Cyberpunk - William Gibson style

[witch]

My new hood is based on a sci fi theme, it's the place that sims end up if they get dumped out of the local wormhole they're riding. There is no return to the rest of the universe and the the place is populated by many and various aliens and sims.

I want a cyberpunk theme and have been collecting bits and pieces along the way to use as clothing, furnishing and props.

I saw the steampunk thread and thought, why not ask if anyone knows any good cyberpunk links as well. I will also check out the steampunk links in case there's some crossover.

So, where's the good cyberpunk?!? Please. 

[notveryawesome]

By cyberpunk do you mean a sort of industrial post-apocalyptic theme a la Mad Max?

Edit: Nevermind. I think I get it now.

[floopyboo]

i saw some stuff over at mts2 & insim while I was trolling for steampunk. Much of it reminds me a bit of shadowrun/william gibson style cyberpunk. Definitely check out the goth-punk clothing over at mts2 for that sort of thing.

I think you'll love this: http://www.insimenator.net/showthread.php?t=36159
and this: http://www.insimenator.net/showthread.php?t=36163
and this: http://www.insimenator.net/showthread.php?t=22596

I know I was kind of going 'but but but, steampunk, not cyberpunk. Damn! when i saw them.

[eevilcat]

Ooh, sounds interesting. I've always thought that Bladerunner came pretty close to visualising William Gibson's world. Or should that be vice-versa as the film was first? A mix of shiny hi-tech and grungy low-tech would probably work best.

Olemantiker's offerings on Insim, especially the 'Factory' set would be perfect and he's got a new Space Centre which could probably be used direct or bastardised for your purposes. Cylonesue over on TSR has also got several series of items that could be used (Construction Industry, Urban Renewal, Eon's Oddyssey etc). I'd also do a general search for Matrix creations - a lot of the fashions would be suitable and someone has done the twins on MTS2.

I'd love to see some screenshots of what you come up with as I'm a big fan of the genre. I used to play the Cyberpunk 2020 RPG a lot and there's plenty of associated websites that might give you more ideas.
 

[floopyboo]

I also found this over at mts2. It's very gritty. I love it, but alas, not quite right for steampunk. http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=39046

[notveryawesome]

These are all awesome. Thanks for the links!

[witch]

Cool. I had a bit of a poke around myself.

Alien Build Mode
The Marauder spaceship to live in
Themed safety walls and floors
The Borg Collection
Kamino Research Lab
NewTokyo is cool but is too big and aged for the look I'm after.

The hood has had sims dropping in for hundreds of years but is still not too dense, people tend to spread out a bit. Many of the lots will be fairly high tech from recently landed sims who have cannibalised their spaceships, the low tech grungy lots - as someone mentioned - would be sims who have been there sometime and are reduced to scavenging in the urban areas or living off the desert landscape.

I have the 8DS grunge stuff and will get the simwardrobe food replicator and weaponry. This is a hood with zombies so I can play with the zombie apocalypse hack. I am building a zombie maul and Assmitten will be the vampire in charge of this.

Now I'm off to check the new links. Cheers.

[sewinglady]

But would William Gibson's cyberpunk world REALLY look much different from the world as it exists now?

I just finished "Pattern Recognition" and it's set in the here and now...

And I remember a lot of the descriptions of clothing in the Neuromancer/Count Zero/Mona Lisa Overdrive series as being t-shirts and jeans... so Maxian wardrobe would actually fit right in there (ugh)...save for the chick with the nails...and someone can tell her name, I can't find my copies, must still be packed in a box somewhere, and obviously it's time for me to find them and read them again...

Edited to add that the first thing I thought of when I saw 'Steampunk Victorian' is "The Difference Engine"

[Orikes]

But would William Gibson's cyberpunk world REALLY look much different from the world as it exists now?

Based on Gibson's novels, the world may not look that much different, but there's still a wealth of reference material out there influenced from his stuff where there is a very distinct look. Cyberpunk in most visual media (comics, rpg artwork, movies, etc.) has a very gritty, super modern feel to it.

[sewinglady]

So maybe it's not so much 'William Gibson Style' as it is 'William Gibson Influenced'? 

I haven't read any graphic novels - too Farenheit 451 for me, I guess.

Have read most of Gibson's work, and Sterling's, and then there's my favorite - feminist sci-fi authors..Tepper and the late Octavia Butler...but that's a completely different genre.

[Lorelei]

Her name is Molly.

And I'm thrilled that you're creating a Gibson world. How fun!

[sewinglady]

I knew someone here would know her name.

I just remember the nails...and there are days I wish I had some just like 'em.

[witch]

Sheri S Tepper is one of my favourites, too.

I guess I'm thinking more high tech and glossy, there's definitely a place for high tech grunge, but the look I'm hoping for is a little less dark.

Neil Gaiman will of course live in this world, hopefully with my self-sim, haven't played a self-sim for years. I think it was Sagana who said she has a cyberpunk hood, I'd love to see pictures of that.

[Lorelei]

Would this be "my" Neil Gaiman? If so, colour me flattered!

[witch]

Yes it is. I'm hoping my self-sim will get lucky, but with Assmitten in the picture I will have some stiff competition.

ETA: Hmm, just discovered the first flaw in my master plan. If I have the desert scenario; summer, summer, autumn, spring, then my sims will be sweltering in all that cool black cyberpunky pseudo leather. I keep wanting to put them in flowery summer dresses and shirts. So it'll have to be winter, winter, spring, autumn. Which means the poor lizard people will be spending half the year in their outerwear diving suits 'cos they can't tolerate the cold.

ETA2: Here's JM, he'll be in a climate controlled bunker of course.


Lizard people with their android


Snake boys - they're trouble.
.

[Sagana]

Mine's a bit different, trying for just barely post-modern, so it's not as interesting-looking as yours is going to be I've had a hard time trying to have it 'cyber-y' but not run too far into sci-fi. The idea is supposed to be that there are no plants left for regular peoples, only very very rich people who live "Over" (which I haven't built yet) have any growing things. (and there are plants off somewhere carefully environmentally controlled so everyone doesn't die, but they won't grow normally.) The neighborhood is concrete.

Normal people live in Cyburbia (where I'm playing now) and if they're well-to-do live in an environmentally-controlled area so there are several bubble houses and one of my sims is an architect building "underwater" houses (kind of performance art architecture) so there are a lot of those as well. Everybody else is sorta grunge (but the real grunge area is a place called "Under" which I also haven't built yet) so they live in some factoryish and tiny houses amidst the remains of an unused urban area. No aliens. Robots and modern furniture and the food replicators and like that.

One woman, who is obsessed with flowers, and her brother who doesn't really care but wants to help his sister, are trying to bring back some plants. Meanwhile she arranges plastic flowers. He's managed to acquire a cow plant that thrives despite the environment, so...

I am taking pics so I'll let you know when (if ever) I actually get the blog up. I'm not very good at blogging.

[witch]

Yes, I'd be very interested!

There are definite similarities, I chose a desert setting, but that can be cold as well as hot. There will be some sims trying to raise plants (in greenhouses of course) - settler type sims; decaying urban areas and some high tech science labs. I like the under / over concept.

This is a pretty cool link:
http://www.sims2wiki.info/wiki.php?title=Content_List:Sci-Fi

[sewinglady]

All this talk of aliens and cyberpunk made me miss Neptune Valley...my brightly colored alien skins are all gone with the big download flush when NV got f'd up when I installed seasons... so last night I did it.  I've abandoned my cleaned up version of Riverblossom Hills and began a new neighborhood... one with a small radiation problem - The winds would carry radiation from a oopsie at Hanford east, so I picked the lovely 'bedroom community' (the real inhabitants would laugh if I knew I just called it that) of Vaughn Junction...and have started populating it...  I think I may try to salvage some of the community lots from Riverblossom Hills.  I get so tired of building the same stuff over and over...

Oh yeah, and I'm using Enayla's elf and pixie skins...they aren't as brightly colored, but dang they are so beautiful and even with the facial embellishments, so much more realistic looking... will be interesting to see over the generations which skins dominate...there's always one.  In Neptune Valley it was an orange one from Genensims which seemed to pop up with increasing frequency.

[cabelle]

Cyberpunk reminds me of the RPG I played in college with my pals. Good times. 

[miros]

Ooh, sounds interesting. I've always thought that Bladerunner came pretty close to visualising William Gibson's world. Or should that be vice-versa as the film was first? A mix of shiny hi-tech and grungy low-tech would probably work best.

Bladerunner was based on Philip K. Dick's short work, "Do Androids Dream of Electronic Sheep?" which was published far far earlier than Gibson or any of the other cyberpunk genre.

[sewinglady]

It's not a 'short work' - "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" is a full length novel.

It is NOTHING like the movie.  NO happy ending, that's for damn sure.

The movie is mostly Ridley Scott's vision of the future...the adaptation is loose at best.

Dick passed in 1982. http://www.philipkdick.com/

Blade Runner was released in the same year.

Other movies are based on some of his short stories.  Among them are Imposter (close), Minority Report (another very loose adaptation), Paycheck (again, not so close), Screamers, and Total Recall.

Dick's vision of the future is much more dark, sinister and paranoid than most cyberpunk writers paint it...

And if you REALLY want to sit up nights wondering about what it is that we are doing (re the Sims2) read his short story "The Days of Perky Pat" (available in the Minority Report anthology that was published when the movie came out.

[Stitches]

Would this be "my" Neil Gaiman? If so, colour me flattered!

I've apparently missed something important because I didn't know Neil had been released out into the wild yet. Linksy?

[Lorelei]

Would this be "my" Neil Gaiman? If so, colour me flattered!

I've apparently missed something important because I didn't know Neil had been released out into the wild yet. Linksy?

The link is in my sig below. Also has some other random Sims like Law and Order and What Not To Wear.

The key to my Sim-making is apparently to poke me when I am bored, at which point off I go, making whatever was just discussed. Otherwise, I don't do it much.

[Sagana]

I'm quite enjoying your Gaiman btw. I'll hafta come up with a pic of him in-game to put up somewhere

[witch]

Bladerunner was based on Philip K. Dick's short work, "Do Androids Dream of Electronic Sheep?" which was published far far earlier than Gibson or any of the other cyberpunk genre.

Laeshanin showed me an awesome screensaver - Do Androids Dream of Electronic Sheep? Bit of herbal help and you can watch the screensaver all night.

I love Philip K. Dick's writings, though I haven't watched the movies, suspected they'd piss me off.

There's a game made from a short story by Harlan Ellison for those who like sci fi dystopia, I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream. You need DOS box to play it and it's really weird.

As for Cyberpunk sims - I'm still building the star shaped Podpalace where my shift workers will live.