Grand Traffic Autonomy: The True Freedoms of Urban-Set, Open World, Role Playing and Other Genre Games - A Retrospective-in-Progress on Cyberpunk 2077
The year is 2077 and you, as either a corpo, a nomad, or a street kid, find yourself in Night City, the end-all, be-all megatropolis where legends are born in blazes of glory. From the fairly quick backstory segments of your chosen lifepath you are funneled into a gig - a heist that is set to be the start of makin’ a name for yourself amongst the likes of Johnny Silverhand.
That’s a brief lil synopsis of the premise of Cyberpunk 2077 by CD Projekt Red, minus a few key details, or at least enough to set the stage for the topic at hand: Urban-Set Open World, Role Playing and Other Genre Games. There’s a lot of these in this not-so-specific category, Cyberpunk 2077 being the latest and flashiest one that I’ve played. But there are others like Saints Row, L.A. Noir, Saints Row 2, Sleeping Dogs, Mafia, and of course, Grand Theft Auto - games that are for the most part set in large, sprawling city-scapes where you take on the role of a specific character that may or may not be part of a criminal or otherwise seedy element. Cyberpunk 2077 adds stat points to the mix and I haven’t played enough of the other games in that list to contend whether they do or not, hence the sort of clunky title, elsewise I’d just slap an “RPG” on the end and call it a day.
The stories are somewhat set in the majority of these games; there’s a beginning and middle and an end all charted out for you, but you have to gun down hundreds of people to experience it all. Cyberpunk 2077 throws in some choices for you - you can decide how and where your middle and end go (it seems, I’m not quite done with the game as of writing this), thus there’s an element and feeling of freedom in deciding your fate.
But none of those freedoms, real or not, are what I want to talk about. No, I want to talk about the true freedom of this specific subset of video games. I want to talk about what it means to be free from one of the most oppressive factors of daily life for anyone who commutes to work, has gone on a road trip, or just needed to navigate a city they’ve lived in for 5+ years. This article’s about freedom from the rules of the road, baby!
Yield to Power Fantasies Ahead
There’s a somewhat dated, relevant, and only somewhat funny meme in the sphere of video games that goes something a little like this (prepare yourself for a bad paraphrasing). A woman who seems to be critiquing video games on an academic level turns to the camera and says, “I wrote a blog post about why I fucking hate video games because this is what [they] do, they appeal to the male fantasy.” The footage then cuts to something perfectly banal, like having an inventory perfectly organized or footage of a farming simulator. I’ll put an example below, so you can experience this flavor of meme for yourself, if you haven’t already.
The original of the set up to this meme is from a BuzzFeed video entitled Feminists Play Grand Theft Auto for the First Time, and you can read more about the spread of the meme version on the somewhat questionable but readily available Know Your Meme site (Link Here) to find out more.
I bring up this particular meme and its surrounding context for two reasons and one coincidence. The coincidence is that the video game that the feminists are playing is GTA, a member of this genre I’m writing about, and that’s kind of funny. The reasons are because in a way, this meme is highlighting something that isn’t often talked about, I feel, because video games do appeal to the male fantasy and the other reason is that humor is a fun vehicle to explore topics and memes are funny.
When I talk about video games with my friends now that I’m well into my 30’s, it’s usually about our accomplishments. What we have gotten done in the video game since we have last seen each other. “Oh, I finally got that achievement for getting downers from Santa Claus,” I say to my coworker. “That’s sick,” he says, “I resurrected enough people as Rocket Raccoon to get his skin,” he says in response.
This is an achievement in the video game Norco whereby the player receives drugs from Santa Claus.
This is a commentary on the nature of playing video games in your 30’s. Time is a critical element, there is not a lot of time to balance playing video games when there are other more important obligations at hand. I’m getting ready to become a father. There is nesting to be done. There is less time for video games. This is the nature of gaming at this stage in my life.
It wasn’t always like this, however. When you’re younger, it’s less about what you have gotten done in a video game and more about what you can do. On the playground at recess, we gathered to exchange rumors of what could be done in Pokemon Red. Mew being trapped under a truck. Missingo being found on the shores of Cinnabar Island. Did you know? You can play as Luigi if you talk to Yoshi 100 times on top of the castle after gathering all 120 stars in Super Mario 64. Time was more abundant, and as such, our discussions were about what was yet to be experienced.
What isn’t talked about, the topic that falls between the lines of these discussions of experiencing video games as designed, are the small details that separate video games from real life - that being the rules of life simply do not apply.
Caution: Loose Rules Zone
Well, yeah, duh, if the rules of life applied to video games, they wouldn’t be as fun. That’s a given, but there’s a fun little trickle in my brain that goes off when I’m playing Cyberpunk 2077 and traveling across the sprawling map of Night City.
I play on keyboard and mouse (PC gamer for life), and that makes operating a vehicle a little interesting, as the controls for such are just okay. Steering a wheel makes more intuitive sense on a joystick due to the way both a wheel and a joystick feel as you move them. Using four buttons to control direction, speed, and braking isn’t as intuitive. The alternative is to use a controller just for the driving and a keyboard and mouse for everything else, but that isn’t the point - the point is sometimes I miss a turn in getting to my destination.
When you are driving in real life, whether it be on a roadtrip to a city you’ve never been before or one you’ve lived in for 5+ years, missing a turn is a very stressful and aggravating event that consists of three distinct parts. There’s the build up, the point of no return, and the aftermath.
The build up is where most of the tension is felt, whether by the driver who is actively trying to decipher what the little colored line on Google Maps is trying to say or by the passenger who is somehow more aware of the navigation than the actual driver. The point of no return is, of course, the moment when the mistake happens and is acknowledged, either by the driver who now knows with more certainty than anything else in their life that they have messed up, or by the passenger who awkwardly points out that a mistake was made. The aftermath is the same in either case - frustration in having missed a turn and a scramble to renavigate and return to the intended path.
Notice for all drivers, there is no point in my description of missing a turn that includes illegally crossing over various solid lines of the road in a last ditch effort to make the turn. Don’t do that.
Missing a turn in real life has real life consequences. Time needs to be spent correcting the mistake, else the destination will not be reached. More time spent not playing video games. The rules of the road need be followed, less you risk the safety of yourself, your passenger, and others. It is a huge drag.
Miss a turn in Cyberpunk 2077? Enter the realm of freedom. Of male fantasy. You can just stop your vehicle, turn around, and drive the wrong way until you reach that point of no return, and continue on your way. And. It. Is. So. Freeing.
Ah, yes. So free.
Footage belongs to reddit user dANIQ666.
The main freedom that video games bring beyond the narrow scope of power fantasy in the form of consequences be damned killing as a means to an end, everything is a battle and the stronger will come out on top vibe is the absolute freedom to ignore all the small, burdensome laws that are 100% put in place for our absolute safety. Because safety be damned. Sometimes, I gotta get to where I’m going.
Now Entering the Time Buffer Area
Let’s examine a real world scenario in which I, for example, missed a turn and the consequences that arrived from whence that turn was missed to highlight just how oppressive the laws of traffic (and physics) really are. As my wife and I prepare for parenthood, there has been a need as of late to complete what is known as the “nesting” phase, aka, getting the house ready for a small baby person.
This includes getting rid of all of the junk that’s been just sitting around since moving into our house because, who really needs to optimize all of the space when there is so much of the space? On two separate weekends, this process included driving to a nearby city because it was the closest recycling center and/or that’s where a furniture shop we like is located, which necessitated twice to drive back from said nearby city. We do not often travel to or from said nearby city, so I was relying on the navigation on my phone. I was driving as I am not the one who is pregnant and dealing with 1,000 other current changes in their life (mine come later).
Twice, I found myself on the road from B back to A and twice, I had to navigate the serpent-like trails and arteries of the entity known as the Texas highway system filled with toll roads, last free exit signs, and seemingly secret toll-bypass roads that seem under advertised on purpose. We were approaching one of these junctions, where a perfectly fine freeway was suddenly becoming a toll road, when the navigation on my phone said to take a left in such and such feet. While monitoring traffic, I tried to familiarize myself in brief glances with the upcoming terrain of this turn. Is there a light? Are there other rights before or after with which I could confuse it? Etc.
I swear I was better at looking at my phone while driving when I was younger. Nowadays, it feels like it takes me twice as long to recognize and understand what the little black rectangle is trying to tell me, so I did not familiarize myself with the terrain well and I turned one turn too soon. This meant we were entering the toll road. This meant, while still in the right direction, we were no longer traveling along the correct way. Recalculating.
The toll road had two exits, one that would have placed us on a highway that we were intending to reach anyway to further our journey home and one that would spit us out near the entrance to a shopping mall, and we needed to stop at another furniture shop anyway, so even though we were tired, we took the mall exit.
But if this were Cyberpunk 2077… I could have just hit the brakes, backed up, exited the toll road (what the heck is a toll road, I’m on cyber-drugs, choom), and reconnected with our intended path, carefree and full of thoughts of makin’ a prem name for ourselves. Don’t be gonk.
The main consequence of missing a turn in real life is lost time. It takes longer to get where you’re going and if you’re out running errands, that’s longer away from home and longer away from doing something you actually want to do. Missing out on time is one of the graver consequences, since there’s no real way to get lost time back. I think that’s what’s so freeing about the freedom to ignore traffic laws in games like Cyberpunk - you’re actively clawing precious seconds back from a bad decision that in real life, would feel costly and aggravating.
That’s my male fantasy. Give me more time.
Exiting: Rambly-Bit Junction
The following week, we found ourselves on the road leading to that same junction, where we could either enter a toll road or hang on for one more exit and by-pass the roll road with a sneaky little road that runs just alongside it. I’d like to tell you that I corrected my mistake the second time around, that I ran free on that little sneaky road and laughed at the people on the toll road, who were obviously duped. Such things, I’m afraid, are also part of my male fantasy.
I made the same mistake. Only this time, I made it twice, as I took the same shopping mall exit when I could have easily taken the exit that would have put us on the highway that leads more directly to our house. Two opportunities where in Cyberpunk 2077, I could simply stop, back up, and get back on the correct path.
Real life mistakes have consequences. Cyberpunk 2077 has saves you can reload when you make a mistake, thereby giving you a second chance. Or you can just turn around on the fictional highway (in the game) and drive the wrong way until you make the turn you should have made the first time. That’s true freedom.
That, and you can like, shoot video game characters dressed like cops or something.
8 out of 10.
