Mike Pondsmith still claims that he has significant involvement in the development of Cyberpunk 2077.
Regarding CD Projekt RED‘s game, two main criticisms showed up during E3. One of them is that people consider an advertisement (where a possibly transgender model promotes a drink with the text Mix it up, and „with 16 flavours you’d love to mix) transphobic, and another one is via RockPaperShotgun, who claims that the Animals gang in the gameplay demo from E3 (hopefully, you still remember it…), was shown as „shooting at predominantly black people labelled as animals.”
Mike Pondsmith, the creator of the Cyberpunk 2020 table-top RPG, comes into the picture here with his post on Reddit, responding to the criticisms: „If I wasn’t heavily involved, I would be able to get more done. As it is, I barely have a life! As for the Animals—the WHOLE FREAKING POINT is that they think of themselves as POWERFUL, DANGEROUS, WILD ANIMALS. You’d have thought the Lady named ‘Sasquatch’ would have given them a clue.”
He accepted that the Voodoo Boys (which, according to the Cyberpunk Wiki, are described as „average white boys”), which were „a scathing commentary on cultural appropriation” in Cyberpunk 2020, were modified by CD Projekt RED in Cyberpunk 2077: „I LOVE the idea that real practitioners of Voudon moved in and took back their turf. And they even got the Creole right! Who the (bleep) do YOU think you are to tell ME whether or not MY creation was done right or not?” Pondsmith got a little mad, but at least he is passionate about his work, which is always a good thing, as it shows he doesn’t do it because he simply has to. The twist here is that Pondsmith is an African American. Therefore, he simply HAS TO have experience about racism, and since Cyberpunk 2077 is based on his creation, he could have easily stopped CD Projekt RED whenever he wanted to if he found something to be off.
Cyberpunk 2077 is out on April 16 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.
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