Why don't they just clean the city up? What's the purpose of having a private army, intelligence agency, and a cyborg human tank if you can't even prevent the city one of your main headquarters is in from being filled with gangs, crime, trash and kids from the street conspiring to overthrow you?

just bought this game
first thing i did was create a black MC with a micropenis
10/10

>>713733925 (OP)
>what's the point in having a army, intelligence agency, and tanks if you can't even prevent the city one of your main headquarters is in from being filled with gangs, crime, trash and kids from the street conspiring to overthrow you?
I dunno anon but it seems to work out IRL.

>Why don't they just clean the city up? What's the purpose of privatizing the national army, intelligence agency, and cyborg human executives if you can't even prevent the city one of your main headquarters is in from being filled with mexican gangs, crime, trash and kids from the street conspiring to overthrow you?

>>713733925 (OP)
The city is owned by a rival corporation Night Corp. Night City is essentially like Monaco in America. A neutral city where everyone can come and parlay and deal and do whatever they want.
Even though the city is run by Night Corp, Arasaka has it's antagonist corp next door as well called Militech. Night City is essentially the stage where all these corps are trying to one up each other by doing as much shady shit as possible.
Ultimately Arasaka don't give a fuck about Night City other than it's capability to fuck with the Americans and Militech. Militech only care about taking over Night City and absorbing it back in to the NUSA.
With this in mind, Arasaka couldn't clean up Night City if it wanted to. And it doesn't. Militech doesn't either. In fact the more depraved and run down Night City is, the easier it will be to occupy it if the NUSA ever wants to again (they've tried before). Night Corp is probably the only corp that cares about Night City because it's their base of operations. But they have other shady shit they're working on.

>>713733925 (OP)
Soulkiller was retarded for the narrative and I think dumbed down.

What was Soulkiller?
>tech that copies you and digitizes you into an engram, like Johnny but it destroys your body

Here's what it should have been
>A process that locks your engram into hell and tortures you in digital hell for what feels like an eternity.

They should have had the ability to engram anyone, and its what comes after which is inhumane and wrong and worth fighting against to bring down arasaka and get revenge with Johnny. You getting Johnny's engram should have basically just been a way to free him from the torture.

>>713733925 (OP)
The same reason why Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, all come together to do something useful for human kind around them, instead they would rather make more money making it easier for people to buy things, and then use that money to make more money making it easier to build things thats easy on the consumer to purchase and enjoy,
with all that money they make more money, not promoting help, except in advertisements.
They could give a fuck about you. Not so hard when you are "king".

>>713734324
I feel like I'm going to live long enough to see news stories about Amazon Security Forces exercising their corporate rights for extrajudicial killings of people who vandalize their office buildings. And I'd be ok with this. t. Seattleanon

>>713738210
pro tip
This already happens. Just not as dramatic as you put in your imaginary example.
tech companies fund construction/renovation of Fire/Police stations and hospitals where they're located, creating an understanding that emergency services prioritize their calls first. Not that they would openly admit to it.
The justice system is also tangled up in this. After all the judge's kids got a sweet internship at whatever tech company that they end up siding with. Great way to get legitimacy.
They don't need a dystopian sci-fi private police force, they just use the actual police.

~t. Silicon Valley bodyguard.

>>713739282
>They don't need a dystopian sci-fi private police force, they just use the actual police.
That's what fascism is about by the way. Capital and government collusion.

>>713734324
Holy fuck this is depressing.

>>713733925 (OP)
If we're talking about Cyberpunk corps, personally I like the idea of Bio-Technica, instead of only caring about money and power, having legitimately altruistic goals (bringing extinct species back to life, undoing environmental damage, minimalizing Human suffering) but also having a willingness to be evil as fuck to accomplish their goals.
I could see the Cyberpunk world end with a Bio-Technica made bioweapon that renders all but a select population of genetically enhanced Humans in cryogenic slumber infertile, with these new Humans reclaiming the world once all of Bio-Technica's corporate rivals have died off.

>>713739282
Oh, I know about that, including something I read recently about the firefighting lobby getting laws changed to justify sending the FD out on shit that would otherwise just be an ambulance/EMT situation. Why? So they can justify their costs to the counties they serve and avoid having their budgets decreased.

I also remember the time the liberal retards up here tried to impose a head tax on Amazon, and Amazon called the mayor and said 'fix this' and the bill got quashed a few days later

>>713733925 (OP)
Crime breeds money. And you are underage.

>>713733925 (OP)
I imagine if they did that not as many people would buy their products.

Anarcho-tyranny. You allow problems to exist or create your own, and use those problems as an justification to grow your own power.

>>713738210
You poor bastard. I just heard about the parks.

>>713733925 (OP)

Arasaka was involved with Tyger Claws (a major gang) and they are used largely as a paramilitary force to rub out their enemies (other gangs)

They could not implement a heavy handed policy against the gangs because of the influence that the gangs wielded (they literally control the city blocks and lower to lower middle classes), it would be a waste of money

While Arasaka does have a HQ building there it is clear that they are largely subordinate and do not occupy a place of respect. Most Arasaka employees from Japan do not regard Night City as anything more than a backwater. Consider the dialogue of Goro and other Arasaka higher level employees from Japan about this.

It's essentially asking why the colonies in Africa didnt wipe out the tribes, they did when it was necessary to do so (alot of nomad gangs were like this) but alot of the gangs served as essentially Useful Idiots (Maelstrom robs Militech, same VD boys, etc) and allowed Arasaka plausible deniability, they were wary of getting in another entanglement with the NUSA without assured victory, and thats another reason why their occupation of NC was not so overt. 4th Corporate War ended with high casualties and they simply saw it as a waste of resources at the time of 2077 to try it again so soon

>>713735267
the plot doesn't resonate with me, either. Soulkiller sounds like a copied fake version of your mind so what's the big deal? I wouldn't mind if Chatgtp tells me he's in pain because it's just fake and gay. I mean saving yourself from dying is understandable but it doesn't make the story of soulkiller important nor interesting. The only effect it brings seems to be having a rockerboy buddy all the time. This is not interesting in the grand picture of corpo/government secret schemes. Or at least it should be like songbird's digital nuke or something, not just a cage for an individual.

>>713735267
>They should have had the ability to engram anyone, and its what comes after which is inhumane and wrong and worth fighting against to bring down arasaka and get revenge with Johnny. You getting Johnny's engram should have basically just been a way to free him from the torture.

I believe they do, they did it to Alt Cunningham, Saburo, Johnny, it was just a matter of them getting their hands on your physical body in order to transfer it. The problem with Johnny is that he had his engram copied, but they did not put him in a physical body (on purpose), essentially its like being locked in a digital prison for all of eternity.

Johnny's predicament in 2077 is that he genuinely does not want to take over V's body if it means that V will be wiped out as a person.

>>713733925 (OP)
>Why don't they just clean the city up?
put together a profitable business plan that accomplishes that and they'll do it. hell, they might even promote you.

>>713733925 (OP)
>nc
>headquarters
Lol no. NC is more like casablanca or singapore or monaco or any other borderline city state where lots of groups converge. Arasaka is merely one of the bigger equity owners alongside militech in the city council

>>713733925 (OP)
>Why don't they just clean the city up? What's the purpose of having a private army, intelligence agency, and a cyborg human tank if you can't even prevent the city one of your main headquarters is in from being filled with gangs, crime, trash and kids from the street conspiring to overthrow you?

Ask the CIA, it's simply a mystery

>>713733925 (OP)
Cyberpunk inherently tries to push a very anti-corpo message but Arasaka are unironically the good guys so there is a lot of double-think that Mike Pondsmith tries to pull off, somehow Arasaka is efficient and incompetent at the same time, somehow Arasaka provides a lot of jobs and wealth for the common man but also exploits the poor at the same time, best not to think about it too much and just try to enjoy the setting for what it is.

>>713735267
>>713741147
>>713741696
>program that can make digital clones of the dead so they "live on forever"
>arasaka's head guy wanted to use it so his brain/mind could be transferred into a new body and he could live forever
>it's also used to kill the living and imprison their beings in an infinite digital hell for all eternity as was done to ol' johny boy
It's really not difficult to follow.

>>713733925 (OP)
>"Not my problem"

>>713738210
This already happens anon.
I think my favorite is Coca-Cola hiring death squads to kill union leaders in Colombia back in the 90s.

>>713733925 (OP)
>gangs, crime, trash and kids from the street conspiring to overthrow you
is of no to low consequence to the elite of any city or nation, just look at LA, economically and population wise mogs 90% of earth despite being a shithole


also V is the only true threat to Arasaka in almost the entire lore/setting, and that was mainly because he was lightning in a bottle, right place in the right time with the right genes, right motivation, right construct (MBlackhand would've also been good)

>>713733925 (OP)
people are only happy relative to how much others are suffering around them.

>>713743310
Highly unrealistic, what company would exploit borderline slave labor while at the same time have upper level employees with some of the best benefits in the world.

>>713733925 (OP)

was there an update today?

>>713733925 (OP)
If you solve the people’s problems then they won’t need you anymore. Also Saburo fucking hates the U.S.

>>713734324
NVidia? Really? I knew they were big but the largest in the US surprises me

>>713733925 (OP)
>Why don't they just clean the city up?
And do what? Rehabilitate the criminals? Help them lead meaningful lives as part of a healthy high trust community? Provide a world where they don't have to scrape to get by?
What are you fucking high? Why the fuck would companies want that?

>>713752253
>Also Saburo fucking hates the U.S.
isn't california it's own nation in cyberpunk?

>>713754005
Not when he was born, Saburo fought in WWII.

>>713733925 (OP)
It's not just "not our problem", Arasaka makes money off of things being shitty. Why would they fix it?

>>713754005
>isn't california it's own nation
wait California seceded????? can this happen irl?

>>713754005
>isn't california it's own nation in cyberpunk?
It's kinda like Hong Kong, in the US

I think the plot could have been made more interesting if
>Plot identical, except Jackie dies while the shard is still plugged in, V doesn't remove it until he's reminded to do so when he's being dropped off by Delemain so enough time passes for the relic to do its thing
>Plot continues as normal, /v/ gets blasted
>Except... Turns out the Relic has exactly two "save slots" in it, one for Johnny and now one for Jackie. (Handwave and say it was so Araska could do some kind of memory merging/engrams interrogation shenanigans or whatever to extract Intel from people) Instead of Johnny taking over your brain, it's now a contest of sorts between Jackie and Johnny, neither of which wants to win if it means killing V, but neither being willing to lose to the other
>(Also, because otherwise Jackie will just fanboy Johnny, handwave that he saw Johnny's memories of being a shitbag and Johnny saw Jackie being a goody two shoes)
Same dilemma, multiple brains but only one body, except now you can have your cliche devil on one shoulder and angel on the other, (except they'd ideally be developed enough characters to have at least a little nuance, sometimes agreeing on "the right thing to do" but otherwise having pretty diametrically opposed outlooks)
You can just try to block them all out, favor one over the other, try to meditate and keep them from getting in pissing contests so they work together, etc

>>713754494
>California seceded????? can this happen irl?
honestly yeah if they had a few allies or the west coast and texas

>>713743672
They dont actually put him in hell though, and the story makes no mention of it. Hes just chilling.

>>713733925 (OP)
>every corporation in Night City is essentially kept in check by every other corporation so none of them can do something like that without risking pissing each other off
>the gangs aren't really a threat to the corps so there's no real reason to get rid of them
>the gangs creating so much violence is a big reason why corpo weapons sell so well there to begin with
>the gangs will also act as proxies for the corporations so each corporation wants to keep them around for when they need to attack each other or a third party but with zero accountability

>>713755184
interesting idea.
might have been something they had hopes for in the old branching storyline drawing table days.

>>713755184
Controversial opinion
>Jackie was originally supposed to be the one in your head. They re-wrote the story around Keanu Reeves, and originally he was supposed to have a much smaller part.

>>713759349
that shit sounds K I N O is this true ????

>>713759349
>They re-wrote the story around Keanu Reeves, and originally he was supposed to have a much smaller part.

that much is obvious since Johnny was originally one of three characters you'd pick during character creation to be V's "idol", and his concept art looks nothing like Keanu

>>713734324
>indian ruppes
They don't even try to hide anymore.