like you see in WoW for raids, helpful to a point but you still have to have the skill to finish it.
It would be difficult to get a system dynamic enough to keep each scenario new and different, but it also wouldn’t be too different than Diablo’s random map generation. Yes it would have some pretty hectic dev time to get right, but once you have procedurally generated content working well it can cut costs too.
In many ways one of the best things to do for an Indie mmo is to have procedurally generated content to cut back on the total assets that need to be created.
Puzzle was obviously the wrong word since it caused such a strong reaction. To me one of the things that would need to be very ingrained into the whole gameplay experience for a cyberpunk mmo is the widespread availability information and knowledge.
Example:
You have been hired to get data from a non internet connected terminal in the home of your clients enemy. The client gives you a name and an address, from there you have several options. One option is to run in guns blazing and maybe come out ok, but you don’t know how many people are in the house, what kind of security it has, and how long you would have before there is a response from law enforcement should you choose to do this. If you did go this route you could get a few friends to join you and maybe come out better off. Or you could gather information. See if you can find any surrounding surveillance to hack and observe. Perhaps from an earlier contact on the black market you have connections to get the power to the house turned off, or you hack the power grid yourself. Then get a friend to make a distraction at the gates to draw the guards to investigate. If you did turn of the power you would need to take the entire computer since it would be off, you need to remove the HDD(hope its not encrypted) and move on. Perhaps you have a lot of skill in brain-diving and can hack a guard to do it for you.
The whole thing would be like a dynamically generated Hitman level for each mission.
I would never make the claim that players wouldn’t look up all of the answers since I tend to read as much as possible on any subject I’m interested in.
Pingback by Stylish Corpse on August 27, 2010 at 10:26 AM
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[...] If you need more direction, you spineless internet zombies, here it is. Exhibit A: A Cyberpunk MMO would be a terrible idea! And Exhibit B: A Cyberpunk MMO would rule! [...]
Comment by Stabs on August 28, 2010 at 8:13 AM
I think what really drew people to Cyberpunk and Shadowrun in the 80s and 90s RPGs was the hardware. Guns and vehicles very similar to what we use today. People relate much better to a Walther PPK .34 or whatever than to a +2 Longsword of Maiming. The equipment and people’s understanding of what it can and can’t do really enhances the creativity the players show.
Pingback by LevelCapped on November 12, 2010 at 6:41 AM
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[...] of discussion on why we haven’t seen a breakthrough cyberpunk MMO yet. It started with a yin and yang provided by Brian “Psychochild” Green, and was continued by Ysharros at The Stylish Corpse. [...]
Comment by Johnny Laird on July 20, 2011 at 5:52 AM
Hope you guys caught the interview with Afrocyberpunk author, Jonathan Dotse here: http://www.johnnylaird.net/2010/07/the-afrocyberpunk-interview/