Cyberpunk vs Steampunk: Battle of the Underutilized Sub-genres
- Thread starter ScOULaris
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Deleted member 47027
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Lazlo Woodbine said:
Sadly, yes. These sellout "old goths" who are getting on in years turn steampunk fans when they discover colors other than black.
Such sellouts. They deserve to be exiled from the goth community for changing like that, but unfortunately, the people that shape and guide goth culture are getting old and doing it as well.
There aren't many real goths left.
GroteSmurf
Member
I love steampunk 
B_Rik_Schitthaus
Banned
Steamboy is made by the same guy and is almost as good, really surprised me when I watched it.Awesome Animals said:
ChackanKun
Member
They are both amazing AND under-used, but Steampunk movies are kind of rare right? :|
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Deleted member 47027
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ChackanKun said:
Wild Wild West was a summer blockbuster!
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Deleted member 47027
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ScOULaris said:
No no, it was shitty.
heliosRAzi
Banned
Cyberpunk for me. Akira and Ghost in the Shell really captured me when I first saw them way back when. Now, I can't get enough cyberpunk. The Ghost in the Shell movies and tv shows, the Matrix, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Akira, and countless others are inspiring to me.
I'm not a fan of steampunk, but there is an anime called Last Exile and it seems to have the steampunk feel to it.
I'm not a fan of steampunk, but there is an anime called Last Exile and it seems to have the steampunk feel to it.
I enjoy both but I don't know how anyone can say that steampunk is somehow overplayed; maybe there's some ridiculous anime overload of the stuff in the last few years that I don't know about.
Realistically, cyberpunk is much more easily interpreted and it's often just generally overlapped with any futuristic themes. Steampunk's anachronisms on the other hand has a real awkward charm to it and I think it's a lot harder to create something in that theme without it becoming overly cheesy as people think.
I enjoy copious amounts of both, but I think every other futuristic story/game/movie will likely be heavily cyberpunk influenced just because of its ubiquity. Steampunk on the other hand, will always be a little rarer, despite some spikes in popularity here and there.
Realistically, cyberpunk is much more easily interpreted and it's often just generally overlapped with any futuristic themes. Steampunk's anachronisms on the other hand has a real awkward charm to it and I think it's a lot harder to create something in that theme without it becoming overly cheesy as people think.
I enjoy copious amounts of both, but I think every other futuristic story/game/movie will likely be heavily cyberpunk influenced just because of its ubiquity. Steampunk on the other hand, will always be a little rarer, despite some spikes in popularity here and there.
More Fun To Compute
Member
If you are trying to retrospectively fit Blade Runner into a somethingpunk genre then it fits better into Dieselpunk than Cyberpunk. But really this sort of thing is just a way to categorise things based on what sort of retro art and design they use with cyberpunk having a retro 70s/80s feel. Atompunk having a 50s/60s feel, Dieselpunk going back before that to the world wars and Steampunk going back to the industrial revolution.
Red Liquorice
Member
They're both totally played out.
sixteen-bit
Member
Cyberpunk without question
radios shipping overview
Member
I liked steampunk until I was exposed to its fans. It's the new furry or renfaire, in that it's another way for grown adults to play make-believe in costumes. The tropes and references outweigh the amount of good material being produced by far.
Cyberpunk lacks the same sort of hyper-focused and noisy fanbase. And as a section of general near-future speculative fiction, good cyberpunk allows for a lot of literary freedom and commentary without overreliance on tropes.
Cyberpunk lacks the same sort of hyper-focused and noisy fanbase. And as a section of general near-future speculative fiction, good cyberpunk allows for a lot of literary freedom and commentary without overreliance on tropes.
argh, see what I meanMore Fun To Compute said:
Medievalish stuff + semi-advanced technology.B_Rik_Schitthaus
Banned
Red Liquorice said:
Insane Metal
Member
There is some AMAZING cyberpunk artwork at deviantart. I love it.
Huh? Blade Runner is one of the definitive works of the cyberpunk genre. Definitive as in, the genre is at least partially defined through its influence. Dieselpunk? I don't see that at all.More Fun To Compute said:
Also, stuff like dieselpunk and steampunk are a subgenre of retro-futurism. Cyberpunk is just futurism. There's nothing retro about Blade Runner.
Awesome Animals
Member
So, Fallout is post-apocolyptic + Atompunk?
MrOogieBoogie
BioShock Infinite is like playing some homeless guy's vivid imagination
No mention of System Shock? That alone is enough to elevate cyberpunk over steampunk for me. No other game is as representative of the genre, in my opinion. The neon colors, the computer terminals chatting all around you, cyberspace, the evil artificial intelligence, the low quality music, etc.
More Fun To Compute
Member
Sqorgar said:
Blade Runner is pre-cyberpunk. But it definitely goes for evoking what could be prototypical Dieselpunk influences like Cinema Noir and the film Metropolis. Blade Runner is a pretty retro film in terms of it's visual design but it does sort of deal with post modern themes like I think all "punk" genres are supposed to. That argument can be expanded though and you could say that Star Wars and Indiana Jones are also Dieselpunk. I don't know how useful it is to think of things as Dieselpunk or Cyberpunk but Cyberpunk definitely isn't simply futurism or maybe even futurism at all really.
Lactose_Intolerant
Member
typo said:
That's funny because your avatar is from a show that had steam punk elements in it.
fallengorn
Bitches love smiley faces
I feel like whatever steampunk is, gets misconstrued. When people dress up they don't seem to take functionality into account. Google image search steampunk gun and all you come up with are guns with tons of ornate bronze/copper crap. People get the aesthetics... but they don't really think it through.
/old-man-yells-at-cloud
/old-man-yells-at-cloud
The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
vadernoooooooultron87 said:
Fucking goggles...
fallengorn said:
Which is imo the reason why it's hard to get steampunk right, in order for it to even remotely be believable you have to cram futuristic ideas with anachronistic elements and still make it believable that there's a reason for that to exist, even in a fictional world.
The_Technomancer said:
Bitch you got problems with goggles?
Anerythristic
Member
Cyberpunk, because of my love for the Shadowrun tabletop.
The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
I haff a problem with what they represent. They are a symbol of the simplification of a genre of speculative fiction into a...a...fashion style!Davidion said:
*waves fist at cloud*
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