Are we living in Gibson's Future?

"20 years ago, it was another world. Now, its our world. Its where the banks keep your money" - William Gibson, Today Program, BBC Radio 4, Oct. 5 2010

In 1984, a book came out which now seems eerily prescient. It predicted a world enmeshed in a network of computers. Everything was connected, from toasters to telephones. Business was done over this network, battles were fought and crimes were committed. In the two and a half decades since its publication, the world has become the one represented in it, or has it?

Tobold Scaling it Back

Tobold is notorious among gaming bloggers. Admired and derided in equal measure by those who read him.

I was sad to read today that he's scaling back his blogging activities. I have a great deal of respect for him as a blogger and while I don't always agree with his views (he doesn't like EVE and doesn't understand how people can find it fun) He generally has some interesting things to say about MMOs and his vision of the perfect one.

The latest series of posts from him and Nils regarding what makes a game 'good' , is exactly the kind of discussion that needs to be had, if only to dispel the notion that sales = quality and that there can be any kind of subjective measure of a game's 'goodness'.

He cites the reason for this down-shift in his blogging is that its all become so predictable. He gets the same commenters, making the same comments, on almost every post. To the point where he could write those comments themselves and properly attribute them to the right commenters. I would contend that by blogging about MMOs from the perspective of a WoW player he has left himself open to the e-peen waving of the gearscore whores, as that is basically what that game has become.

Games, especially virtual worlds, are about getting the players to tell themselves and each other engaging stories. If the only story you have to tell is that you've beaten an instance for the umpteenth time and only have to do it x more times to get this bit of awesome gear and then your score will be y. Yeah, its going to get boring.

He says in his post that he's going to play more and write less, well I would give him this piece of advice:

Play more, and play widely. Play everything that comes your way and go looking for anything that doesn't. Build a picture of the wider gaming landscape and get as many different perspectives of what a game could be as possible. Then maybe you'll have something that you feel is worth writing about."

I'll still be following his blogging, its a shame there won't be as much of it as before though.

M out

What is and What isn't Cyberpunk

HT to EddyFate for posting a list he came across of Cyberpunk books. It got me thinking about what acutually constitutes Cyberpunk lit. There are a couple of things on the list which I don't think fit what I would consider Cyberpunk.

Akira (Vol. 1, Vol. 2. Blu-ray, DVD.)


This may be coloured by my familiarity with the movie, and only having read the book once, but I feel that This kind of epic science fiction is nowhere near dark and seedy enough to be considered Cyberpunk.

The government conspiracy doesn't gel with my idea of what Cyberpunk is. In my Cyberpunk future there are no real governments to speak of and the world is run by huge transnational corporations who handle everything from healthcare to policing and the law is whatever they say it is. Maybe its a cultural thing, it being Japanese in origin will obviously lead to differences in how the author views the possible future of the world compared to western sci-fi.

Accelerando (Dead-Tree, download/online[free].)


I would also dispute the inclusion of this book (which is no less awesome for it btw) in the list. I see this as more a piece of transhumanist fiction on a par with Greg Egan and Vernor Vinge. The characters are not the focus of the work, though they are important, its more about how human society will be changed by its technology, and mostly for the better. Reading this made me hopeful for the future of humanity as the singularity approaches and we reach out into a wider universe of high speed processing and space exploration, Cyberpunk should not do this.

Cyberpunk should be dark. Think classic Noir with hi-tech elements. The characters should be the focus, not the technology, and the outlook of the work should be predominantly dystopian. Cyberpunk should warn us about the perils of our new found technological power, in order that we don't take that path.

A peice of Cyberpunk fiction should paint a picture of a world where the law has broken down, governments are incosequential, and huge corporations use humanity as merely meat components in their money making machines. It should be set on the fringe between the 'respectable' section of society and its seedier underbelly, where the rich and powerful go to get their dirty laundry washed.

The technology is somewhat secondary to a Cyberpunk story, it should be evident but not overwhelming. There are some exceptions to this rule (Gibson's Sprawl Trilogy being the most notable.) but in such cases the technology should be woven into the fabric of the society of the setting. Whats important are the characterisations and  the interactions between the characters, even if those characters are a mixture of human, transhuman and AI. They are the important factors.

There should be no optimism in Cyberpunk. Even if a story has a satisfactory ending to the plot, its still a dark and dangerous world and nothing the characters will have achieved during the course of their journey has changed that.

Maybe you think differently, tell me.

M out