lerky

That's what depresses me most regarding stunts like this: it does work on a portion of the populace.

I wasn't aware it was going to be an MMO, super cool energy you've brought though.

My impression had been that it was going to do the same nonsense that the THPS 1+2 remake did. An MMO is far worse, though given your response I suppose bringing up the absurdity of turning a historically singleplayer (and sometimes optionally multiplayer) series/genre into a 99%-likely-to-fail boondoggle is moot.

Also, it's neither here nor there but just to be pedantic there actually are a few (though admittedly rare) examples of games that had MMO modes in addition to full singleplayer versions. Hellgate: London comes to mind, as do some ARPGs depending on how you want to define MMO.

Last I heard it was going to require a persistent internet connection anyways, so just another coffin nail for me (assuming that's still the case).

Many of its mechanisms effectively forced entire industries to require a ton more identification, record-keeping, and access by law enforcement... particularly financial and telecom companies. Or at least that's how courts and corporate lawyers ultimately interpreted it. Potato, potato.

Though you are right that the act itself was not reauthorized in 2020. I must have missed the final vote, after its initial passage. That said, plenty of its impacts remain as they've been spun off into their own bits of legislation. I suppose "post-Patriot-Act America" would have been more accurate for me to say. Apologies!

Sounds like good ol' too-good-to-be-true honeytrappery to me, but that's pure knee-jerk speculation on my part. Army+Palantir = massive alarm bells in my book, and Proton has a growing number of issues that have tainted their reputation.

I also don't know how it would even be possible to legally operate a privacy-centric carrier in the US given the requirements of the Patriot Act/etc. To say nothing of how deeply intertwined they all are with alphabet agencies and data brokers.

At the very least I'd use extreme caution and operate under the assumption that they're not being 100% truthful.

They'll fall in line, they always do. There is no bottom.

Always interested in books with trans/enby characters (well... that aren't the tired serial killer/etc. demonization), will check those out!

I don't so much mind if a modern writer is doing a throwback to 1980s retro-futurism so long as it's still an intriguing story. That's all part of my curiosity of what cyberpunk would even be nowadays. Though from other posts it seems like if my goal is to find the cyberpunk equivalent (i.e. the reaction to our current situation) something akin to "solar-punk" would be more applicable. But that's a rabbit hole I'll dive into later. One obsession at a time!

Glad to hear about Gibson's later work. I had actually stared with his short story collection "Burning Chrome" but even in the forward he admits it's basically trash and only kept around for the sake of it. I read through a few stories but got itchy for "Neuromancer". I'll keep pushing through... the bones (and historical significance for the genre) of it are intriguing after all, even if some of the proverbial meat is a bit off.

And my post on [email protected] did indeed go through at the time, but I deleted it prior to deleting the account since I wouldn't have been able to reply (that was part of what was so busted with the piefed side of things). It was more a question about the difficulties I had with "Neuromancer" itself anyways, with the subject of contemporary writers being an aside. I'll certainly visit in the future since I expect I'll be in this cyberpunk hole quite awhile yet.

Heh, yeah I'm in hyper-fixation mode at the moment so it's just mountains of magpied cyberpunk books, games, etc. for my forseeable future... or until I burnout/something shiny catches my attention.

A trans protagonist definitely has me sold, though detective-wise it depends on whether it's just functioning as pro-cop propaganda.

Ah, that's kind of what I gathered it would be but wasn't sure. I may still take a gander out of curiosity, but I've spent too many decades playing games as it is so I'm not sure I'd get much from reading about characters doing the same inane tasks. Barring some outstanding story that just uses it more as flavor/set-dressing, that is.

Added, thanks! "Modern day dystopian sci-fi" may as well be a cyberpunk tagline at this point.