Can we talk about the in game advertising for a sec?

[polytrigon]

Just beat the game, loved it except the ending (like most people here). There's one thing though that really bothered me.

I don't understand why all of the fake advertising had to be so childish and hypersexual? "Watson's Whore", "Mix it Up", "Butts Up". These are ads that were plastered all over the city.

[SPOILER WARNING]

At the end when Mysty took me to the roof and gave me the heart to heart about Jackie I looked over the edge and as she was speaking there was an ad on a massive billboard with a girl spreading her legs apart... "Isn't it beautiful up here?" hahaha what?

This game seemed to take a lot of cues from GTAV and the worst one copied was the childish humor. I'm not saying that I didn't enjoy it in GTA, that series completely leans into the absurdity. I just don't understand what it does to propel Cyberpunk forward? It was really immersion breaking and felt out of context. On one hand you have this gorgeous city which from a distance is full of possibility and wonder... but then when you get down to the street level next to the brilliant neon are these dumb ads with no message aside from "look how zany the future is!"

Picture these advertisements in other films/stories in this genre like Bladerunner now picture these ads in idiocracy (no doubt a brilliant film though)...

Anyone else feel this way or am I just flat wrong?

 

[gallantchar]

I don’t care about the hypersexualised advertising. That’s a portion of what we were advertised. That’s a whole thing about the dystopian/almost degenerate future thing we were sold.

But don’t worry, at the rate updates seem to be going, that’ll get patched out, too.

 

[moonknightgog]

I don't understand why all of the fake advertising had to be so childish and hypersexual?

Because it's a world so dominated by capitalism, that humans themselves are products, objects. And what better products can a human being be, if not a sex object?

That's my interpretation, at least.

 

[gallantchar]

Because it's a world so dominated by capitalism, that humans themselves are products, objects. And what better products can a human being be, if not a sex object?

That's my interpretation, at least.

Exactly. And honestly, that’s probably one of the last things in the game even hinting at that, now, iirc

 

[Myajha]

Cyberpunk has always been hypersexualized. Just look at the Blade Runner movies and Johnny Mnemonic to see it.

Hell it's even somewhat in the Dredd movies, just not nearly as much.

 

[polytrigon]

Cyberpunk has always been hypersexualized. Just look at the Blade Runner movies and Johnny Mnemonic to see it.

Hell it's even somewhat in the Dredd movies, just not nearly as much.

I agree that in Bladerunner prostitution is a core component of the story... Jig Jig street makes complete sense to me in CP77. It's the toilet humor ads that I'm speaking to specifically. A 'watson's whore' sitcom ad in bladerunner would feel out of place.

Post automatically merged: Dec 18, 2020

Because it's a world so dominated by capitalism, that humans themselves are products, objects. And what better products can a human being be, if not a sex object?

That's my interpretation, at least.

I think this is the fine line that is walked between objectification of humans as a result of a culture with the power to customize every single part of the body. As mentioned in my above reply this can be seen in Bladerunner with the red light district. The other component though is the grit and I don't see tongue in cheek advertisement fitting into that equation so much.

 

[moonknightgog]

I agree that in Bladerunner prostitution is a core component of the story... Jig Jig street makes complete sense to me in CP77. It's the toilet humor ads that I'm speaking to specifically. A 'watson's whore' sitcom ad in bladerunner would feel out of place.

Post automatically merged: Dec 18, 2020

Bladerunner and Cyberpunk the PnP don't have the same tone.

 

[polytrigon]

Bladerunner and Cyberpunk the PnP don't have the same tone.

To be honest I never played the PNP growing up so by all means educate me if I missed the point.

The toilet humor is a core component of the TTRPG?

 

[tavellone]

Yes I agree that the advertisements lack any sense of tact, it isn't really hypersexualised it's more immature, like a bunch of people who never had sex were told to create a hypersexualised world.

 

[polytrigon]

Yes I agree that the advertisements lack any sense of tact, it isn't really hypersexualised it's more immature, like a bunch of people who never had sex were told to create a hypersexualised world.

You're right, in responding to others in the thread I realize that 'hyper-sexualization' didn't encapsulate my issue. You hit it on the head it's the immaturity which is why I drew the comparison to ideocracy. I don't mind that there's nudity, prostitution, softcore porn scenes in the game - i get it, in the dystopian future the most valuable resource are humans themselves and as a result over objectification this I can accept.

 

[Kikinho]

Just beat the game, loved it except the ending (like most people here). There's one thing though that really bothered me.

I don't understand why all of the fake advertising had to be so childish and hypersexual? "Watson's Whore", "Mix it Up", "Butts Up". These are ads that were plastered all over the city.

[SPOILER WARNING]

At the end when Mysty took me to the roof and gave me the heart to heart about Jackie I looked over the edge and as she was speaking there was an ad on a massive billboard with a girl spreading her legs apart... "Isn't it beautiful up here?" hahaha what?

This game seemed to take a lot of cues from GTAV and the worst one copied was the childish humor. I'm not saying that I didn't enjoy it in GTA, that series completely leans into the absurdity. I just don't understand what it does to propel Cyberpunk forward? It was really immersion breaking and felt out of context. On one hand you have this gorgeous city which from a distance is full of possibility and wonder... but then when you get down to the street level next to the brilliant neon are these dumb ads with no message aside from "look how zany the future is!"

Picture these advertisements in other films/stories in this genre like Bladerunner now picture these ads in idiocracy (no doubt a brilliant film though)...

Anyone else feel this way or am I just flat wrong?

I personally think one of the reasons why those advertisements might feel childish/out of place is because that part of the city has been watered down/censored massively.
Sex is meant to be a huge part of the city and corpo marketing. Watson's whore is apparently a massively succesful tv series in the game. Yet in game we see little example of these kind of norms aside from adverts.

 

[gallantchar]

I personally think one of the reasons why those advertisements might feel childish/out of place is because that part of the city has been watered down/censored massively.
Sex is meant to be a huge part of the city and corpo marketing. Watson's whore is apparently a massively succesful tv series in the game. Yet in game we see little example of these kind of norms aside from adverts.

And unfortunately, I doubt they’ll actually fix this so the game actually reflects that level of degeneracy that they actually purport it to be.

 

[Kikinho]

And unfortunately, I doubt they’ll actually fix this so the game actually reflects that level of degeneracy that they actually purport it to be.

I trust mods will be able to fix this issue tho.

 

[gallantchar]

I trust mods will be able to fix this issue tho.

Comforting for PC users, not for console users.

 

[Kikinho]

Comforting for PC users, not for console users.

Ah yeah... I feel for consol players.

Edit: trust me, i'm willing to be as loud as needed until we get the original state of the game back.

 

[Subenu]

Indeed, I think they should really capitalize (as said before) on the hypersexualization of the world.

About advertisements, what I really fucking loved the most... was the last ad I saw at the end on the roof. It was so well fucking put. When you look down the street on the other side of the road.. the question which way you should go in the end.
And the Ad just say "Save your Soul"

 

[Kazahashi]

I felt like the advertisements all fit honestly.

Sex sells, and with moral degeneracy being at all time lows, it makes perfect sense. At least in my opinion.

 

[polytrigon]

I personally think one of the reasons why those advertisements might feel childish/out of place is because that part of the city has been watered down/censored massively.
Sex is meant to be a huge part of the city and corpo marketing. Watson's whore is apparently a massively succesful tv series in the game. Yet in game we see little example of these kind of norms aside from adverts.

Perhaps you're right and they didn't push the degeneration of society and how it relates to toilet humor ads into the story hard enough. In the trailers we saw tv shows that fed into that narative... ex. a talk show where the poor are gifted expensive limbs not for altruistic charity but for entertainment value. This felt appropriate to me and nodded to the world of cyberpunk.

I'm surprised because I felt that the game did a very good job of offhandedly mentioning a thing and then following it up later with an actual quest to flesh it out even more. References that seemed like throwaways were actually part of the world building. For example, I loved the Us Cracks billboards that just seemed like environment sugaring but then you actually meet them and they are part of a story thread. Another great example is the first time you ride the elevator to V's apartment there's a talk show with a priest and a corp spokesperson discussing Arasaka's new Relic tech. Super cool that this would come back and be so important later.

On the other hand "Watson's Whore" I have to imagine is a vulgar gag show like "Ow My Balls" in ideocracy. There's even a datashard that I found that's a diary of Watson's Whore that seemingly solidifies the thoughtless vulgarity of the character.

Post automatically merged: Dec 18, 2020

Indeed, I think they should really capitalize (as said before) on the hypersexualization of the world.

About advertisements, what I really fucking loved the most... was the last ad I saw at the end on the roof. It was so well fucking put. When you look down the street on the other side of the road.. the question which way you should go in the end.
And the Ad just say "Save your Soul"

Yeah that was the placement that I mentioned. I've replayed the ending 5 times and each time there were different random ads. You got lucky with the Relic ad.

 

[ohdiosfreekill5]

This isn't capitalism. It's anarchy at its finest. The absolute best version of the human being.

 

[Kikinho]

This isn't capitalism. It's anarchy at its finest. The absolute best version of the human being.

Said with a Jhonny avatar!