Jesse Heinig
@jesseheinig.bsky.social
Game designer. Writer. World of Warcraft Classic developer. Original Fallout dev. Classic World of Darkness developer. Former Star Trek Online developer. He/Him. Account represents personal views.
fffff wow, what a legend. Thank you for sharing.
November 18, 2025 at 1:36 AM
fffff wow, what a legend. Thank you for sharing.
Anyway sorry for the rant, this is the sorta stuff that I think about and occasionally work on, and I grew up with the cyberpunk era, in California, living through the period of fear of Japanization ("they're buying the entire state!") and subsequent media frenzy.
~Fin~
~Fin~
November 14, 2025 at 8:16 PM
Anyway sorry for the rant, this is the sorta stuff that I think about and occasionally work on, and I grew up with the cyberpunk era, in California, living through the period of fear of Japanization ("they're buying the entire state!") and subsequent media frenzy.
~Fin~
~Fin~
So by the same token, the Orientalism of early cyberpunk ultimately comes from fear, from the fear of America becoming unrecognizable and Asiatic, when the now-modern reality is that urban Americans overwhelmingly embrace and integrate other cultures into their own experiences.
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November 14, 2025 at 8:16 PM
So by the same token, the Orientalism of early cyberpunk ultimately comes from fear, from the fear of America becoming unrecognizable and Asiatic, when the now-modern reality is that urban Americans overwhelmingly embrace and integrate other cultures into their own experiences.
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(Whole other essay about how the real dehumanization is not in using prosthetics and body modification, but rather in treating humans as commodities and turning your body into a weapon, a tool that functions only to kill people)
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November 14, 2025 at 8:16 PM
(Whole other essay about how the real dehumanization is not in using prosthetics and body modification, but rather in treating humans as commodities and turning your body into a weapon, a tool that functions only to kill people)
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Frex over in gaming, cyberpunk games long had systems whereby having cybernetic implants was dehumanizing, but today we recognize that these could be beneficial, esp. as accessibility aids. Having a synthetic limb does not make you less human, it just helps you overcome a hurdle.
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November 14, 2025 at 8:16 PM
Frex over in gaming, cyberpunk games long had systems whereby having cybernetic implants was dehumanizing, but today we recognize that these could be beneficial, esp. as accessibility aids. Having a synthetic limb does not make you less human, it just helps you overcome a hurdle.
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There are many elements of cyberpunk that were, at the time, seen as cautionary subjects, fears of things that could happen in the future ("humans will become intertwined with machines! Foreign people will mingle freely in the streets!") that we now, today, can recognize as hopeful.
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November 14, 2025 at 8:16 PM
There are many elements of cyberpunk that were, at the time, seen as cautionary subjects, fears of things that could happen in the future ("humans will become intertwined with machines! Foreign people will mingle freely in the streets!") that we now, today, can recognize as hopeful.
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... is supposed to wonder "How can this be Los Angeles? Where's the English?" But of course the multicultural future (now present) is not something to be feared. In early cyberpunk fiction tho this was showing "Your home has become alien to you, your future is incomprehensible."
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November 14, 2025 at 8:16 PM
... is supposed to wonder "How can this be Los Angeles? Where's the English?" But of course the multicultural future (now present) is not something to be feared. In early cyberpunk fiction tho this was showing "Your home has become alien to you, your future is incomprehensible."
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Another commenter elsewhere pointed out that part of the reasoning behind the common artistic choice of having Asian writing on signage all over the place was to make Western readers/viewers feel alienated. In "Blade Runner" so much stuff is in foreign languages that the viewer in '82...
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November 14, 2025 at 8:16 PM
Another commenter elsewhere pointed out that part of the reasoning behind the common artistic choice of having Asian writing on signage all over the place was to make Western readers/viewers feel alienated. In "Blade Runner" so much stuff is in foreign languages that the viewer in '82...
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Cyberpunk media was written with this cultural quake baked in, with the projection that Japan would be the economic powerhouse of the future and that Japanese corporations and culture would run everything. But it was a lurid, sensationalized view of Japan from the American POV.
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November 14, 2025 at 8:16 PM
Cyberpunk media was written with this cultural quake baked in, with the projection that Japan would be the economic powerhouse of the future and that Japanese corporations and culture would run everything. But it was a lurid, sensationalized view of Japan from the American POV.
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At the same time as this era there was a rise in the interest in Japanese culture in the U.S., with the arrival of anime and manga, as well as the ninja craze that culminated in a lot of schlocky movies (even hitting James Bond as early as '67 in "You Only Live Twice").
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November 14, 2025 at 8:16 PM
At the same time as this era there was a rise in the interest in Japanese culture in the U.S., with the arrival of anime and manga, as well as the ninja craze that culminated in a lot of schlocky movies (even hitting James Bond as early as '67 in "You Only Live Twice").
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In media this showed up in stuff like the excoriated film "Rising Sun" (1993), in which Sean Connery serves as a Western cop investigating a corporate murder involving a Japanese megacorporation, and "Black Rain" (1989), with Michael Douglas as a U.S. detective investigating the yakuza.
November 14, 2025 at 8:16 PM
In media this showed up in stuff like the excoriated film "Rising Sun" (1993), in which Sean Connery serves as a Western cop investigating a corporate murder involving a Japanese megacorporation, and "Black Rain" (1989), with Michael Douglas as a U.S. detective investigating the yakuza.
Then of course that turned out to be a real estate bubble and Japan wound up in an economic sargasso for decades. But at the time there was a very xenophobic fear that "The Japanese are coming and they are going to take over everything and all their corporations will set up over here"
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November 14, 2025 at 8:16 PM
Then of course that turned out to be a real estate bubble and Japan wound up in an economic sargasso for decades. But at the time there was a very xenophobic fear that "The Japanese are coming and they are going to take over everything and all their corporations will set up over here"
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Yeah Orientalism is heavily baked into the medium simply b/c of the era in which it was originally created. When "Neuromancer" came out in 1984 everyone was going on about how the Japanese were going to buy up California and own everything b/c they were such an economic powerhouse.
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November 14, 2025 at 8:16 PM
Yeah Orientalism is heavily baked into the medium simply b/c of the era in which it was originally created. When "Neuromancer" came out in 1984 everyone was going on about how the Japanese were going to buy up California and own everything b/c they were such an economic powerhouse.
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There are many others but time is limited
November 14, 2025 at 7:53 PM
There are many others but time is limited
Robocop (1987)
Peter Weller stars as a cop who is brutally maimed and then rebuilt as a total conversion cyborg, send to clean up the streets of Detroit, but secretly programmed to serve the interest of the corporation that bankrolled him. Explores person vs machine. Note: Extreme gore and blood.
Peter Weller stars as a cop who is brutally maimed and then rebuilt as a total conversion cyborg, send to clean up the streets of Detroit, but secretly programmed to serve the interest of the corporation that bankrolled him. Explores person vs machine. Note: Extreme gore and blood.
November 14, 2025 at 7:53 PM
Robocop (1987)
Peter Weller stars as a cop who is brutally maimed and then rebuilt as a total conversion cyborg, send to clean up the streets of Detroit, but secretly programmed to serve the interest of the corporation that bankrolled him. Explores person vs machine. Note: Extreme gore and blood.
Peter Weller stars as a cop who is brutally maimed and then rebuilt as a total conversion cyborg, send to clean up the streets of Detroit, but secretly programmed to serve the interest of the corporation that bankrolled him. Explores person vs machine. Note: Extreme gore and blood.
Blade Runner (1982)
Flawed but interesting view of dystopian past-future L.A. where Earth's ecosphere has collapsed and animals and people are largely replaced with artificially engineered and grown replicants. Harrison Ford stars as a detective who hunts down and "retires" replicants.
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Flawed but interesting view of dystopian past-future L.A. where Earth's ecosphere has collapsed and animals and people are largely replaced with artificially engineered and grown replicants. Harrison Ford stars as a detective who hunts down and "retires" replicants.
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November 14, 2025 at 7:53 PM
Blade Runner (1982)
Flawed but interesting view of dystopian past-future L.A. where Earth's ecosphere has collapsed and animals and people are largely replaced with artificially engineered and grown replicants. Harrison Ford stars as a detective who hunts down and "retires" replicants.
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Flawed but interesting view of dystopian past-future L.A. where Earth's ecosphere has collapsed and animals and people are largely replaced with artificially engineered and grown replicants. Harrison Ford stars as a detective who hunts down and "retires" replicants.
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Akira (1988)
Famous animated film based on a manga, chronicling the rise of altered psychic youth in a post-apocalypse Tokyo that was devastated by a previous posthuman experiment. Note: Body horror and gore.
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Famous animated film based on a manga, chronicling the rise of altered psychic youth in a post-apocalypse Tokyo that was devastated by a previous posthuman experiment. Note: Body horror and gore.
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November 14, 2025 at 7:53 PM
Akira (1988)
Famous animated film based on a manga, chronicling the rise of altered psychic youth in a post-apocalypse Tokyo that was devastated by a previous posthuman experiment. Note: Body horror and gore.
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Famous animated film based on a manga, chronicling the rise of altered psychic youth in a post-apocalypse Tokyo that was devastated by a previous posthuman experiment. Note: Body horror and gore.
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Hotel Artemis (2018)
A secret medical clinic that caters to criminals and fugitives becomes a war zone in futuristic dystopian L.A. Features Jodie Foster! Very much an action-oriented "bottle show" that mostly takes place in one building. Film has trouble coming together coherently, though.
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A secret medical clinic that caters to criminals and fugitives becomes a war zone in futuristic dystopian L.A. Features Jodie Foster! Very much an action-oriented "bottle show" that mostly takes place in one building. Film has trouble coming together coherently, though.
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November 14, 2025 at 7:53 PM
Hotel Artemis (2018)
A secret medical clinic that caters to criminals and fugitives becomes a war zone in futuristic dystopian L.A. Features Jodie Foster! Very much an action-oriented "bottle show" that mostly takes place in one building. Film has trouble coming together coherently, though.
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A secret medical clinic that caters to criminals and fugitives becomes a war zone in futuristic dystopian L.A. Features Jodie Foster! Very much an action-oriented "bottle show" that mostly takes place in one building. Film has trouble coming together coherently, though.
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Upgrade (2018)
An unfortunate man is paralyzed in a mugging and then receives an experimental implant that restores his mobility, but makes him subject to outside puppeteering. Excellent camera work to show that his movements are not under his control.
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An unfortunate man is paralyzed in a mugging and then receives an experimental implant that restores his mobility, but makes him subject to outside puppeteering. Excellent camera work to show that his movements are not under his control.
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November 14, 2025 at 7:53 PM
Upgrade (2018)
An unfortunate man is paralyzed in a mugging and then receives an experimental implant that restores his mobility, but makes him subject to outside puppeteering. Excellent camera work to show that his movements are not under his control.
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An unfortunate man is paralyzed in a mugging and then receives an experimental implant that restores his mobility, but makes him subject to outside puppeteering. Excellent camera work to show that his movements are not under his control.
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Split Second (1992)
Rutger Hauer stars as a rogue cop tracking a malevolent mutant entity that kills people in post-sea-rise London of the dystopian future. Very oddly paced and edited but has some memorable funny lines.
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Rutger Hauer stars as a rogue cop tracking a malevolent mutant entity that kills people in post-sea-rise London of the dystopian future. Very oddly paced and edited but has some memorable funny lines.
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November 14, 2025 at 7:53 PM
Split Second (1992)
Rutger Hauer stars as a rogue cop tracking a malevolent mutant entity that kills people in post-sea-rise London of the dystopian future. Very oddly paced and edited but has some memorable funny lines.
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Rutger Hauer stars as a rogue cop tracking a malevolent mutant entity that kills people in post-sea-rise London of the dystopian future. Very oddly paced and edited but has some memorable funny lines.
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Strange Days (1995)
Movie about a former cop turned digital experience dealer who stumbles into a conspiracy about police extrajudicially murdering a popular rapper at the turn of the century. Falls apart in the finale, but has some fascinating characters.
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Movie about a former cop turned digital experience dealer who stumbles into a conspiracy about police extrajudicially murdering a popular rapper at the turn of the century. Falls apart in the finale, but has some fascinating characters.
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November 14, 2025 at 7:53 PM
Strange Days (1995)
Movie about a former cop turned digital experience dealer who stumbles into a conspiracy about police extrajudicially murdering a popular rapper at the turn of the century. Falls apart in the finale, but has some fascinating characters.
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Movie about a former cop turned digital experience dealer who stumbles into a conspiracy about police extrajudicially murdering a popular rapper at the turn of the century. Falls apart in the finale, but has some fascinating characters.
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Out here making me yearn for the day I die
November 14, 2025 at 7:03 PM
Out here making me yearn for the day I die
Livin' the dream!
November 14, 2025 at 2:43 AM
Livin' the dream!
Paid off for Red Sonja, too. Movie may not be great but the soundtrack is a banger
November 13, 2025 at 7:52 PM
Paid off for Red Sonja, too. Movie may not be great but the soundtrack is a banger
We had, uh, rather different experiences
November 11, 2025 at 7:57 PM
We had, uh, rather different experiences