It has the vibe (aesthetics), like most modern "cyberpunk" works. The tech, hacking, drugs, and weird AI were mostly the setting for the main themes of corporat

It has the vibe (aesthetics), like most modern "cyberpunk" works. The tech, hacking, drugs, and weird AI were mostly the setting for the main themes of corporate power and how technology enabled new forms of control/manipulation. When an article compared William Gibson's visions to Second Life, he rejected the notion explicitly[1]: But as Gully Jimson says, in The Horse's Mouth, "It wasn't the vision I had." Neither is Second Life. Chia and her buds build their treehouses in corporate ghost sites. That's the difference. Interstitial. Gotta be interstitial. I've only seen the first few hours of Cyberpunk 2077, but so far it has the potential for some of the social/political themes. The "Corpo" prelude depicting a corporation abusing its power to "repo" parts of someone's body was a good start, but so far the game hasn't returned to that theme, instead focusing more on the tech/combat. Unfortunately, the trend over the last few decades in cyberpunk has steadily shifted towards aesthetics. The only true counterexample I know of (and by far the best cyberpunk movie ever made is Sleep Dealer (2008). Its aesthetics suffered due to a very tiny budget, but it was shockingly prescient in its depiction of the "gig economy" and drone violence. [1] http://williamgibsonblog.blogspot.com/2007/03/#8519138918500252617 http://williamgibsonblog.blogspot.com/2007/03/#8519138918500... [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZr8A_9VZBw&disable_polymer=1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZr8A_9VZBw&disable_polymer=...