Mike Pondsmith on The Atlantic

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PolarBlues

PolarBlues

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US current affairs magazine The Atlantic dedicates an article to Cyberpunk 2020 and its creator, which is pretty awesome recognition for the hobby,and especially for a non D&D game.

www.theatlantic.com

The Role-Playing Game That Predicted the Future

Mike Pondsmith created Cyberpunk in 1988. Now it’s the inspiration for a highly anticipated video game—and an unlikely oracle.
www.theatlantic.com www.theatlantic.com

Of course the driver is the video game.
 
I read that article right when it came out and think it is awesome that Mike is getting recognition for his work. His work had a pretty big influence on my youth, taking over where Gygax's stopped.

T. Foster said:
I would always seek Mike Pondsmith out at GenCon back when I was going (1988-97). He was always one of the coolest and smartest guys in the room and hearing him talk was always inspiring.
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Mike always seemed like a cool dude to hang out with and it's nice to see someone can verify that with first hand experience.
 
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Brock Savage said:
Mike always seemed like a cool dude to hang out with and it's nice to see someone can verify that with first hand experience.
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Well, I was a kid/teenager at the time so it's not like I was hanging out with him after hours or offsite - my interaction with him was purely at the fan/customer level. But hearing him talk at seminars, chatting at the RTG booth, and the couple times he popped in when I was playing in RTG-sponsored demo games to say hi and see how things were going he always made a very positive impression - right up there alongside Gygax, Marc Miller, Greg Stafford, Eric Wujcik - the visionary go-getters who all had strong charismatic personalities that set them markedly apart from the crowd, including all the other more dispassionately workmanlike industry-folk.
 
Glad to see Tabletop RPGs finally getting their due.

Mike is probably my favorite tabletop designer and Cody is a very worthy heir to the Pondsmith name. R Talsorian games are a unique beast. Proof reading was never their strong suit, they are in no way balanced, but R Tal games are probably the most fun to play in the entire industry.
 
At this point I'm not sure if I'll be bothering with the RPG book.

But I know I won't be bothering with the videogame. There's absolutely nothing about it that looks the slightest bit appealing to me.

But has any other videogame based on a tabletop RPG property ever been promoted as heavily as this? I don't even think any D&D games have ever gotten this kind of push. It's just insane.
 
Gabriel said:
At this point I'm not sure if I'll be bothering with the RPG book.

But I know I won't be bothering with the videogame. There's absolutely nothing about it that looks the slightest bit appealing to me.

But has any other videogame based on a tabletop RPG property ever been promoted as heavily as this? I don't even think any D&D games have ever gotten this kind of push. It's just insane.
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I'm pretty sure it's the manufacturer looking at how successful GTA has been and pitching this as a competitor in that space. It's a big payoff if they pull it off.
 
I very much doubt my computer could run CP 2077. Howvever I recently "discovered" the old Shadowrun Returns series. I got them heavily discounted on Good Old Games. They kind of play like the old D&D "Gold Box" games and I must admit I have really enjoyed them so far (I'm halfway through Dragon Fall).
 
PolarBlues said:
I very much doubt my computer could run CP 2077. Howvever I recently "discovered" the old Shadowrun Returns series. I got them heavily discounted on Good Old Games. They kind of play like the old D&D "Gold Box" games and I must admit I have really enjoyed them so far (I'm halfway through Dragon Fall).
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How to do a gaming PC on the cheap:
  1. Hop onto Ebay and look for single-socket workstations like a HP Z420/Z440 or Dell Precision T1600/1650/1700. These have reasonably chunky power supplies and come up cheap on the ex-lease market in quantity. Look for machines with a 4 core CPU - Xeon E1620 or E1630. 8+ core CPUs go for a significant premium and games tend not to be that heavily multithreaded that they would use such a CPU effectively.
  2. Find a suitable video card of a slightly older generation - say a GTX 960, 1060 or 1070. In some cases the machine will come with a mid-range Quadro card that might be good enough in its own right.
  3. Check what sort of power sockets the video card and PSU on the machine have - 6 pin or 8 pin. You may need to buy an adaptor cable for a few quid on Ebay.
  4. Add A to B - this will be a fairly straightforward process of installing the card.
A little bit of trolling through Ebay should also turn up machines that the vendor has already done this to.
 
PolarBlues said:
I very much doubt my computer could run CP 2077. Howvever I recently "discovered" the old Shadowrun Returns series. I got them heavily discounted on Good Old Games. They kind of play like the old D&D "Gold Box" games and I must admit I have really enjoyed them so far (I'm halfway through Dragon Fall).
Click to expand...

I need to get back to the old Sega Genesis Shadowrun game.

I bought that thing back when it was new, because I was pretty into Shadowrun back then. But I didn't like it at the time at all. I fumbled around in the slums for a while, got sick of it, and then sold the game.

About two decades later, I saw a copy of the game at a used game store, so I decided to pick it up again and give it another try. This time it clicked. I finally got out of the slums! I was having great fun visiting corps with my Troll and Rat Shaman sidekicks and killing lots of security. Other times I'd do lucrative netrunning jobs. I was kitted out with just about the best stuff I could get.

Then I remembered, "hey, there's a story to this game. What was I supposed to be doing?" And that was about the same time I got distracted by some other shiney thing and quit playing. I'd probably have to start over completely if I got back to it.
 
Nobby-W said:
How to do a gaming PC on the cheap:
  1. Hop onto Ebay and look for single-socket workstations like a HP Z420/Z440 or Dell Precision T1600/1650/1700. These have reasonably chunky power supplies and come up cheap on the ex-lease market in quantity. Look for machines with a 4 core CPU - Xeon E1620 or E1630. 8+ core CPUs go for a significant premium and games tend not to be that heavily multithreaded that they would use such a CPU effectively.
  2. Find a suitable video card of a slightly older generation - say a GTX 960, 1060 or 1070. In some cases the machine will come with a mid-range Quadro card that might be good enough in its own right.
  3. Check what sort of power sockets the video card and PSU on the machine have - 6 pin or 8 pin. You may need to buy an adaptor cable for a few quid on Ebay.
  4. Add A to B - this will be a fairly straightforward process of installing the card.
A little bit of trolling through Ebay should also turn up machines that the vendor has already done this to.
Click to expand...

Good tips, but it's not really an issue about price. I don't do a lot of computer gaming (though lockdown and the return City of Heroes has altered that a bit). My desktop is from a compant called QuietPC who, as the name suggests, specialise in low heat, low noise systems. Noise a particular pet peeve for me as my computer is also my stereo. As result I got a six year old rig without dedicated graphic card or any fans, which still performs nicely and is quiet like a mouse. I'll be sad the day it dies, as all computers do.

That said I still have a 20 year old Toshiba Libretto that still runs, last time I checked, so long let it live!
 
PolarBlues said:
Good tips, but it's not really an issue about price. I don't do a lot of computer gaming (though lockdown and the return City of Heroes has altered that a bit). My desktop is from a compant called QuietPC who, as the name suggests, specialise in low heat, low noise systems. Noise a particular pet peeve for me as my computer is also my stereo. As result I got a six year old rig without dedicated graphic card or any fans, which still performs nicely and is quiet like a mouse. I'll be sad the day it dies, as all computers do.

That said I still have a 20 year old Toshiba Libretto that still runs, last time I checked, so long let it live!
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You can get quiet video cards like the Asus STRIX range, with massively over-spec heatpipe/fan cooling systems that run slowly and quietly.
 
Mike Pondsmith is a goddamn treasure.


Torque2100 said:
Glad to see Tabletop RPGs finally getting their due.

Mike is probably my favorite tabletop designer and Cody is a very worthy heir to the Pondsmith name. R Talsorian games are a unique beast. Proof reading was never their strong suit, they are in no way balanced, but R Tal games are probably the most fun to play in the entire industry.
Click to expand...

RTG is awesome.

And the best thing that could happen to the gaming industry right now would be for it to develop a symbiosis with videogames in the same mold as comics and Hollywood.
 
Gabriel said:
I need to get back to the old Sega Genesis Shadowrun game.
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Best Shadowrun videogame ever. And one of the best implemented urban sandboxes (and probably the first one too).

I'm not feeling this CP2077 videogame. Finding the aesthetics kinda generic, and gameplay looks cool but nothing new.
 
Nobby-W said:
You can get quiet video cards like the Asus STRIX range, with massively over-spec heatpipe/fan cooling systems that run slowly and quietly.
Click to expand...

Yep - Asus Strix is my go-to brand. I'm about to plop down for a 3080ti when they drop/can find them next month (I'm upgrading from a Strix 1080ti)

About the Article - It was good to see Mike get some much deserved recognition. He remains my favorite game-designer to date - though he has some competition.

I take exception to the articles author about "predictions of the future" in terms of their relevance they cited. They used the obvious technological stuff. But the real scary predictions you'll find in the Nomad, and Home of the Brave books talk about the social upheavals that are *shockingly* accurate to *today*. Because of this the article isn't doing real justice to Mike's work in this regard - or to the other writers of the game that nailed some of the projected underpinnings that lead to The Collapse in-game. Heh delving into that text would probably not be appropriate discussion for this forum - even if it's in-game stuff. But I'll let the mods give the flag on that.

But in some ways that' article is classic Cyberpunk. Style over substance.
 
A short rant on video cards.

The fact that it looks like the game will be out before the video cards they are recommending for the upper end settings are radially available is a bit frustrating. Put together a build on pcpartpicker.com for a new system and have just been checking it daily for various cards with the 3080 chipset. The only thing that seems t o be in stock is this PNY XLR8 but the reviews look like it's underwhelming compared to others.

A quick personal note, our computer is like 6 years old, that's from the last time I did any major hardware updates, not a complete replacement and I've been saving for the last year for this replacement. Now if you'll excuse me.

*Grumbles off to the corner muttering something about first world problems.
 
Certified said:
A short rant on video cards.

The fact that it looks like the game will be out before the video cards they are recommending for the upper end settings are radially available is a bit frustrating. Put together a build on pcpartpicker.com for a new system and have just been checking it daily for various cards with the 3080 chipset. The only thing that seems t o be in stock is this PNY XLR8 but the reviews look like it's underwhelming compared to others.

A quick personal note, our computer is like 6 years old, that's from the last time I did any major hardware updates, not a complete replacement and I've been saving for the last year for this replacement. Now if you'll excuse me.

*Grumbles off to the corner muttering something about first world problems.
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https://discord.gg/Bmw86TqFgb join here, sign up for notifications on 3080. Look for a bundle with a power supply because bots don’t go for them as much.

got me a 3070 inside a week.
 
I've been tossing over the notion of getting something that will take a lot of RAM - most of the tooling that works with openstreetmap data sets likes to inhale the whole lot into RAM and my poor old Thinkpads don't have enough of it. There are a couple of other requirements around 3D modelling software and getting a bit further back into games like CP2077 and more recent versions of KSP.

The recommended configurations for CP2077 move the goal posts rather a lot. I'm not sure I would care about ray tracing, but even then the CPU and graphics card requirements are pretty aggressive. I could just squeeze it into a single socket machine like a Z440 - with an E5-1620 or E5-1630 it's probably got enough poke in the CPU and the PSU would drive a '60 or '70 size NVidia card, but that's at the upper end of the machine. A Z440 is useful because it supports registered memory, meaning one can fit it with 64GB for about £200 or 128GB for £400, and you can buy ex-lease machines around £300 or so as a base. I think the PSU would be up to at least a 2070/3070, but at current prices a high-end NVIDIA card would cost as much as the rest of the machine - if you can get your hands on one. Two socket machines are quite a lot dearer, even secondhand.

Tom's hardware recommends an 8 core CPU, and one can put 8 or 10 core chips in a Z440 for a price. I guess that means they think it can use the threading capability on the chip. My screen is a 2.5k one, so I guess I'm up for a card with enough poke to drive a 1440p display. 70GB of space on a SSD.

That means that the machine I was thinking of getting is marginally in the recommended capability range for the game.
 
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