Cyberpunk creator Mike Pondsmith defends 2077 from post-E3 criticism

Cyberpunk 2077 was one of the biggest hits of this year's E3, but it didn't go over without criticism. The demo and trailers led some to express concerns about trans representation in the game, while an article by Rock, Paper, Shotgun expressed discomfort at "shooting at predominantly black people labelled as animals," referring to the Animals gang in the gameplay demo.

The criticisms attracted the attention of Mike Pondsmith, the creator of the Cyberpunk RPG on which the game is based. 

"If I wasn't heavily involved, I would be able to get more done. As it is, I barely have a life," Pondsmith wrote on Reddit, responding to a suggestion by an RPS commenter that he wasn't still involved in the development of Cyberpunk 2077. "As for the Animals—the WHOLE FREAKING POINT is that they think of themselves as POWERFUL, DANGEROUS, WILD ANIMALS. You'd have thought the Lady named 'Sasquatch' would have given them a clue." 

He also expressed approval of changes that CD Projekt has made to the Voodoo Boys gang, describing the 2020 iteration as "a scathing commentary on cultural appropriation." That presumably reflects the fact that, despite its name and affectations, the gang is made up primarily of "average white boys," according to the Cyberpunk Wiki.   

"I LOVE the idea that real practitioners of Voudon moved in and took back their turf. And they even got the Creole right!" he wrote. "Who the (bleep) do YOU think you are to tell ME whether or not MY creation was done right or not?"

So he likes the game, then, though whether or not CD Projekt's creation matches Pondsmith's vision wasn't the crux of the criticism, and would be an exercise in comparison. As a game named for a genre which has a great deal of existing symbolic meaning, Cyberpunk 2077's portrayal of the future and what it has to say about cultural and economic oppression will surely continue to be scrutinized.

Cyberpunk 2077 is scheduled for release on April 16, 2020. We recently shared some of our thoughts about the big E3 demo, and you can catch up with everything else we know about the game here.