>I read something about that. I'm pretty sure I don't hold with the
>"revise backstory so new edition is as far ahead of present day as
>original edition was in its time" thing. I think that wacky "man, we
>did not account sufficiently for Godwin's Law" thing that '80s
>cyberpunk has going on is part of what defines the form these days;
>"updating" it is like updating Napoleonic Wars fiction to include
>steamships and wireless telegraphy. That could be cool (indeed,
>that's basically what steampunk is), but it's not the same thing.

Thing is, there's definitely a market out there for people who want the cyberpunk aesthetic, but don't particularly care for the now-outdated version of the future it represents. I suppose they could simply make an entirely new game, but... I dunno. It starts to feel more like you're mucking about with parallel world stuff rather than future dystopia stuff. That's a bit different than dicking around with the past, which remains safely in another country.

It's worth noting that you personally, if I recall correctly, decided to write Iron Age from a standpoint of "what would a cyberpunk Japan in the 2030s look like extrapolating from the tech base as I know it in the aughts" rather than rigorously restricting yourself to extrapolating from what the original writers of BGC knew in the 80s/early 90s. That's not precisely the same thing, but it is in the same ballpark. Presumably the guys updating Shadowrun had similar motivations.

>Also, interfacing with the interwebs using a direct neural interface
>standard so sloppily designed that you can be injured by sudden
>disconnection was already daft

I was always prepared to write that off as some sort of inherent danger in the direct neural interfaces they can't design around and merely live with because the things are so useful.

Like, every day I strap myself into a relatively fragile steel and fiberglass frame filled with dangerous chemicals, many of which are combustible, and hurtle myself at dangerous speeds in a narrow, confined geographic space with other people doing the same thing, many of whom, statistically, are not qualified to be doing so. Despite the presence of many different safety devices, if my conveyance comes to an sudden and abrupt halt in a way contraindicated by its design specs, or if I exit it while it is in motion, the odds are very high that I will be serious injured and possibly killed, and there's literally nothing that can be done about that. But I keep using it anyway, because the advantages it offers are so amazing.

I see it working the same way with the direct neural links. There's just a certain inherent level of danger with jacking the internet directly into your noggin, but people sort of live with it, and much like driving it is plenty safe until you start doing highly illegal shit with your heavily modified rig.

-Merc
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