In cyberpunk, Azeroth would be a recognised nation state.

Quote from: Ghost Whistler;416383No matter what anyone says, Adam In Chains is a good tune.

There were a few ok songs on that cd.

Though in the end, that cd was very much doa when it was first released.  It may have got a better chance, if Billy Idol had released it under a pseudonym and on an indie label.

Quote from: thedungeondelver;416014It's kind of like listening to KMFDM - "I can't believe I ever thought this was all that great."

But... but... some of the KMFDM songs are really good. Some are trash, but some are still good. *sniff*

Quote from: danbuter;416019On the contrary, I think the current world is very cyberpunk, minus the common cybernetics. If you're outside in a city or many large towns, you're on camera. When Hurricane Katrina hit, it was Blackwater doing the street corner guards stuff. Big banks and big corporations tell politicians what to do. The internet is pervasive. iPhones and other wireless devices are better than the cyperpunk stuff in the Gibson books.

This is the stuff me and my GF point out all the time (we both really like cyberpunk). We see something really high-tech and we're like, "hello, cyberpunk" (yea, that's a direct quote). Last thing we saw that did this: we were in the Emergency Room a week or so ago and they took Val's temperature with this plastic "nub" that they just ran across her forehead over to her gland on her neck. Literally one second. Just a quick swipe across the forehead. It was uber-cyberpunk.

Also: love any thread where Deus Ex is mentioned. It really is my favorite video game, ever. I hope the third one makes up for the shitty second installment.

Regarding the OP: no, I am in agreement with quite a few posts here. I look at things like Cyberpunk 2020 (which I still run from time to time) as divergent-history type things. Fantasy-science fiction. Sort of a "what if" setting.

Quote from: Insufficient Metal;416069Punk went mainstream and sold out. Even the dark future has its Green Day.

Punk did not go mainstream. The mainstream has tried to emulate punk. There's a difference. A bunch of middle-class suburban nice kids playing pop-punk all over the radio was never punk. Some *bands* have sold out, for sure (Casualties, I'm looking at you, you fucking sell-outs), but punk as a whole is still an angry, urban D.I.Y scene.

Quote from: estar;416080The virtual reality aspect of the NET I thought was dumb. Especially how most cyberpunk games modeled net hacking as a series of "boxes" like a dungeon.  My view then hacking would be you figuring how to establish a direct connection and go from there. That the net in this regard acted more like the phone network that it just gets you connected to destination from where you are.

Werd. I always made the 'net just DOS. No Windows 2020 to look at. No stupid friggin' Matrix where people look like Dragons and circus clowns. Just green symbols and letters on a black background. I HATE the idea of the Matrix in Cyberpunk games. The movies it was okay. But the way it is handled in most RPGs? No. Just... no.

-=Grim=-

Speaking of Military Icebreakers...

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/11/26/secret-agent-crippled-irans-nuclear-ambitions/

QuoteSimply put, Stuxnet is an incredibly advanced, undetectable computer worm that took years to construct and was designed to jump from computer to computer until it found the specific, protected control system that it aimed to destroy: Iran's nuclear enrichment program.

The target was seemingly impenetrable; for security reasons, it lay several stories underground and was not connected to the World Wide Web. And that meant Stuxnet had to act as sort of a computer cruise missile: As it made its passage through a set of unconnected computers, it had to grow and adapt to security measures and other changes until it reached one that could bring it into the nuclear facility.

When it ultimately found its target, it would have to secretly manipulate it until it was so compromised it ceased normal functions.

And finally, after the job was done, the worm would have to destroy itself without leaving a trace.

I'm willing to back off of my original thesis, just a tiny bit.

One thing that smacked me as being "THAT UNPROBABLE!" when I first read Neuromancer back in the late 80's (shut up, Firefox, Neuromancer is so a word) was that everything existed in the Cloud.  Case didn't need a phone line to use the net.  Wherever he and his deck were, he was able to log on.

well...

Part the second: when I read Neuromancer, the one model cell phone you could buy cost as much as my friends brand new Chevy Luv pickup truck ($4300, but he didn't have a/c or a stereo).  You could use that cell phone in like four major cities.

I bought one for $5, but it was on sale.  The cheapest in this list costs $7

And finally: the $99 computer

So for a little more than a hundred bucks, including the price of a cup of coffee or a soda at any of the local fast food joints near me (or I can just sit outside of them and save a buck or two) I can do business (legal and illegal) on the 'net, watch TV, talk to people at great distances...

Is it like ramming a meat thermometer sized "CYBERJACK" into my forehead and viewing things in a horrid 1980's color scheme of flat shaded polygons where viruses look like monsters and I have to wear a data glove and other silly shit?

No, but there is a degree of "street grit" to the idea that if someone needed to do illicit activities on a computer as well as via phone, they could, and then throw the hardware in the trash outside and move on, as opposed to 10-15 years ago when the idea of pitching a $4000 laptop and $900 cell phone might make even the most jaded "punk" flinch a little inside.

Quote from: thedungeondelver;422014So for a little more than a hundred bucks, including the price of a cup of coffee or a soda at any of the local fast food joints near me (or I can just sit outside of them and save a buck or two) I can do business (legal and illegal) on the 'net, watch TV, talk to people at great distances...

Is it like ramming a meat thermometer sized "CYBERJACK" into my forehead and viewing things in a horrid 1980's color scheme of flat shaded polygons where viruses look like monsters and I have to wear a data glove and other silly shit?

No, but there is a degree of "street grit" to the idea that if someone needed to do illicit activities on a computer as well as via phone, they could, and then throw the hardware in the trash outside and move on, as opposed to 10-15 years ago when the idea of pitching a $4000 laptop and $900 cell phone might make even the most jaded "punk" flinch a little inside.

I feel you. We *skipped* the meatjack.

A very good book about the geopolitic of the next 100 years is... The Next 100 Years, by Thomas Friedman. Even if the author himself admits that most of the "facts" are speculation, the rationale behind them is very interesting, and can be used as a blueprint for one own "future world".