Cyberpunk vs. Steampunk... which theme do you prefer?

[Estudante]

CmPunk

 

[Slick_36]

They're having a ton of fun with it and that's all that matters.

True. There's a scene around here for it, but they mix it with furrys or werewolves and vampires. What makes it Steampunk is sort of in the background, that bums me out.

 

[minute bull]

We're not the fortunate ones.



I like the elevated manner of steampunk fiction, that old timey shit. What really works for me are the variations of familiar objects and traditions. Throw on some brass knobs and wood paneling. Cyberpunk is contemporary but inevitably invokes grime and claustrophobia overshadowing the cool factor for me.

how to guarantee that your shit doesn't get interrupted.

Make sure you never go to prison for starters.

 

[Guestx]

The time has passed.

Too much of the foundation of cyberpunk has already been explored to death in other science fiction genres.

I still want the Ridley Scott Neuromancer movie I was promised in 1990, however.

I think it's a genre that can continue to endure, like anything else. New stories can be based in that setting, just like new stories continue to be based in the Wild West.

 

[Loiosh]

I think it's a genre that can continue to endure, like anything else. New stories can be based in that setting, just like new stories continue to be based in the Wild West.

Possibly, but much of the speculation that made cyberpunk incredibly cool in the eighties has already been surpassed by contemporary technology.

However, I think it can be argued that Cyberpunk has been extremely present in film over the last five or ten years, it just hasn't been obvious.

 

[Loiosh]

True. There's a scene around here for it, but they mix it with furrys or werewolves and vampires. What makes it Steampunk is sort of in the background, that bums me out.

The image of steampunk furries, not gonna lie, pretty disturbing.

 

[CharlieBrownFOT]

I voted 'Steampunk', but I find them both to be interesting genres & concepts. This made me remember that the first time I ever heard the term 'Cyberpunk' was the Billy Idol album "Cyberpunk".

 

[Guestx]

Possibly, but much of the speculation that made cyberpunk incredibly cool in the eighties has already been surpassed by contemporary technology.

I guess what I'm saying is that the genre can continue to evolve as time goes. Unlike the West, it's not actually a real thing. So it can change as time goes and people imagine new things for it.

However, I think it can be argued that Cyberpunk has been extremely present in film over the last five or ten years, it just hasn't been obvious.

How do you mean?

 

[Reyesnuthugr]

Cyberpunk is a distopia composed almost entirely by strong overpolicing, suffocating political corruption and dangerous lowlife criminal opportunists everywhere. It's like Mad Max with partially working electricity, and only the upper echelon gets to live reliably and comfortably. Everyone else is a basically bum who fights for their survival by scrounging, week, in week out

Steampunk has a better outlook, with more possibilities and SOME island-pockets of civilized sanity (cyberpunk has none). And if you want that weird madmax stuff, it's only a couple day's travel away, you can have that too.

Steampunk for me, athankyou

 

[Fbed]

Cyberpunk because of Deus Ex

 

[Phlogiston]

Cyberpunk for being less neckbeard-y and because I also read a ton of it.

 

[Count Zero]

How do you do that?

Just immediately (30 second minimum between posts on here) make another post, then edit it to have the content you want in it

Kinda blowin' my mind

 

[GhostZ06]

Cyberpunk is far far better

 

[JBSchroeds]

Fuck steampunk. Yeah, that comes across as really angry, but I absolutely despise the genre. It wouldn't be so bad all on it's own, but fans are often obsessed with making steampunk versions of shit from other stories and I hate it. Steampunk Boba Fett. Steampunk Iron Man. Steampunk Abraham fucking Lincoln. Also, as somebody with a mechanical engineering degree, the nonfunctional gears and shit that get slapped all over everything piss me off.

So cyberpunk wins by default.

 

[Slick_36]

Cyberpunk is far far better

Was waiting for you, bud. I knew your answer more than I knew my own. :icon_chee

I really want to write a cyberpunk novel based in a place like the Kowloon Walled City.

 

[Slick_36]

Fuck steampunk. Yeah, that comes across as really angry, but I absolutely despise the genre. It wouldn't be so bad all on it's own, but fans are often obsessed with making steampunk versions of shit from other stories and I hate it. Steampunk Boba Fett. Steampunk Iron Man. Steampunk Abraham fucking Lincoln. Also, as somebody with a mechanical engineering degree, the nonfunctional gears and shit that get slapped all over everything piss me off.

So cyberpunk wins by default.

Yeah, I totally agreee. The potential is there though.

 

[Plissken]

Steampunk is a cool concept, but I've rarely ever seen it executed well. Cyberpunk is full of good media representations.

 

[JBSchroeds]

Yeah, I totally agreee. The potential is there though.

There's definitely some good steampunk stuff out there, but most of it is so creatively bankrupt that it hurts. Ignoring the issue of ripoffs for a second, the single biggest pitfall with most steampunk is that the artists have zero knowledge of mechanics and industrial design. These creations obviously would never work from a pure engineering standpoint or else they would have been designed back in the 1800s, so the whole deal is creating the illusion of function. And if you don't know how actual stuff works then good luck making something fake look like it works. So instead of good design people just slap gears, pistons, and vents all over some retro-modern design and call it steampunk.

 

[Count Zero]

Also my username sorta speaks to how I lean on this issue

 

[Count Zero]

There's definitely some good steampunk stuff out there, but most of it is so creatively bankrupt that it hurts. Ignoring the issue of ripoffs for a second, the single biggest pitfall with most steampunk is that the artists have zero knowledge of mechanics and industrial design. These creations obviously would never work from a pure engineering standpoint or else they would have been designed back in the 1800s, so the whole deal is creating the illusion of function. And if you don't know how actual stuff works then good luck making something fake look like it works. So instead of good design people just slap gears, pistons, and vents all over some retro-modern design and call it steampunk.

I'm sure there a bunch of people with sophisticated understandings of the various technologies involved in cyberpunk fiction who feel the same way about cyberpunk.