Poll: Steampunk as a sub-genre...

[matsugawa]

There had been a poll previously about sci-fi vs. fantasy, and someone mentioned Steampunk, but the discussion didn't really go from there. Steampunk as an art style seems to mean a lot of things to a lot of people, so let's do the potentially impossible and try (for the sake of trying) to find a suitable category.

Also, what game do you think best exemplifies the Steampunk look or theme? I think Gun Valkyrie on the XBox fits the bill quite nicely; it may not have been that great a game, but it had beautiful art direction.

 

[RetiarySword]

I'm going for si-fi. Its sorta scientific but is still fiction. Fantasy is going too much towards magic and stuff.

 

[TaborMallory]

Both! Just look at Star Wars and Bioshock. Totally different sub-genres, yet both steampunk. Does anyone agree?

 

[t0rm3n7]

I wouldn't go so far as to say Star Wars is steampunk. Bioshock is a lot closer though... I'm going with Sci-Fi on this one.

 

[13lackfriday]

Sci-Fi, obviously...although in an awesome retro/vintage backwards-direction.

 

[Mekado]

Also, what game do you think best exemplifies the Steampunk look or theme? I think Gun Valkyrie on the XBox fits the bill quite nicely; it may not have been that great a game, but it had beautiful art direction.

It's an old game but i'd have to say Shadowrun (the old isomatric one would have been nice with updated graphics,we didn't need yet another FPS...)

 

[Dirty Apple]

I'd have to say steampunk belongs in the Sci-fi half of the spectrum. Since Fantasy takes it source material from medieval times, and most steampunk worlds are set in an alterante reality industrial revolution, therefore, they belong to the H.G. Wells style of Sci-fi.

 

[dukethepcdr]

It seems to me that Steampunk is mostly a style of fantasy. It's an effort to put a fantasy story in a different setting and with different influences than the usual Medieval themes. You can usually take a steampunk story and strip away all the steam powered machine stuff and have a traditional fantasy story left.

 

[Skeleon]

I'd say it's mostly scifi, since it's stemming from "old" scifi (Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle) and evolved from there.

As for dukethepcdr's post: If you strip away the high-tech from scifi stories you have often a modern fable/fantasy story left, too. It's mostly just different settings.
Remember: Technology changes, people don't.

 

[LockHeart]

I think it's good as equal parts, see Arcanum for more information.

 

[Deacon Cole]

Any subgenre using the naming convention of ___punk needs to be forgotten. And quickly before all is lost.

 

[Cesasse]

It seems to me that Steampunk is mostly a style of fantasy. It's an effort to put a fantasy story in a different setting and with different influences than the usual Medieval themes. You can usually take a steampunk story and strip away all the steam powered machine stuff and have a traditional fantasy story left.

Well, really, we can take any dystopian fiction, any sci-fi, any modern story and strip away all the technology to be left with a traditional fantasy story. So IMO that point is kinda null.

Personally I place Steampunk alongside the actual Steam Age in history. Redcoats and colonies and India being raped by England, I love that time. So IMO its neither. Its set in its own real time.
"Essentially, the idea of steampunk is if the Industrial Revolution and the Information Age occured simultaeniously." Is the way I see it, and as such, I place it at the time of the Industrial Revolution and suchlike.

 

[oktalist]

I mean, look at Star Wars and Jedi - Jedi, are kind of, mages in sci-fi setting. There is no science-fictiony reason for them to have their, to put it bluntly, "magic". And those durn midiclorians could burn in hell.

Well some would argue that Star Wars is fantasy, not science fiction.

Yeah steampunk is a setting or an artistic style, not a genre. It's equal parts.

Also: Steampunk horror. Steampunk zombie film. Steampunk action thriller. Steampunk conspiracy thriller. Steampunk vacuous teen drama.

 

[high_castle]

Steampunk is what the term "speculative fiction" is made for. Pure Science Fiction (SF) should still be within the realm of plausibility. Even soft-SF should seam feasible, or at least potentially feasible. That's part of the reason Star Wars falls into the speculative fiction super-genre, as it blends concepts we associate with SF with pure fantasy.

Steampunk is another genre that does the same. While the gadgetry and gizmos may seem like SF because they're technologically based, they ultimately wouldn't work in real life. Some steampunk worlds even allow a system of magic in them, but many a steampunk thriller will not. this subgenre blends bits of fantasy and SF. It's not bad, I just don't think you could get away with calling it pure SF or pure fantasy. But feel free to tell me I'm wrong.

 

[Alex_P]

Both! Just look at Star Wars and Bioshock. Totally different sub-genres, yet both steampunk. Does anyone agree?

Neither of those are steampunk.

BioShock, for example, is mostly referencing an art-deco style, wholly distinct from the Victorian aesthetics of steampunk. Characters like Big Daddies are just based on the design of real 20th-century underwater equipment.

-- Alex

 

[The Infamous Scamola]

Why do people keep on reffering to Bioshock as steampunk? It isn't! It just has an Art deco style to it.

 

[SquirrelPants]

I mean, look at Star Wars and Jedi - Jedi, are kind of, mages in sci-fi setting. There is no science-fictiony reason for them to have their, to put it bluntly, "magic". And those durn midiclorians could burn in hell.

But midichlorians are totally plausible![/sarcasm]

I say steampunk is its own genre, because it can lean towards sci-fi, and it can lean towards fantasy at times. Bioshock had a good steampunk/Victorian art style, but it didn't have any steampunk technology, which is basically the entire point of steampunk, isn't it?
Other than Bioshock, though, I've never played anything that even looks steampunk.

 

[The Shade]

Star Wars is technically fantasy, not science-fiction. Even if you look past the Jedi "magic" powers, you still gotta contend with the opening line:

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.

George Lucas included that line to make sure his movies were classified as fantasy, not science-fiction. Science-fiction is, by definition, fiction that might happen in the future. Star Wars was set in the past, thus nullifying that.


Most Steampunk is played out from an alternate reality setting, not in the future. (I doubt that we'll all revert to steam engines to power our flying sailboats any time soon!) Therefore, Steampunk is also Fantasy.

 

[A Raging Emo]

I have voted equal, but it leans towards science fiction, really.