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Do you beg for mercy? Enough Hello Kitty?

with 24 comments

Do we get on your nerves with pink guns? Or do you want more? Traffic stats show that Hello Kitty articles are beloved. But I’m not sure if its cpunks who love ‘em. Please leave your opinion in the comments.

24 Responses to 'Do you beg for mercy? Enough Hello Kitty?'

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1. I think we had enough of it already. I would greatly love to explore OTHER form of weird or unusual gun designs (I really loved that heavily decorated SMG in the third article), but I doubt that cpunks are into Hello Kitty THAT much. Likewise, if we adopt a policy of “what gets us the most traffic”, we might just as well write articles about “Mac versus Windows”, show pictures of “babes” with or without any connection to cyberpunk and discuss “the next Uri Geller trick revealed” (that’s an insider for WordPress users ââ?¬â?? there are lists with the most popular WordPress sites, and here in Germany there seem to be A LOT of pages discussing the latest German “magic tricks” show in TV (another public show proudly presented by *ultrayawn*)).

   

   rabenaas

   13 Feb 08 at 5:24 pm
2. Well, there are allready a lot of good sites for gun fetishists. Most noteably Hounds Polymer Heaven and Gunporn. Guess we don’t have to start another one.

   Lets stick to more game relevant stuff. Like what new tech could be used to make our future even darker, what trends are there to exploit, who will be the man and how to stick it up to him.

   But then, Hello Kitty could just be one of these trends…

   

   cyberpunk2020

   13 Feb 08 at 5:40 pm
3. Yes, enough already. These weapons are interesting but extremely unrealistic. Nobody into such things would be likely at all to fight using that sort of hardware. Different sorts of hardware, very possibly. That sort of hot-pink style is becoming more and more widespread among techno-hippies. EMP weapons, network decks, possibly.

   Assault rifles? Not bloody likely.

   

   feh

   13 Feb 08 at 11:26 pm
4. Have to concur that I think this has run its course. Will I resent it if they keep showing up? No, but it’s not a draw for me – something to scroll past once I’ve seen the tagline. Oddly enough, even though I don’t speak a word of German I don’t skip the german language sections – I only ever skip/skim Hello Kitty related posts.

   

   Cirlot

   19 Feb 08 at 2:51 am
5. That’s just because the other sections are written in the universal language of CYBERPUNK. Gesundheit! Bratwurst! Auf Wiedersehen! )

   

   rabenaas

   19 Feb 08 at 5:33 pm
6. Hast du wieder getrunken?

   

   cyberpunk2020

   19 Feb 08 at 10:48 pm
7. (Gibt es ein Bratwurst-Smiley?

   8-(~) etwa? LOL

   

   cyberpunk2020

   19 Feb 08 at 10:49 pm
8. And here I thought Gibson was American-Canadian. . . . didn’t know he had hoped the Atlantic.

   Seriously, though, how much geek cred. would there be in learning a language just to play Cyberpunk v.3 Reloaded? And how much well deserved scorn?

   

   Cirlot

   20 Feb 08 at 4:17 am
9. But Cirlot, lerning German is well worth it for no other reason then knowing the language… and you get a free beer from me after you learned it.

   Other benefits:
   +2 morale bonus to Driving(German Autos)
   +2 cuteness bonus to Seduction(german and austrian ladies only)
   +5 to fortitude saves vs german beer.
   -2 on will saves resisiting german beer / the wish to conquer the world

   

   cyberpunk2020

   20 Feb 08 at 8:32 am
10. German. It’s not just a nationality. It’s an attitude

    

    Raben-AAS

    20 Feb 08 at 10:01 am
11. What do I get stat bonuses for the Latin, Japanese and Italian I do know? Or did those stat bonuses get folded into the lifepath during character gen?

    Is a true pity – all the cutting edge cyperpunk work now seems to be German in origin or focus. I’m honestly curious as to why. Given the rise of corporate power, the decline in governmental accountability and the spike in public surveilence and the erosion of privacy protection that the USA would be a hotbed for that sort of thing. And what happens? Gibson comes to town on book tour and gets booked in a second hand bookstore out in the styx of Boston, Mass.

    The man wrote Neuromancer!

    

    Cirlot

    21 Feb 08 at 2:50 am
12. Maybe in the US people think that this is not “fiction” anymore. If you go to Youtube and look for vids concerning “police state”, “martial law”, “endgame” and the upcoming elections you will find A WHOLE F*CKING LOT of really well written, really scary future scenarios. However, they are not meant to entertain, they aren’t even fictional (in the view of their respective author/director) ââ?¬â?? they are warning signs for upcoming REAL events.

    Personally, I like the “fictional” story arc of the Bush government blowing up the Statue of Liberty a lot. The story goes like this: The Bush administration has cheated its way through the last election, so they arenn’t very likely to let go of the White House that easily. Since 9/11 worked so well for their goals, they design “another” terrorist attack, this time on the Statue of Liberty. In the aftermath, the elections are canceled due to a “national emergency” in which Bush evokes all the rights given to him in the context of the Patriotic Act/Home Defense changes to Constitution and law. Martial Law is declared, and everyone who is a system critic will be “evacuated” to a “safe place” aka concentration camps that were built by Halliburton during the last couple of years.

    I didn’t make this up — there are several Youtube vids around this “future history”. Do I buy it? Naa, even Georgie-Porgie knows that he doesn’t want to be the president responsible for a new Civil War in the US. But I like “the fiction” a lot. And I wanna see a movie set in a future “cyberpunk” scenario in which the Police State (read: the Incorporated States of America) begin with just this kind of “plausible” scenario.

    

    rabenaas

    21 Feb 08 at 9:37 am
13. I guess that Cyberpunk is big in Germany (and probably Europe) because we just lag behind the americans in the very same social development. Our better social security system prevented the angst from becoming as strong as in the harsher US, but now a full blown social security can’t (or just won’t) be payed for anymore. So now we start feeling the angst. And Cyberpunk is basically thinking about the future, a future that is dark and dystopian and full of angst.

    Its funny, but sometimes it works the other way round. You only just now seem to develop interest in enviroment protection, which is very very mainstream here since the ’80s.

    PS: If you know italian, you loose that driving bonus…

    

    cyberpunk2020

    21 Feb 08 at 10:03 am
14. Does it help if I’m not fluent? I know just enough to curse like a venician and find my way to the nearest restroom. . .

    As for the idea of the US being ahead/behind – I think it’s a combination of things. Corporate power has more or less exploded and it’s only right now in the face of the pitfalls of globalization and trans-national companies that there is any discussion of responsibilities or limitations of corporate commerce outside of the nation of origin. Capitalism combined with the American purtianical/calvinist streak has left the country in many ways lopsided in terms of governance and social structure. It’s only now that the collective populace seems to be noticing the strain and reacting to it.

    I find the environmentalism issue torubling, mostly with how it’s being pursued here – its not a moral or ethical concern issue, it seems, it’s entriely profit driven. Ozone hole in the Antarctic since the early 80′s, no one here cares. Gas prices hit $3 a gallon and suddenly everyone is thinking green.

    Money talks here, not much else does.

    Regarding the alternate futures/timelines, I have to agree and confess I overlooked it entirely. The only real caveat would be that such views are decidely non-mainstream. Cyberpunk has a certain grunge appeal, and the staying power of it’s classics (Blade Runner, Neurmancer, Ghost in the Shell) attests to a larger audience than what is seen with the self published material (be it online or in print).

    Then again the web presence and the doomsayers may be the cutting edge of Futureshock. It will be interesting to see where things stand when 2013 rolls around.

    

    Cirlot

    22 Feb 08 at 1:31 am
15. How about reducing the driving penality by 1 and giving you a +2 circumstance bonus to eating spaghetti with a fork only?

    Did you read “Rewired”? It claims to be a post-cyberpunk story collection. I just read it and still try to figure out what post-cyberpunk might be. Maybe that would help us to figure out where we are.

    

    cyberpunk2020

    22 Feb 08 at 8:56 am
16. Hounds Firearms Blog is a even better source for guns, he gives stats for the guns, too. And there is Cyberpunk2121

    

    cyberpunk2020

    22 Feb 08 at 10:51 am
17. I’d opt for +2 talking with your hands with an additional +1 to obscene gestures.

    What can I say – the best bits of any language are the . . . colorful metaphors.

    As for Rewired, no I haven’t, haven’t heard of it at all, actually. In my defense I’m hampered by my local bookstores – in a city as big as Boston you’d expect to find great ones but the only viable stores seem to be mass market chains. The smaller privately owned bookstores tend towards “serious” fiction and a few of the fantasy/SF staples. Who publishes the book and is there an editor/primary author I could search by?

    

    Cirlot

    23 Feb 08 at 2:10 am
18. [...] in cyberpunk, cyberpunk2020, english post, movie, rpg by cyberpunk2020 on February 23rd, 2008 Cirlot and I are just now discussing why cyberpunk seems to be big in Germany, but not in the US. I think it has something to do with economic circles and the fact that Germanys more advanced [...]

    

    Dystopian Future visions only on economic heights! « cyberpunk2020

    23 Feb 08 at 10:40 am
19. Well, the different economic circles might have something to do with the current interest in Cyberpunk in Germany at the moment. Actually, we are doing very good at the moment. See here.

    

    cyberpunk2020

    23 Feb 08 at 10:43 am
20. I need to get home to look up the Editors of Wired. Will post tomorrow.

    

    cyberpunk2020

    23 Feb 08 at 10:44 am
21. James Patrick Kelly & John Kessel, Editors: Rewired
    ISBN: 978-1-892391-53-7
    $ 14,95, paperback.

    

    cyberpunk2020

    25 Feb 08 at 10:06 pm
22. Much obliged.

    

    Cirlot

    28 Feb 08 at 1:22 am
23. My pleasure. There will be a review of the book online soon. But probably in german

    

    cyberpunk2020

    28 Feb 08 at 10:04 pm
24. [...] Cirlot and I are just now discussing why cyberpunk seems to be big in Germany, but not in the US. I think it has something to do with economic circles and the fact that Germanys more advanced social security system prevented the necessary angst till now (Germany just saw a massive decrease in social security in the last years. We are back to public soup kitchens!) [...]

    

    Dystopian Future visions only on economic heights! at cyberpunk2020.de

    26 Apr 08 at 9:41 pm

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