Cyberpunk 2077, and the Commodification of Anti Establishment Subcultures for Capitalism
(I would like to say am not an expert on any kind of alternative subculture including cyberpunk, this article is in large an observation I have made rather than a scholarly source, and that should be kept in mind.)
To put it bluntly, you could write a cyberpunk satire of the creation and content of Cyberpunk 2077. Picture it, a futuristic world where humans primarily spend their off time in virtual words created by exploited workers who are literally hooked into the software; forcing them to work 24/7. The plot centers around the creation of a new “anti establishment” game that ends up holding the same values as the establishment and the rich yet is still made by the exploited workers, and is sold back to the people the rich profit off of. While you could say this is an exaggeration, I did say it was a satire sort of similar to 1984 (which is a largely issue filled book but for the sake of comparison). In this article I will detail how Cyberpunk 2077 is the exact thing the genre of cyberpunk itself hates as well as the “softening” of largely anti establishment and anti capitalist media and subculture by corporations such as Dolls Kill, who heavily participate in stealing of smaller artist’s work, racism, and unethical labor practices.
An overview of the history of cyberpunk is as good of a place to start as any seeing as while reading it I hope that you to will come to understand the level of hypocrisy put on display by the creators of Cyberpunk 2077. Cyberpunk is a genre of Sci-Fi that came about in the 1960’s/1970’s with major influences from the New Wave science fiction movement and Punk subculture (hence the name) making it a radically new genre challenging the ideas of media. While Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Phillip K Dick could be cited as the first formation of these ideas Neuromancer by William Gibson was the first true “cyberpunk” novel. Other “staples” of cyberpunk include Akira (both the movie and the manga), Cowboy Bebop, Blade Runner (which is the film adaptation of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep), Snow Crash (which is a satirization of the genre but I digress), and The Matrix Trilogy. Popular themes of cyberpunk include criticism of the overbearing technology, governments, corporations, the exploitations of human beings by governments, and corporations, the alienation and forced individuality caused by society’s heavily dominated by governments, and corporations. While this in part is my own opinion the genre of Cyberpunk being so critical as it is of rigid power structures (much in line with its two major influences) does not line up with a capitalistic lens or a pro capitalistic view, and is anarchistic and leftist in essence but again I digress.
Now that I have explained the ideas and history of the cyberpunk genre, I can move on to how essentially Cyberpunk 2077 is what it in itself should hate. As I said in the above paragraph topics cyberpunk narratives focus generally includes a commentary on exploitations of workers by corporations and governments. Blade Runner is a perfect example of this through the idea of Replicants in each film and in particular the “tears in rain” scene. Cyberpunk 2077 should have taken this idea along with the aesthetic of the genre but it is quite obvious it did not. Instead Cyberpunk 2077 developers initiated what is called a “crunch” in video game development (full disclaimer I do not know anything about video game development), and is when workers on a video game put in insane amounts of overtime for generally no raise in pay. Crunches have been largely criticized as extremely detrimental to the mental and physical health of workers and largely avoidable. This article here describes an account of an anonymous worker on the Cyberpunk 2077 project, and the addition of another past video game developer detailing the working conditions of a “crunch” in a post as “why [they] left the game dev industry,” and the effects being “I’ve sat through many crunches to the point I didn’t even feel like I was alive anymore.” (both quotes from article). In addition this is after a promise made by CD Projekt Red (the video game company in charge of Cyberpunk 2077) to avoid these crunches, and after the fact making the claim that it was a “team” decision despite an anonymous worker claiming that they had already been putting in 6 week workdays for a year. While it can be said that Poland, where the game was created, has much more compassionate rules surrounding these crunches including overtime pay that is still no excuse for an avoidable practice with such harmful effects in workers.
In addition to exploitations of workers Cyberpunk 2077 also has elements of racism (second instance of racism from Cyberpunk 2077), transphobia as well as a sequences that can induce epileptic seizures (however the game developers have said that they are looking to remedy that addition). These instances contribute to an overall feeling that for lack of better terms the “point” of cyberpunk media has completely flown over the creators of the Cyberpunk 2077 game. While it is a completely valid and important point to mention the issues of the overall cyberpunk genre such as the lack of diversity, the extreme and at times violent misogyny and in specific to western cyberpunk media, the appropriation of an East Asian aesthetic while not including East Asian actors, creators, or characters in their media and many more, which all definitely have a role in what happened with Cyberpunk 2077; when looking to the core and ideal tenets that cyberpunk media historically has strived for, again Cyberpunk 2077 proves to be a tangible oxymoron, and a symptom of a larger issue.
(Again I would like to say am not an expert on any kind of alternative subculture, please understand that, and do some of your own critical thinking)
Another symptom of this is the rise of alternative subcultures into more of a mainstream audience which has been a topic of discussion by many on social media. While I do believe that in this sense criticism of the individuals participating in this movement divorced of many recurring themes in alternative subcultures is not the worst and is sometimes necessary, it is not helpful in the way people think it is. The villain of this is not the teenage girls you see on your Instagram calling themselves “alt”, it is the companies who push and sell this purposefully short sighted aesthetic. Companies such as Dolls Kill who are racist, and exploitive in many ways to both their workers (by being a fast fashion brand) and smaller artists they steal designs from all while profiting off of alternative subcultures without the morals of said subcultures. This is yet again another example of this commodification.
Again I would like to say that the corporations need to be the focus of backlash and critical thought on this issue especially due to the way that criticism has manifested on the internet in a backlash more towards the teenage girls and people of color who have long been excluded from these subcultures overall due to the misogyny and racism that does exist even if according to the ideals it shouldn’t, and is incredibly regressive. Many of these subcultures such as punk, have core ideas that surround anti establishment, anti exploitation and against racism, misogyny, homophobia, and transphobia; and as with cyberpunk there are substantial issues within these subcultures with people perpetuating the same things that they are supposed to be against, and this overall problem is no doubt also a part of the overall issue discussed giving corporations that hold the explotitive and oppressive views an opening to strip these movements of all meaning.
This issue is a tactic of capitalistic and oppressors in order to blunt these movements to be more comfortable for very things they are against and is not exclusive to alternative subcultures and can also be seen in human rights movements such as the LGBT Rights movement, Feminism and Black Lives Matter. Personally I think it is a disservice to these movements to discuss them as a foot note in this article so I have linked articles and essays by scholars and people incredibly more knowledgeable than me surrounding these issues and urge anyone reading this to read them as well.
