~Bunbunmaru News~ > Ask a *Blank* Archive
Ask a Staffer Ep. 6 - Purvis
theshirn:
Can you define Steampunk for me? Cyberpunk?
Mimachiro:
If the Internet disappeared, what would you do?
When you look at a full moon, do you see a smiling man, or a rabbit pounding mochi?
Where did you get Izchak from?
Hello Purvis:
--- Quote from: HakureiSM on March 29, 2011, 05:29:22 AM ---Do you own any handheld game console?
--- End quote ---
y u so not reed annsir?
--- Quote from: Ruwako Moriya on March 29, 2011, 05:35:28 AM ---What is the historical era or culture you most feel you don't understand?
--- End quote ---
Pacific Island nations. I know pretty much nothing about them at all.
--- Quote from: Ruwako Moriya on March 29, 2011, 05:35:28 AM ---Do you like writing on college-rule paper, wide-rule paper, blank paper, or another kind of paper?
--- End quote ---
College ruled. Or legal pads if I'm note taking.
--- Quote from: theshim on March 29, 2011, 07:05:23 AM ---Can you define Steampunk for me? Cyberpunk?
--- End quote ---
Steampunk is a setting that presume steam power never got replaced by petrolium powered engines. Typically, it goes on to assume that since we didn't get out of the steam age, other technologies that followed also were not able to happen. Except when they did. Anyways, since steam never went out of style, it also evolved, so you'll see steam-powered cards, punch-card internets, and stuff like that. Typically culture hasn't evolved from the 19th century either, leading to some "hilarious" old-timey racism in the form of the White Man's Burden type stuff, though more and more it's being used as a way to get fantasyesque technology in fantasy settings; since about FF6 or so.
Cyberpunk is a near future setting, which has had to evolve as time went on. In general, it is based on the idea that corporations have grown to be more powerful than nations, and the general government structure has vastly degraded. Corporations somtimes create their own corporate states; either de jure or de facto. The setting tends to be dark and gritty (and many writers take it too far and screw things up), where crime is common, life is cheap, and so on. Technology has advanced, thus the cyber bit, while society has degraded. Generally it works off assuming current trends continue onward. 80's sci-fi often featured the USSR as still there and still important; and Asia as the new cultural and financial hegemon. Then those thins collapsed, and in the 90's you'd see the EU as the new financial/cultural center, and so on.
Cyberpunk tends to have slightly more literary merit, as it's obstensibly about predicting possible futures rather than being complete fantasy as steampunk is. Both obviously have a great deal of potential. And tend to be handled by literary mooks. Good RP settings have come out them, though!
--- Quote from: Genichiro on March 29, 2011, 10:12:34 AM ---If the Internet disappeared, what would you do?
--- End quote ---
I would be a very sad panda.
--- Quote from: Genichiro on March 29, 2011, 10:12:34 AM ---When you look at a full moon, do you see a smiling man, or a rabbit pounding mochi?
--- End quote ---
I see a Rorschach Test.
--- Quote from: Genichiro on March 29, 2011, 10:12:34 AM ---Where did you get Izchak from?
--- End quote ---
My son, I am very saddened by your lack of knowledges.
日巫子:
What's the meaning behind your signature?
Alfred F. Jones:
What kind of reforms would you like to see passed in the US in the next decade or so, and how big are the chances of them actually being enacted?
When something happens to you that's worth celebrating, what do you do to celebrate it?
If I wanted to start reading your text adventures, where should I start and in what order should I go in?