Quote Originally Posted by Gorbash Kazdar View Post
You know, I think I just figured out why I don't mind SR4, and particularly the wireless world aspect, while most of the people of the "age group" that played SR3 really can't stand it.

You see, I missed Nueromancer. I missed the entire original cyberpunk literary movement. I even missed the deconstructions of it, like Snow Crash. I've read a lot of it since then, but I'd been playing Shadowrun and Cyberpunk 2020 (and Netrunner, anyone remember that CCG?) for a few years before I went back and found those books.

What introduced me to cyberpunk was actually already postcyberpunk, which emphasizes the "cyber" over the "punk" aspects, like Swordguy mentions. Not only that, it was postcyberpunk with a lot of wireless and AR elements already introduced. I got into the genre thanks to anime - the original Ghost in the Shell film and manga is probably the primary influence in how I came into the genre. So, for me, SR4 is moving closer to what I've always enjoyed most in the genre, and to what set my original expectations for it anyways.
Awesome story Gorbash, but if you'll permit a tad bit of thread drift, I'd like to follow this up a bit.

Specifically, I wonder what proportion of the people who enjoy 4th edition have experiences similar to yours. Don't get me wrong - there's a whole lot of basic mechanical issues I don't like in 4th - but it's the setting in and of itself that is the biggest obstacle towards my upgrading from 3e to 4e.

I'm 28. I missed a great number of the classic early-80's dark scifi classics. I never saw Blade Runner until fairly recently. I've never read Neuromancer (yeah, I know...I'll go get a copy). What I had read was Orwell's 1984 about two weeks before I picked up a copy of SR1 (and that damnnable skill web). What was important, I think, was getting hooked on Shadowrun and it's amazing flavor at a time when cyberpunk was still relatively new.

I think there's a dividing line, and I think it happens right around the Ghost in the Shell movie. I think, if people were in their early teens when they first watched it (or similar films), they will generally prefer 4e. If they're more familiar with 1980's/early 90's sci-fi (where plugs still matter), they'll prefer 3e*.

*3e being the first set of SR rules to really be fully useable, though still a pain in the ass on occasion - see also: having an astral mage, decker, and a real-world firefight going on simultaneously.