Steampunk vs Cyberpunk

[Treblaine]

I know this has probably been done about a million times but screw it I'll ask anyway. Which do you guys think is better out of steampunk or cyberpunk? I'd say steampunk because I love the way the people in steampunk dress and the art-deco look of the buildings is nice. The gears everywhere are pretty cool too.

Right now? Steampunk.

After the 2000's was fucking FLOODED with cyberpunk after the Matrix I'm kinda done with it for now. Also, I'm not really impressed that you can do that much with it, and really there is no reason to go away from the "fundamentals" so-to-speak.

This is speaking as a huge Bioshock fan, what the devs were able to do with that without any Matrix-eque stuff was great and in the process they were able to draw from a goldmine of music and tropes of that time period.

Though I suppose strictly Bioshock is more "DieselPunk" than Steampunk, but Dieselpunk is typically classified under steampunk anyway.

I haven't played DX:HR or Hard Reset yet... but I can't say I am as excited to play either of those as I am to return to Rapture. Or a similar place.

There is something about going back in time to an alternate speculative history that I find so much more interesting than to travel to the far future where everything is augmented and nan-bots and "oooh, this technology is soooo advanced i won't even try to explain it, it's jsut like magic".

See, if there is going to be magic, call it magic.

Don't try to sell science and technology as magic, I'll always want to know HOW they do it! But things like Bioshock's plasmids... pretty much magic. But DX:HR's augmentation, sorry but if you do science then you REALLY have to do science, I'm the type of guy who will go into ball-aching detail describing the function of mechanical devices then add an element of "aww shit, It's just magic OK. Telekinesis. Moving on".

 

[Axolotl]

Isn't Cyberpunk just Steampunk with blinking lights on it?

Steampunk wins, because people who designed it have taste and fashion sense.
Cyberpunk is like someone saw Steampunk then decided to "Digitally Remaster" it.

You do realise that Steampunk only came about long after Cyberpunk was established right?

 

[Richardplex]

Definitely seam punk, I mean, the way pieces of fabric are sewn together... incomparable.

i see wat you did thar.

OT: steampunk. it just looks cooler. gears n shit. it's MANLEH!

MANLEH!
n shit.

I said that because OP mispelt title, and I was poking fun. So I don't you did see what I did thar, soz =(

 

[Mikeyfell]

Isn't Cyberpunk just Steampunk with blinking lights on it?

Steampunk wins, because people who designed it have taste and fashion sense.
Cyberpunk is like someone saw Steampunk then decided to "Digitally Remaster" it.

You do realise that Steampunk only came about long after Cyberpunk was established right?

What? No...
That can't be right.
Seriously?

I believe you but, damn.

Well Steam punk still wins. All that stuff I said about it being pleasing to the eye is still relevant.
Cyberpunk makes me think that everyone in the future has to be completely immune to seizures in order to get dressed in the morning.

 

[Treblaine]

I think cyberpunk has potential to have just as good design vision as steampunk but the problem is moreo ften than not it jsut look like another version of the matrix.

The thing is artists creating for Steampunk can draw on 200 years of industrial design and architecture, while artists for cyberpunk have to create an entire universe FROM SCRATCH! That is really REALLY hard, and why I think so many cuberpunk

Blade Runner is the most classic example, Ridely Scott drew from Japanese cities (and other Asian super-cities) for inspiration at great effort though arguably of greater contribution has been in anime/manga with Akira + Ghost-in-the-shell.

The problem is what has there been SINCE those works of the 80's and 90's?

Look at Ghost in the Shell 2, it is laden not with cyberpunk imagery but iconography of the 1950's to 1980's. Bato drives a vintage car from the 1950's as does apparently many other people (or at least that's what I remembered). It seemed the technology of the future is used to perfectly recreate the past. They fight androids but with weapons from the 1960's.

I get the feeling that in both east and west the vigour for Cyberpunk has gone, cyberpunk works are retreading old ground rather than re-defining. There seems to be a big movement to steampunk, the creator of Akira more recently did Steamboy.

Look at what Ken Levine is doing with Bioshock Infinite, he is showing us a completely new kind of world in the steampunk genre yet it all fits within.

I think cyberpunk will make it's grand return. DX;HR and Hard Reset are jsut holding down the fort, they aren't moving things forward like a genre NEEDS to stay alive and relevant. I just have that niggling feeling that there is a side of cyberpunk that we haven't realised yet, it's just there. We last had it with The Matrix. I don't know where next.

 

[BrionJames]

I like both, I honestly can't say I like one over the other. System Shock 2 and Shadowrun (for the Genesis) were freaking awesome games. I always wanted to run a table top game in the Shadowrun world just because of it's blend of fantasy themes in a cyberpunk world. However, steampunk kicks a lot of ass too. As mentioned above Bioshock was an excellent game. I've always thought Final Fantasy VI (or III whichever you prefer) was an example of a JRPG with steampunk in it.

 

[Chemical Alia]

I don't think things like this should even exist as a theme and don't do much but stifle the exploration of new themes by repeating the same crap over and over. Steampunk styles are tacky, over-complicated and repetitive, so I'll go with whatever cyberpunk is instead.

 

[teebeeohh]

Cyberpunk
because i can never get over how steam powered air ships could never work (it doesn't bother me initially me but at some point it annoys me to no end). Cyberpunk also is a lot more diverse because 90% of it is not just copying advanced machinery into a Victorian setting.

 

[Kuranesno7]

1.I kinda find Cyberpunk interesting mostly because I've never read a Steampunk book. I have yet to have heard in passing of any lines from steampunk literature as memorable as, "The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel"

2.Sure the victorian Stuff looks cool, and the intricate designs made into gas masks n such, but at the same time, I've always felt that Cyberpunk fashion has never been properly realised.
sure you had the consumerist shit from the 80's and 90's involving a dress made of crude looking microchips and somesuch, but what steampunk did right made it big was the embrace of the D.I.Y ethic of its "punk" affix.

3. The simple fact that you could use cyberspace and VR to make steampunk in a cyberpunk world makes a point in his favor.

To reaffirm, I'm not saying I think one is better, I'm giving reasons for why I prefer bendy non-spoons and cathode and wavelength realities over fancy spoons with intricate etchings and gears worked in used for teaparties on air cities.

 

[plugav]

As a fashion? I like steampunk a bit more.

As a genre? Steampunk is all about nostalgia, while cyberpunk looks to the near future and that's why I think it has more potential. Like punk itself, though, it does feel a little bit stale in the 21st century.

Also, BioShock was dieselpunk, not steampunk.

 

[Pharsalus]

That's a toughy, I really like steam punk, but I just hate the whole Victorian era, makes me think of Charles Dickens. Cyberpunk meanwhile suffers from the drawback of being set in a dystopian future, why is it always assumed that a world run by mega corporations is going to be absolutely crap?

 

[darthzew]

Dieselpunk. There needs to be more people into it.

If I have to choose between those two though, I'm going cyberpunk.

 

[Breywood]

Cyberpunk. While I admire steampunk, it's got nothing over feeling I get when I have to dust the grit from my lap after reading a few chapters in Neuromancer. Cyberpunk is also old school, even if steampunk is trying to bring Victorian styling to a futuristic era.

 

[rabidmidget]

I know this has probably been done about a million times but screw it I'll ask anyway. Which do you guys think is better out of steampunk or cyberpunk? I'd say steampunk because I love the way the people in steampunk dress and the art-deco look of the buildings is nice. The gears everywhere are pretty cool too.

Steampunk isn't art deco, it uses Victorian Era aesthetics.

You've probably mistakenly thought Bioshock was steampunk, when it is actually dieselpunk, which is based on art deco/ WWII aesthetics.

 

[PUR3_GAM3R33]

Steampunk,but I like both anyway

 

[Dfskelleton]

Cyberpunk.If I'm going to add mechanical parts to my body, I'd prefer something pretty futuristic, or for that matter, does not run on steam.
Plus, you get really cool visors and whatnot.

 

[Terminal Blue]

I'd say steampunk because I love the way the people in steampunk dress and the art-deco look of the buildings is nice. The gears everywhere are pretty cool too.

Ugh..

See, I hate 'Xpunk' arguments for this very reason. They've become utterly meaningless.

Cyberpunk as a literary and social idea was about the intrusion of technology into human life leading to alienation, materialism and the erosion of personal freedom in the face of increasing control over the human body and mind.

This was terrifying shit in the 80s, when free market capitalism and the 'end of history' was being sold as the way forward and the gap between 'haves' and 'have nots' was always widening. Cyberpunk became popular because it played on real social anxiety about class tension, social control and the destruction of any sense of individual human meaning or value

Now, what is Steampunk? If I were to write a steampunk story or make a steampunk film, what would it be about?

The answer basically comes down to 'top hats and airships are cool when you take them out of context.'

I'm not saying everything has to be deep or has to include a commentary on the world as it currently exists, it's just nice to be able to enjoy something on a deeper level. Heck, we still see the 'bad future' movies which the direct heirs of cyberpunk come out every couple of years, and that's worth something.

So yeah, cyberpunk by default. But the whole argument makes me sad. Originally, punk was the thing which inspired a visual aesthetic. Now they're just the same thing, and the world seems poorer for it.

 

[nklshaz]

Cyber Punk. It's usually just so much darker and sleeker, and it tends to have this light sense of noir about it. Steam punk kicks ass to though

 

[Wushu Panda]

love me some Steampunk. i love the idea of alternate universes where mechanical technology evolved. likewise, alternate forms of sciences erupted (alchemy, plasmids, etc)

 

[WinterOrbit]

I'd say steampunk because I love the way the people in steampunk dress and the art-deco look of the buildings is nice. The gears everywhere are pretty cool too.

Ugh..

See, I hate 'Xpunk' arguments for this very reason. They've become utterly meaningless.

Cyberpunk as a literary and social idea was about the intrusion of technology into human life leading to alienation, materialism and the erosion of personal freedom in the face of increasing control over the human body and mind.

This was terrifying shit in the 80s, when free market capitalism and the 'end of history' was being sold as the way forward and the gap between 'haves' and 'have nots' was always widening. Cyberpunk became popular because it played on real social anxiety about class tension, social control and the destruction of any sense of individual human meaning or value

Now, what is Steampunk? If I were to write a steampunk story or make a steampunk film, what would it be about?

The answer basically comes down to 'top hats and airships are cool when you take them out of context.'

I'm not saying everything has to be deep or has to include a commentary on the world as it currently exists, it's just nice to be able to enjoy something on a deeper level. Heck, we still see the 'bad future' movies which the direct heirs of cyberpunk come out every couple of years, and that's worth something.

So yeah, cyberpunk by default. But the whole argument makes me sad. Originally, punk was the thing which inspired a visual aesthetic. Now they're just the same thing, and the world seems poorer for it.

I'm a cyberpunk fan (hell, my handle is a reference to a Gibson-Sterling story), but I take issue with this assessment of steampunk. Fundamentally, as it helps explain the present, steampunk is about feeling that technology is accelerating at a rate too fast for us to be able to understand the consequences. Just in the past fifteen years, internet developments like near ubiquitous Wi-Fi, smartphones, masses upon masses of user-generated content, social media, Amazon, iTunes and the way it has completely transformed the music industry, Wikipedia, Anonymous, and especially Google, which is so important to modern first-world countries that it has become a verb, have changed the way modern society operates.

The closest comparable time of technological change causing huge societal change I can think of is the Industrial Revolution, which naturally leads to steampunk. We feel like we have too much tech to handle; so we assume did the Victorians. Don't forget also that in the Victorian era we saw class struggles (Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street?), a rise of concern about pollution (climate change?), and worldwide expansions of power (globalization?).

Honestly, steampunk is really an extention and reformulation of cyberpunk, and while I like cyberpunk better, there's still quite a lot of the same social criticism you can ring out of steampunk.