Said this before, but unlike Siege of Dragonspear or whatever a strong portrayal of deviant gerbil fuckers actually makes a ton of sense for Cyberpunk's setting. There's gonna be some tranny in the game with a mechanical dick that glows pure blue neon and you guys are gonna freak the fuck out but it makes perfect sense for the world they created and I'm gonna get a kick out of it. Putting all political crusades aside... the religious nutters and the men's rights dudes and white nationalists blah blah blah... it makes sense for the Cyberpunk world to be the harem of deviancy you fear.
I'm pretty sure we've been over this before including in this very thread for what feels like several times now:
https://rpgcodex.net/forums/index.p...-for-all-to-enjoy.122398/page-64#post-5731387
https://rpgcodex.net/forums/index.p...ut-cyberpunk-2077.128065/page-12#post-6179993
If you look at your favorite Cyberpunk movie, game or even broad setting we know that the first thing on people's minds when talking about say Blade Runner, RoboCop or Deus Ex isn't "deviant gerbil fuckers" or "tranny with a mechanical dick that glows pure blue neon", in fact I doubt that's even Top100 or 1000.
If you're honest with yourself you know that the interesting parts are about future Sci-Fi Dystopias with the world or parts of it being taken over by Megacorps like Tyrell Corporation, Omni Consumer Products, Cyberdyne Systems, Weyland-Yutani Corporation etc. that would usher in the robotic apocalypse, synthetic humans and AI overlords (maybe space ships and some alien invasions), but we'd at least have flying cars, personal robots, holographic waifus and cybernetic enhancements and for some reason the weather of the English countryside and near-constant night due to pollution.
A setting without m(any) of the aforementioned things isn't really Cyberpunk and most of them didn't and wouldn't much suffer from the lack of "deviant gerbil fuckers" or "trannies with a mechanical dick that glows pure blue neon". Far be it from me to denigrate the important sociopolitical message the inclusion of such would make, which are apparently considered integral and essential to the Cyberpunk setting by some here, but everybody who's honest with themselves and others knows the intent behind these things and the past and current constant questioning about them from outlets like Polygon, RPS and Kotaku is for political purposes and what they consider "normalization" and different from "just good fun" entertainment value and wouldn't have played a role or had even been mentioned mere 10-15 years ago.
If such topics were included in some settings it was usually for comedic effect or as the butt of a joke:
Not for "positive representation and acceptance" reasons or celebration of such as CDProjekt has been telling us, but we all know said groups would yell bloody murder if that happened in any way they'd consider "offensive" and the noises we've heard
coming from the development team have been largely appeasatory.
“This is all to show that [much like in our modern world], hypersexualization in advertisements is just terrible,” Redesiuk continued. “It was a conscious choice on our end to show that in this world — a world where you are a cyberpunk, a person fighting against corporations. That [advertisement] is what you’re fighting against.”
I asked Redesiuk what she would say to those in the trans community who might be offended to see themselves portrayed this way in the game.
“I would say it was never the intention to offend anyone,” Redesiuk said. “However, with this image of an oversexualized person, we did want to show how oversexualization of people is bad. And that’s it.
For Redesiuk, the fictional advertisement is also an effort to increase empathy for the LGBTQ community among video game consumers.
“We need it,” Redesiuk said. “I honestly think we need it because we need more acceptance in the world, and we need to also show how the goodness of people is sometimes used against them. And I would really love for the world to change and be a better place for everyone.”
The reveal of a gang protecting "sex workers" named after a
real-life Axe Murderer-cum-Feminist icon is just the latest example.
We'll see soon enough on which end of the spectrum Cyberpunk 2077 lands. But the longer they delay and more I see and hear from and about the people involved, the lower my desire to play it sinks, it went from "HYPE! HYPE! HYPE! WANT RIGHT NOW!" to "Pre-Order 2 Copies (Retail/Digital) When Available!" to "Day1 Purchase!" to "Wait and See and maybe get after release when it's a bit cheaper if there's not too much Bullshit" and it still has a long way that it can fall.