Is Cyberpunk 2077 an Existentialist Masterpiece?
Cyberpunk 2077
Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty
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Comments (6)
The only way to avoid regretting a decision, is to realize ahead of time that when you have to choose between two good decisions, whichever way you choose, at some point you will regret it. Cyberpunk is a game about choosing between wrongs, which often have the same result as two rights, you will regret your choice no matter what. Cyberpunk ends with a choice between 5 or 6 bads. The upshot is you can actually try them all if you want.
The abandonment/regret thing was Sartre's conclusion about the man with the mother's decision: "That is what “abandonment” implies, that we ourselves decide our being. And with this abandonment goes anguish." I talk about this a little more in the Patron update.
Sartre is such a dichotomy for me. His basis of thought seems to feel right, but where he ends up with it in his personal beliefs is so off the mark of what I think he is saying that he becomes a parody of a philosopher. For me at least.
I think the Nazi occupation really impacted his later years. While I don't agree with those later conclusions, I totally understand how he came to them. I also have the benefit of knowing the outcome of political ideologies that were still in flux during the 1950s and 60s.
Annie. For a 21 year old girl who is not smart enough or educated enough to hold forth on existentialism in a video game you sure did a fine job of it. Slavoj Žižek might have done better, but not by much.
There was a whole section about Soviet occupation that I had to cut out. I was out of time and at the limit of my understanding. I'll talk abut it more in the (now late) November Patron Update.