CD Projekt Red has sprinkled the game with countless small details that a number of observant players are carefully examining.
The creator behind the YouTube channel bandercoot carried out an in-game investigation. He set out to examine Night City’s entertainment industry in Cyberpunk 2077.
For example, local television airs a program called Safe and Sound (produced by the NCPD) — its protagonists, including dogs, teach children basic survival skills: how to cope with a cyberpsycho attack and how to interact properly with law enforcement.
There’s adult-oriented programming too: Execution Time — a show that broadcasts executions live, with viewers voting on the method. A lowbrow film franchise called “Bushido” exists as well. There’s also a lineup of arcade titles, including the runner Roach Race starring Plótva and the action game Trauma Drama.
In bandercoot’s view, all of that is a minor diversion compared with the ultimate pastime — braindance, a technology for recording digital sensations and delivering them directly into the brain via specialized cybernetic implants. Through braindances, a client can experience the full range of emotions and sensations captured by the recorder.
These forms of “entertainment” reveal a normalization of violence and a commercialization of many facets of daily life.
bandercoot interprets Night City’s entertainments not merely as an escape from reality but as a tool of social control — corporations understand that if people are constantly chasing the next diversion, they are less likely to cause trouble:
“Night City demonstrates that the highest form of control isn’t fear, violence, or money, but fun. If they control your joy, they control you.”
Source: iXBT.games