Why are NPCs not staring in to their phones when walking?

[ennui]

I don't see a single NPC who walks around like a zombie with their face glued to their phone, like majority of the people IRL. Phones are used, for example when Panam sends her photo. The NPCs also don't have glowing eyes like they do when making a monetary transaction or examining a shard.

[Delta-Kilo]

Shot in the dark answers; To your first- Darwinism?
To your second- peculiarity of the comm system.

[papalazarou]

its from a 1982 esq brainchild looking at the future
not realised yet

[The Yeen Queen]

Because their phones are integrated into their cybernetics and they don't need to stare at a thing in their hands, it's in their HUD.

Also stop yelling at clouds, old man.

[ennui]

Originally posted by Night Foxx (She/her):

Because their phones are integrated into their cybernetics and they don't need to stare at a thing in their hands, it's in their HUD.

Also stop yelling at clouds, old man.

As I said the NPCs don't have glowing eyes, as they do when receiving a financial transaction.

[Omen3608]

The internet as we know it today has never been invented in the Cyberpunk universe. Since the DataKrash it is even more divided, consisting of various Citinets that aren't connected to each other, and under total control of Netwatch. For the average citizen of Night City the net will most likely mostly be a source of news and information, rather than the total overkill of media and social media we are used to. So, basically nothing anyone would care to do all day. :D

There is a very good video covering the development of the Net in the Cyberpunk universe:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1tZ8P0aZHI

[V]

Originally posted by ennui:

I don't see a single NPC who walks around like a zombie with their face glued to their phone, like majority of the people IRL. Phones are used, for example when Panam sends her photo. The NPCs also don't have glowing eyes like they do when making a monetary transaction or examining a shard.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2884375820

There you go :)

[The Yeen Queen]

Originally posted by ennui:

Originally posted by Night Foxx (She/her):

Because their phones are integrated into their cybernetics and they don't need to stare at a thing in their hands, it's in their HUD.

Also stop yelling at clouds, old man.

As I said the NPCs don't have glowing eyes, as they do when receiving a financial transaction.

Could be normal audio calls don't do that. -shrug-

[Cyber Barbarian]

Squidward look out! Oh god he has his kiroshis in he can't see us

[_Nero_]

Just making them walk was hard enough for the developers, let alone looking at a phone.

[Obsessive Power]

Cyberpunk was a board game from 1988. This game is derived from said board game. There were no smart phones in 1988, This is an alternate time line, the technology is more advanced in some areas and more primitive in others. The 'Net' is not the same as ours.

[The Yeen Queen]

Originally posted by Obsessive Power:

Cyberpunk was a board game from 1988. This game is derived from said board game. There were no smart phones in 1988, This is an alternate time line, the technology is more advanced in some areas and more primitive in others. The 'Net' is not the same as ours.

Board game? It was a Tabletop RPG...

[Markus Reese]

They arent because people do not have phones anymore.

They get people on the holo. Direct to optics cyberlinks that everybody gets.

Originally posted by Obsessive Power:

Cyberpunk was a board game from 1988. This game is derived from said board game. There were no smart phones in 1988, This is an alternate time line, the technology is more advanced in some areas and more primitive in others. The 'Net' is not the same as ours.

As somebody else pointed out, it is a Tabletop RPG. It is an alternate timeline of ours, true. But the 'primitive' is not what you think. It is regressive and dystopian. The net as of 2020 in the CP universe was much more advanced than we have now. More integrated and more advanced with significant incorporation of AI.

And that is where the problem lies. Rache Bartmoss in in protest released rogue AIs to the net which went out of control and began burning everything down. Hence the blackwall to isolate integrated networks off from the old web. The concept of a singular web doesnt exist anymore because of it.

[1320428]

I've definitely seen people in-game with touchscreen smartphones when they're standing around.

[Bjørn]

Originally posted by Total Information Awareness:

I've definitely seen people in-game with touchscreen smartphones when they're standing around.

Yes it's quite normal. I've seen them around. And this example was posted a bit up in this thread:

Originally posted by V:

Originally posted by ennui:

I don't see a single NPC who walks around like a zombie with their face glued to their phone, like majority of the people IRL. Phones are used, for example when Panam sends her photo. The NPCs also don't have glowing eyes like they do when making a monetary transaction or examining a shard.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2884375820

There you go :)

Could be that they've been introduced to the game to cater to today's audience, though, if the lore about a phoneless society is still valid.


People with neck-pain from looking down into their phones constantly is actually becoming a major health problem here. Luckily I'm not on social media or anything, and mainly use my phone to reject incoming calls!