Niaux

...Hmmm...Mine's a bit mundane really...

First off, posting on a 'CyberPunk' forum I guessed I should have a reasonablly snappey name...The bad news was that all the good ones were taken.

However...I always liked the name 'Neo' (from 'Matrix')...But didn't want to be that obvious [or unimaginative] - so I scrambled round. Luckily I am currently researching for a MA (in the Internet & Culture), and am reading up about early Man and art...

This - of course - entailed a study of cave painting....And what is the most famous set of caves that have paintings in them? The Niaux [pronounced 'neo'] caves in France!

...So there you go...(I fully intend to manufacture a more exciting and clever reason later on).

On the nosey!...

Now if I could just remember the name of it (...will have to check the 'Sci-Fi' channel listings, it's on that often enough at stupid hours of the night).

...You see...That's how bad it is...Everyone has erased it from thier memory banks!

I know the whole MUD/MUSH thing isn't everyone's 'cup of tea'...But I find it all very interesting, as it makes a change to be able to use one's imaginative dexsterity rather than a joystick!

I'm a real newbie...And would definately like to see if there's anyone else out there in the UK doing this sort of thing that wouldn't mind exchanging ideas and perhaps giving some advice on how to start out.

I have found too excellent Worlds to perhaps start with, and am not sure which to get into; there's 'CyberSphere' & 'ChibaCity'...Both sound really well constructed, atmospheric and well supported (Both, importantly, have web sites with plenty of background information):

CyberSphere Site

Chiba City Site

If you are a partisipant in either of these two worlds (or maybe can suggest another to look at), and wouldn't mind helping out a real rookie, post a reply!

Cheers!

OK I admit - I am a bit of a wuss when it comes to 'new things'...

I get really nervous doing stuff when I don't know exactly what I'm doing...And if there is one thing the Internet teaches us, it's that there is always some clever dick out there who really get's thier rocks off by humiliating newbies.

...To me 'LARP' sounds like one of those torture chambers for the express humiliation of beginners...You see the thing is (like many of these things) the concept sounds great and really fun (even though I am 40, and so a prime candidate for some spotty geeky 16 year old 'expert' to rip the piss out of)...And I really do fancy joining in!

So what's the 'cowards' way in to LARP then I ask? - Even more crucially, what's the easy way in, with the least humiliation, in the UK?

(...I am sure I am asking a question lots of potensial newbies want to ask but are afraid to! LOL)

...I would really like to throw myself into a seriously atmospheric, well run CyberPunk LARP...(despite the fact I have never done anything like this before)...

But as LARP of any type is a bit thin on the ground here in the UK (it seems), there doesn't seem much chance of getting a go...

Can someone put me right on a few of my perceptions? (Any comments would be gratefully recieved.)

...And another thing!  (LOL)...

...In case anyone out there wants to try MUSH/MUD games on an Apple Mac (I can hear the Windows boyz tutting and sighing!)...I came across a nice current piece of software called 'Savitar'.

Savitar Home Page

One of the reasons I say this is good is because it's currently ongoing - the majority of MUSH/MUD telnet apps you come across are dead as the Dodo...Having been developed in the hey-days of MUD...Many are listed on download sites, but check out the last update dates. Many stopped being updated in the mid-90s, and have no means of support or 'home site'.

Just a tip.

[Put this in the 'General' section because this is where newbies are most likely to look first - before someone flames me for posting in the wrong place!]

With regards to 'Chiba City' & other telnet CyberPunk RPGs...

This whole MUSH/MUD gaming thing...Why has no-one created a special place for newbies to go just to get familiar with the concepts...Gently!

The problem as far as I can see is that the whole MUSH/MUD thing is very esoteric. It's not something you can just jump into...For starters you have to find out that it actually exists first of all! Not easy I can tell you...

I have been on the Net for years and years...And I only really started looking at it a few weeks back...(There are those who think MUSH/MUD is dead!)...

Right...(Simply) MUSH/MUD is networked textual adventuring...When I fist tried I was very much reminded of the old style text adventures that I used to play on my 48k Sinclair Spectrum home computer in the early 80s (like the classic 'Hobbit').

So...For many...The responce might be 'what's the point?' - and they will point to the 'hip scene' of spectacular polygon 3D games like 'Quake' and 'Half Life'...But that - to me at least is like saying; 'Why read books when you have a DVD?'.

Indeed I DO enjoy the brilliant imagery that DVD can produce...But I still happen to believe that my own imagination is a thousand times better resolution than the best 3DFX game or movie...

But I digress (as I often do)....

I work in a University, and we have people called 'mentors' (usually 2nd Year students who know the ropes) who's job it is to chaparone the 'Freshers' about the campus for the first - 'scarey' - few days...

Can't someone organise a form of MUSH/MUD mentor system, whereby old hands (who have compassion) can offer to log on with newbies to MUSH sessions, and accompany them round for a half hour or so. Just so they have someone to bounce ideas or questions off, or to try commands with?

(Yes, I know there are Admins in the better games who can ask OOC or pub questions if asked...But using a mentor, you could prefare together before hand, using IRC perhaps, go in together, and then exit together and have some sort of 'debrief'.)

Good idea? (Yes/No?)

[These 'mentors' might be contacted by means of boards like this one. Newbies could post up thier requests for a mentor, or ask mentors questions.]

For great 'CyberPunk' audio stylings...You can do no better (or cheaper!) than to go to MP3.com an search for the 'Dark Ambient' section...

Strangely the 'Dark Ambient' section isn't (as you might think) a sub-section of the (also) excellent 'Ambient' music section...But tucked away somewhere secret!

Some great electronic atmospherics! (As I would say the REAL sound of CyberPunk is Electro-Noise' - a genuine electronic music genre btw - and not, as everyone seems to think some trendy Drum'n'Bass Euro-Techno hybrid.)

HOWEVER..That said, if you do want something a bit more melodic rather than 'enviromental', then try either 'Mystic Sun' (all tracks downloadable free) or 'Hempmachine'.

)

For great 'CyberPunk' audio stylings...You can do no better (or cheaper!) than to go to MP3.com an search for the 'Dark Ambient' section...

Strangely the 'Dark Ambient' section isn't (as you might think) a sub-section of the (also) excellent 'Ambient' music section...But tucked away somewhere secret!

Some great electronic atmospherics! (As I would say the REAL sound of CyberPunk is Electro-Noise' - a genuine electronic music genre btw - and not, as everyone seems to think some trendy Drum'n'Bass Euro-Techno hybrid.)

HOWEVER..That said, if you do want something a bit more melodic rather than 'enviromental', then try either 'Mystic Sun' (all tracks downloadable free) or 'Hempmachine'.

)

Looking through the listings, I'd have to ask if we are all well enough versed in what 'CyberPunk' is?

(I don't mean that to be insulting to anyone, btw.)

There are two ways to look at CyberPunk...Atmospherically (stylisation) and Contextually (theme).

Put simply, there is some Sci-Fi that can be mistaken for CyberPunk because of stylisation...And some CyberPunk that can be mistaken for Sci-Fi because of theme...

Furthermore there are some Movies/TV series out there that don't intend themselves as being either SciFi OR CyberPunk, but would definately pass as CyberPunk by me and quite a few others!

One of my favourite 'CyberPunk' Films is (with apologies to American fans who may never have heard of this) Dennis Potter's 'Cold Lazarus'!....And I don't think Dennis Potter ever heard of 'CyberPunk'! (Dennis Potter is perhaps best known in the US as having wrote the musical-film 'Pennies from Heaven'...Er, but 'no' Cold Lazarus wasn't a musical! LOL).

However...after that little gripe about terminology...Let me add that the worst CyberPunk film I ever saw (i.e. a 'movie' that intended to be in the CyberPunk genre) was one I can't even remember the name of - it was that bad!

However, like many bad films, it did have an interesting concept (and in many ways had curious thematic cross-overs with 'Blade Runner', 'Johnny Mnemonic' and, even, 'Mad Max'!).

I will describe it and see if any of you know the title (so we can warn others!):

The plot (such as it was) was about a girl who stole some really important data thingy, and she had to make her escape over a great post-apocolytic waste with the help of a male 'replicant' gigello...While being chased by some psudo-cyborg bad guy with plugs in his head!

(...No I didn't dream this honest...)

Ring any bells?

)

Hmmm, perhaps old hat now in CyberPunk circles (...But, hey, what isn't?) - But I got the K.W. Jeter 'Blade Runner' sequel(s) for Christmas.

...And so, a warning for the uninitiated (or for those that didn't read the reviews)...The reading is a bit of a culture-shock to you - Particularly if your only experience of Blade Runner is from Ridley Scott's film.

What struck me first was the terminology used by the 'resurected' protagonists...I went through that usual (sequel written by someone else) paranoia of '...They wouldn't say that...'

To be honest - and as we all know - Philip K. Dick's original is a hard act to follow...Particularly as it is one of those few litterary works where the cinematic version not only did it justice, but 'added' to the whole narrative experience. K.W. Jeter's sequel(s), on the other hand, have so far left me with a whole new set of questions...

No. 1 being...Frankly I cannot deside what exactly Jeter was 'sequelling'!

Looking at his narrative closely - the devil is in the details - you have to ask, are his books (and in particular the vol. 2 - Blade Runner II: the Edge of Human) a sequel to the original book (or the original-original story), or to the film?

...So many times you can find yourself wondering '...is that description actually in the original story/book, or is Jeter actually describing a Ridley Scott creation...?' - without running to the bookshelf and checking, you are left wondering. But there again, maybe that is just the power of the movie at work.

The trouble with sequels is this...By the time a sequel is writen, fans of the storyline have already writen one (or more) in thier own head...So the sequel is left competing not only with the original work, and the critics, but also the fan's version of what they feel should have happened in any sequel!!!

Hence the '...they wouldn't have said [or done] that...' paranoia.

To be frank the second volume is the better of the two sequels (I think this is generally agreed)...And generally 'it's heart is in the right place', shall we say...But unfortunately it is at times too hit and miss for me. I find myself, time and again, 'overlaying' my own atmosphere and narrative decription onto Jeter's, just to get the story 'into' (what I consider) a more appropriate 'Blade Runner' universe/enviroment.

LOL...That said, I don't just think it's me that does that - there is still a great 'culture shock' to many fans of CyberPunk when any author includes daylight/daytime scenes in thier work!  ;o) [shouldn't all CyberPunk be set in a land of perpetual darkness?]

However - I digress...

The point is that sequels such as 'Blade runner' follow-ons, have to cope with a huge barrier of pre-concieved expectations that fans have...And the real problem is trying to put aside these in order to assess the actual merit of the new story.

I have tried very hard to do this, and - in the end - can recommend Jeter's first volume to fans of the original. In particular - and perhaps most of all - because it make you think more about the role of Holden. (I found myself returning to the movie version of 'Blade Runner' just to examine Holden more closely in the openning sequences - and indeed found my original opinion of the character changed).

...As to the central plot of the book (which I won't give away), well it is one of the better stories I've read about 'what would happen next in 'Blade Runner' if...' - though I don't think it will please the more 'romantic' of you who saw the film mainly as a 'Love' story!...In this, at least, it is closer to the original written versions.

Blade Runner II: the Edge of Human 7/10

Blade Runner III: Replicant Night 4/10