Cyberpunk Games as a Genre

Cyberpunk has become a substantial genre in science fiction ever since William Gibson published Neuromancer. The cyberpunk philosophy centers on a theme of “high tech, low life”, picturing a technologically advanced society dominated by conglomerates or some sort of authority. Such dystopia adapts the Hegelian “alienation” to an extreme, where characters are alienated both physically and mentally by technology and capital. Hence Cyberpunk is sometimes treated as anti-capitalistic, but it can’t be recognized as Marxist, for social-economic development in a cyberpunk world does not follow the upward spiral of historical materialism.

Science fiction themes have become prominent in video games since the late 1970s. (Jagoda) Consequentially, Cyberpunk games have been popular among players. But is Cyberpunk really a genre? Jagoda and Wolf have preferred the ludic definition of genres while discussing video games, emphasizing games’ “introduction of gameplay mechanic, procedural capacities, navigable worlds, and multimedia interactions.” According to their definition, signature Cyberpunk games such as Cyberpunk 2077 should be classified more as an open-world, RPG game where players can replace every of their body parts with costly cyborgs to obtain superhuman abilities. Even though this cyborg system resembles the weapon/abilities systems in typical RPGs in terms of flexibility, it manifests how technology alienates humans from their body. It can also be viewed as a discussion of the relationship between mind and body. Besides, Cyberpunk games usually associate cutting-edge cyberbogs with unaffordability to an extent that the impoverished can never outcompete the affluent.

The cyborg system, however, is merely a feature of Cyberpunk 2077, and there are more Cyberpunk games that don’t include such a system.  What designers and players value the most are the narratives and their underlying ideology, or, in Jagoda’s words, “the [games’] cognitive estrangement, speculative thought, and world-building.” Take Cyberpunk 2077 again as an example: the setting of this game is a city ruled by several monopolies. The protagonist, a nearly invincible anti-hero, succeeds in blowing up the headquarters of one of the super-companies but is unable to overturn its rule. This Sisyphean plotline highlights the horrific dissolution of subjectivity and free will in a Cyberpunk world. A game producer can easily design a Metroidvania game under a Cyberpunk background, yet players would still classify it as Cyberpunk. Therefore, despite that Jagoda correctly points out the importance of activity in sci-fi video games, Cyberpunk games as a genre weigh more on their narration and philosophy.