SettingDome: Cyberpunk v Post Apoc

As a child of the 80's, and living on military bases in Cold War Europe , I like my sci-fi/future settings a bit more on the dark side. Escape From New York, Terminator, Aliens...all good. Dystopia settings are fun in fiction!

So with that, and the new Mad Max release, which near, dark future setting do you prefer?

Cyberpunk


or Post Apocalypse

Why not both? Gamma World, FTW!

I think I'd prefer post-apocalyptic for gaming. I'd like technology to be as destroyed as possible and have the humans in full on scavenger mode.

But for living... Cyberpunk all the way because post apocalyptic of the kind I'm thinking of would absolutely suck to live in. Whereas cyberpunk could be really cool and I think I'd be able to thrive in that setting.

For fiction I don't care much either way both are cool and it comes down to execution for me.

Both are cool, but I think I prefer cyberpunk. I like cities, and augments / nano-upgrades, etc. are cooler than scrounging for oil.

Deus Ex is one of the greatest games of all time.

wires and hair dye are better than male nudity and excessive spikes.

In Cyberpunk I'd probably still be just some drone working for a giant corporation. So Post-Apocalypse wins by default.

I love Post-Apoc, but Cyberpunk! No contest!

Mad Dog wrote: In Cyberpunk I'd probably still be just some drone working for a giant corporation. So Post-Apocalypse wins by default.

That's kind of what I was thinking. Life in post-apoc may be hard, but at least you set your own hours and make your own rules. Plus, fresh air, sunshine, and a really loose dress code.

Gregarius wrote: Plus, fresh air, sunshine, and a really loose dress code.

Rads (rad suits), hard-to-cure diseases such as the flu much more dangerous, killer UVs, overcast world, constant hunger, life expectancy back to what it was in the Dark Ages.

It's a tough call for me.

Cyberpunk - sleek, stylish, multi-cultural, high-tech, noir. Some of my all-time favorite writers have written cyberpunk, including William Gibson, Bruce Sterling, Michael Swanwick, and George Alec Effinger. However, we already live in a world that is partially cyberpunk, so it's less fascinating as a setting. And movies never seemed to capture the feel of cyberpunk beyond the visuals, though we did get Blade Runner and The Matrix. From a gaming standpoint, there was the cool but dysfunctional Cyberpunk rpg, the lame tolkienesque cyberpunk on training wheels of Shadowrun, and the brilliant designs of Netrunner and Android.

Post-Apocalyptic - After the Berlin Wall fell, post-apocalypse went into decline, as the prospect of nuclear war receded. That's a shame, because there were all kinds of interesting angles to explore with post-apocalypse. Mutants, robot overlords, radioactive wastelands, survivalists, zombies, road warriors, anarchists, etc. Then zombies made a big comeback more than a decade ago, possibly getting more of a boost from Shaun of the Dead than any other single element. I'm really burned out on zombies these days, because the monsters themselves are fairly dull compared to vampires or xenomorphs. But the zombie apocalypse is more of a game changer than most horror themes, because the sheer quantity of zombies always brings down our modern world into abrupt chaos, while most other monsters just secretly pick off a few victims here and there. Zombies have clearly made an impact in movies, and now even on television, but most good writers have little to say about zombies. And from a gaming standpoint, zombies have been a big fucking disappointment, inspiring a horde of brainless and mediocre boardgames and not one single great one.

After consideration, I vote Cyberpunk.

Post-Apoc. I like both, but the world of Blade Runner (dystopian future run by coroporations) is not nearly as compelling as the desperate, grimy survivalism that is bred by the PA setting.

What's better: Deus Ex, or Fallout? That's really what it boils down to.

I vote POST-APOCALYPTIA!

Post-Apocalyptic all the way!

SuperflyTNT wrote: What's better: Deus Ex, or Fallout? That's really what it boils down to.

A compelling argument, but I think objectively, Deus Ex is in fact a better game than Fallout. Both are fantastic, but I'm not sure Fallout would make my top 10 best games ever list. Deus Ex would be chilling in the top 5.

Both have their merits, but I feel post Apoc movies have a higher batting average than cyberpunk. I still haven't erased the horrors of Johnny Mnemonic from my mind.

My Top 5 Favorite Cyberpunk-ish Movies:
Blade Runner
The Matrix
Robocop
Total Recall
Fifth Element

My Top 5 Favorite Post-Apocalyptic Movies (not including zombies)
Road Warrior
Planet of the Apes
Logan's Run
City of Ember
Mad Max: Fury Road (haven't seen it yet, hype enough for ya?)