That arms race you detest demonstrates some of cyberpunk's common themes, IMO. The influx of bigger and badder guns is the direct result of rapid technological progress in a world where people are hungry for new ways to kill each other. The guy with four arms is the result of a transhumanist culture that sees the human body as just another tool to be modified as one sees fit. (And his reason for being modified adds a bit of a twist.. for instance, was it a combat modification made on him by an organization that only sees him as a faceless object, or did he get the extra pair because chicks dig the chrome?)
Meanwhile, there are many, many interpretations of cyberpunk out there. As Pondsmith said, "You'll see stuff from new literary sources, Japanese animation (they do some really interesting stuff), several new movies that have come out, and a lot of our own twisted creations." I think a game that attempts to incorporate all of that would be amiss in NOT having a guy with four arms.
Finally, as someone else said, the company is going to sell what sells. If the majority of the players want a Militech high-performance synthetic spleen and sniper rifle and are willing to pay money to get it in a book, then that's what R.Tal is going to publish. It's a kind of selling out, but then again, that's the harsh reality of the RPG business: companies who don't successfully pander to their market eventually lose the ability to produce ANYTHING.
If you want a more mature game with lots of weird transhumanist character soul-searching, ethical dilemmas, evocative culture shock, or whatever, then you need a GM and players who understand those things and want to incorporate them into their games. True, the CP2020 books did focus more on toys and targets than on Deep Meaningful Hooey.. but it's always been my experience that the group defines the game, not vice-versa.
That arms race you detest demonstrates some of cyberpunk's common themes, IMO. The influx of bigger and badder guns is the direct result of rapid technological progress in a world where people are hungry for new ways to kill each other. The guy with four arms is the result of a transhumanist culture that sees the human body as just another tool to be modified as one sees fit. (And his reason for being modified adds a bit of a twist.. for instance, was it a combat modification made on him by an organization that only sees him as a faceless object, or did he get the extra pair because chicks dig the chrome?)
Meanwhile, there are many, many interpretations of cyberpunk out there. As Pondsmith said, "You'll see stuff from new literary sources, Japanese animation (they do some really interesting stuff), several new movies that have come out, and a lot of our own twisted creations." I think a game that attempts to incorporate all of that would be amiss in NOT having a guy with four arms.
Finally, as someone else said, the company is going to sell what sells. If the majority of the players want a Militech high-performance synthetic spleen and sniper rifle and are willing to pay money to get it in a book, then that's what R.Tal is going to publish. It's a kind of selling out, but then again, that's the harsh reality of the RPG business: companies who don't successfully pander to their market eventually lose the ability to produce ANYTHING.
If you want a more mature game with lots of weird transhumanist character soul-searching, ethical dilemmas, evocative culture shock, or whatever, then you need a GM and players who understand those things and want to incorporate them into their games. True, the CP2020 books did focus more on toys and targets than on Deep Meaningful Hooey.. but it's always been my experience that the group defines the game, not vice-versa.