The Past and Future of Cyberpunk – a conversation with Mike Pondsmith
For 30 years now, Mike Pondsmith has been continuously imagining the future by developing subsequent versions of the Cyberpunk RPG system. The first edition came out at the turn of the 1980s and 1990s, while the newest release is 2019’s Cyberpunk Red. Pondsmith’s system is also the basis for the Cyberpunk 2077 video game, which is currently in development.
At the Digital Cultures festival, he will explain how his vision has evolved along with the changes in the real world, where technologies born of science fiction stories have surprisingly quickly integrated into everyday life. He will also reflect on the extent to which our world today is already a materialisation of the cyberpunk vision from the 1990s.
Mike Pondsmith
Appearing as a Mild-Mannered Game Designer, Mike "Maximum Mike" Pondsmith is, in reality, a Time Lord from the Far Future, here to warn all of us of a reality involving Giant Robots, cyber-enhanced Boostergangers, and an Invasion of Teenagers From Outer Space. When not engaged in his day job of Saving the Future of Humanity, he can also be found in the nearest gravel pit, digging up million-year-old dead things with waaaay too many teeth and claws. He calls this relaxation.
Or, if you're more into actual facts…
Mike Pondsmith began his career in games at the California Pacific Computer Company, the publishers of the original Ultima, before founding his own company R. Talsorian Games in 1985. His work as a tabletop roleplaying game designer has earned him several awards, including the 1989 Origins Gamer's Choice Award, for Cyberpunk, and the Nigel D. Findley Memorial Award in 1995, for Castle Falkenstein. His contributions to tabletop gaming were recognized by the hobby at large in 2006 when he was inducted into the Origins Hall of Fame.
In 2000, Mike leaped back into video games as a design manager at Microsoft Game Studios, where he worked on multiple titles, including Blood Wake and Crimson Skies. After working on Matrix Online, Mike spent a stint as a professor of game design before returning to tabletop game design full time. In the early 2010s, he met some game creators from Poland and the rest, as they say, is history.
He's also the guy who killed your Cyberpunk character.
Paweł Schreiber
Doctor, lecturer at the English Linguistics Department at Kazimierz the Great University in Bydgoszcz, and a specialist in contemporary British drama. As a theatre critic, he has written for Teatr, Didaskalia, and Chimera magazines. Co-author of the Jawne Sny (‘Lucid Dreams’) blog on video games and their links with other branches of culture. He has written about games for magazines such as Przekrój and Pixel, as well as dwutygodnik.com.
