Cyberpunk Summaries (Week 2)

#6.

http://kuoi.com/~kamikaze/Cyberpunk/

Definition of Cyberpunk

The writer, Mark Damon, associates a large range of topics into cyberpunk, including
dystopianism, anarchism and culture jamming into his interpretation of the genre. His idea of cyberpunk isn't much cybernetic focussed, instead the slant is more towards the use of the Net to further the use of information and making it free. However he acknowledges the negative effects of cyberpunk, the idea of the loss of control, associating it with the traits cyberpunk characters often have, that of confusion and "detachment" from reality.

#7.
Top 5 cyberpunk games

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/197251/the_top_five_cyberpunk_games_pg3.html?cat=19

Al Ebaster from Associated Content lists the "Top Five Cyberpunk Games", which were mostly a decade old and played in old consoles such as SNES (Nintendo), SEGA Genesis, but there are a few PC games in there as well. Themes explored in the games include hacking (Decker), Corporate Control (Syndicate), even one based on Gibson's book (Neuromancer) , focussing on the atmosphere of such games oozing cyberpunk. However, what can be noted is his opinion that "cyberpunk is on its way out".

#8

Archive on Cyberpunk games

http://www.experiencefestival.com/a/cyberpunk_-_Games/id/1288272

This article attemps to bring all facets of cyberpunk into one archive. For this instance, the focus is on cyberpunk games. It notes the important works of cyberpunk games and covers a range from Role Playing Game books, to console games, to even card games. It notes an interesting deviation from the often corporate stance of the dominant authority to that of a "cyberpapacy" in an rpg game titled Torg, giving a religious twist to the cyberpunk genre, noting some experimentation occuring in the deviations that could be possible in the genre.

#9 A Cyberpunk reading list

http://www.swamp.co.uk/blog/2009/01/cyberpunk-reading-list/

Andrew Brown highlights a few notable cyberpunk literature visionaries who helped shaped the genre through their works, crediting Bruce Bethke with coining the term "cyberpunk" in his 1983 book. Of course, William Gibson was also credited as being the godfather of cyberpunk, citing some of his best works in the reading list to understand more about the genre. He also included E.M. Forster as well, a 19th century/early 20th century writer in helping to shape ideas of the internet, but to link him to the dystopia of cyberpunk needs more convincing.


#10 Article of the SJ games raid
http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/Roleplayer/Roleplayer19/Raid.html


This article by Steve Jackson from SJ Games gives a reality twist to cyberpunk , in which united States Secret Service raided and confiscated files and equipment of the company in 1990, due to concerns over GURPS Cyberpunk, an RPG book that they were slated to release later that year. Steve Jackson points out the Secret Service officials mentioning something about looking for their "manual for computer crime" which perhaps could be the suspicion over the raid, perhaps over fears that the GURPS Cyberpunk would allow tips and ways on how readers could perpetrate crimes such as hacking. However, Steve Jackson refuted those claims on the grounds that "no further action was taken on the book".