Poll: Steampunk or cyberpunk?

[Arctodus_Simus]

Steampunk, definitely, though personally I'm more fond of dieselpunk

Or better yet, a transitory mixture of the two (early 1900's ftw)

EDIT: Just realised I'm wearing my steampunk robot shirt from Woot

 

[Akalistos]

Lately I've been re-playing Bioshock and watching Star Trek on TV, and it got me thinking which is better, Steampunk or cyberpunk? So i figured i'd pose the question to you, my fellow escapists.

Personally i like Steampunk better because we are geting closer to cyberpunk every day and it's starting to seem...ordinary.

Steampunk is better. When you pick anything Cyberpunk, it's a cold computerized world. When you look at steampunkish contraptions, it's basic ingenuity and fun to look at.

 

[Godraz]

So.. Cyberpunk all the way.

The way i look at this setting is "fantasy vs. sci-fi" since steampunk isnt exactly comparable with cyberpunk. SteamPunk is "Once upon a time there was steam" and the other is "what if things get really F:ed up". Not complaining about those settings since that is kinda the point of a fantasy setting and people playing RPG:s in those settings in the first place.

I used to play games like D&D and cyberpunk 2020 (was suprised that it took as long as page 3 to get mentioned.) and always liked both settings. Being a "bit" of a geek the cyberpunk setting always worked better for me since i could build up those uber-cyborg-ninja-six-limbed-killing-machines.. well in the beginning before we actually started playing by the rules.

System Shock 1 and Deus Ex (not the second one) did an awesome job at fleshing out a cyberpunk world without resorting to the whole "look at me im CYBERPUNK!!!"..

Oh and is Shadowrun defined as "steampunk"? I tought that game was more like cyberpunk with magic or D&D + future or am i just ignorant?

 

[Oliver Pink]

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you...


Steampunk at its finest.

 

[ohellynot]

There's a difference?

Well yeah, cyber punk is futuristic where everything is powered by "energy cores" and whotnot and is all crome and shiny.
Steam punk is steam powered and made of brass and much better

 

[Spacelord]

Personaly i like Steampunk better because we are geting closer to cyberpunk every day and it's starting to seem...ordinary.

Shit, that's a good point. I think you just explained my entire preference for steampunk.

It's been dawning on me more and more that the future I dreamed of as a kid is here now. Not just the fact that the Terabyte is a standard measure of capacity for a harddrive nowadays mind you (though this was a ludicrous amount when I was younger - like a jillion bajillion megabytes). Not even the cloning. No, we have jetpacks now. DARPA is developing exoskeletons and railguns, and they're already using big frickin laser beams and robots to fight our wars RIGHT NOW. We can conceivably control robot limbs with our minds already, for fuck's sake.

I feel more and more overwhelmed by childhood pipe dreams coming to life every single day. No wonder I keep feeling more and more attracted to simpler times, where the inner workings of a device doesn't have to blow my fucking mind. Gears, I can understand. But processors so small they get affected by quantum physics? My brain needs a vacation

[small]incidentally everything I wrote in bold I can link to if anyone is interested - can't be bothered right now[/small]

EDIT: OT: I voted steampunk (obviously)

 

[Sacman]

I like both, Ghost in the Shell is a perfect example of cyber punk and Bioshock for steam punk.
I can't decide!

Bioshock isn't really steampunk though, it's more art deco.

Personally I prefer cyberpunk.

but the inclusion of the plasmids make it a little Biopunk as well...

 

[cj_iwakura]

Biopunk is a thing?

 

[Sacman]

There's a difference?

Well yeah, cyber punk is futuristic where everything is powered by "energy cores" and whotnot and is all crome and shiny.
Steam punk is steam powered and made of brass and much better

Does no one know what Cyberpunk is anymore? it doesn't have to do with setting or whether something is shiny or not, it has to do with themes and ideas surrounding the effects of technology in society, which means that the best cyberpunk doesn't need a huge over the top city or androids, all it needs is the ideas and theme that arise because of technology... take for example my favorite show Serial Experiments Lain the setting isn't futuristic, if anything it's less futuristic than today, but it's still one the purest forms of cyberpunk because the way it handles it's vision of the internet and how it blurs the line between reality and fiction, which is a heavy cyberpunk theme... now look at something say, I dunno, Pinocchio, it really doesn't seem cyberpunk but it encompasses several of the same themes that are present in cyberpunk, like for example the main characters crisis of identity. does this make it cyberpunk? no, because it lacks the technology element but my point is with a little revision it could easily be cyberpunk...

 

[Sacman]

Biopunk is a thing?

yeah, so is Post-apocalypsepunk and timepunk and space opera... Resident Evil is a good example of Biopunk...

 

[cj_iwakura]

Serial Experiments was kind of futuristic at the time, and it did predict how the internet would begin to affect civilization.

 

[ConductorCat]

Cyberpunk, for me. Steampunk has kinda been done to death.

 

[shinigamisparda]

I'm definitely for Steampunk. I'm willing to sacrifice crazy technologically advanced gadgets for control. To be honest, I'm the kind of guy that greatly fears a future like Ghost in the Shell or some form thereof. Mostly it's because the idea of people being hacked scares the shit out of me. Also, low tech ingenuity just seems cooler to me.

 

[Sacman]

Serial Experiments was kind of futuristic at the time, and it did predict how the internet would begin to affect civilization.

Yeah it was futuristic for 1998 when the world was backwards and primitive but now it seems like it's within arms reach... well in the technical aspect anyway... also I like your user name...
...Iwakura, teehee...

 

[The Random One]

I like both! Each has its own unique flavour.

Also Star Trek is not cyberpunk.

 

[MEEBO17]

Steampunk cause i have no idea what cyberpunk is.

 

[LBringer]

Steampunk cause i have no idea what cyberpunk is.

Even though many people hate Keanu Reeves, watch 'Johnny Mnemonic'. It was fun, and also cyberpunk. And as much as people point out Neuromancer, I'm surprised no one mentioned the other two in the 'set': Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive.

 

[NaramSuen]

I have to go with cyberpunk, since I have never read a decent piece of steampunk fiction or seem a decent steampunk film. Other than Bioshock and that Smashing Pumpkins video I have yet to see steampunk be translated into anything interesting other than cosplay and re-imagining of pre-existing properties (e.g. Star Wars or Spiderman). And the creators of Bioshock have been quick to distance themselves from the steampunk label, so I don't even know if that counts as an example.

 

[slarrs]

I want some really over the top steam punk again. I'm not talking bioshock where your gun looks a little steam punkish, I mean all technology in the world is Steam powered. It's just SO AWESOME.

Both have kind of been enveloped into games now, more as just background design then they used to be. Remember fighting in the steam punk (American) civil war games? God I miss it.

 

[kannibus]

Love me my cyberpunk. But that's just because I'm a sci-fi fanboy. However, I am of course open to things like cyberpunk/fantasy. Seriously, Shadowrun was probably the best damn concept in the frickin world. It just sucks that no one's been able to do it justice.