What punk is starcraft?

[drakolobo]

I personally don't feel that StarCraft is relevant to anything of the -punk genres. By definition the punk genres involve a mentality that I can only describe as retro-technology. There is nothing about StarCraft in my eyes that is truly retro. It's sci-fi as a core. Even in it's "retro" parts, that's not part of the core ideals of StarCraft but typically preferences of the individuals that create those tendancies. Just because I like to have an atari in my house doesn't define me as living in a retro-culture. Today it would be defined as "modern".

That's my opinion on the matter.

from what I've read the punk genre expresses the inability of the human will improve no matter the scenario, for example, the cyberpunk shows how technology solves nothing and that the problem is in humanity. I do not think starcraft snaps into steampunk, because it shows most advanced technology in fantasy and past historical contexts
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[solidsamurai]

Starcraft is apparently supposed to be military sci fi - which basically means it portrays war and/or warmongering society in technological state. For hardness on that scale, it's arguably not very hard - because the 'futuristic' fight is supposed to involve robots and computers attacking targets from very far away; which is the classic notion right now.

This of course differs from the classic miltiary sci-fi starship troopers that starcraft tries to emulate, which is more about WW2/vietnam sort of engagements with futuristic support (presumably dystopic; otherwise they'd just nuke the bugs or whatever; I haven't actually read the book though).

So a very proper term for starcraft's genre would be classic military sci-fi.

What I'm more interested in though is the society (which is usually what punk examines). Let's examine what we've seen in the games:

- Datacores the size of three story buildings (or skyscrapers; whatever you want the scale to be; since buildings are bigger and part of terrain in korhal - I'd assume three story or high rise). Datacores are basically hardrives or 'holo drives' or whatever. Why so big? That's diesel punk straight off (not atom punk since atom punk is always more optomistic - take fall out which looks at atom punk in mock irony; diesel isn't all about 30s clothing).

- Vinyl may be classical, but it gives a diesel feeling

- Antique televisions talk of atom punk

- References to the feel of 'aliens' (basically technology of the 80s)... maybe call that circuit punk? Or electro punk? Chip punk? References to the 90s on the other hand would be cyberpunk, considering it steps into internet age
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I can't come up with any more ideas, so my take is basically bio-diesel, with western elements here and there.

And the human condition doesn't improve in starcraft (neither does the human really; psychic humans aren't better off either, or aren't supposed to be - this can really just mean they aren't able to find happiness any better). Hence why I consider it punk in some way.

[Hellgrinder]

Terrans struck me as a mix of cyberpunk and cattlepunk. Zerg are definitely biopunk. As for the Protoss, well, they never struck me as a "punk" society, really.

There are two more punk genres. Cattlepunk, which is set in the Old West, and Dungeonpunk, which is in a fantasy settng.

[Triceron]

I remember a discussion on Scrolls of Lore tackling the issue of whether or not Gnomes were Steampunk in Warcraft. The general concencus there was that they're not, because the term is specific to a type of genre/subgenre that they don't fit into. Warcraft is a conglomerate of all fantasy type genres, and so it is essentially both steampunk and not steampunk because it incorporates familiar elements but does not abide by any rules.

Starcraft is purely Science Fiction. It incorporates elements of fantasy, western, cyberpunk and more, yet it is not any one of those.

[FanaticTemplar]

- Datacores the size of three story buildings (or skyscrapers; whatever you want the scale to be; since buildings are bigger and part of terrain in korhal - I'd assume three story or high rise). Datacores are basically hardrives or 'holo drives' or whatever. Why so big? That's diesel punk straight off (not atom punk since atom punk is always more optomistic - take fall out which looks at atom punk in mock irony; diesel isn't all about 30s clothing).

Hmm. I'll have to replay that, but I always assumed those were simply the buildings in which the data cores were located.

[solidsamurai]

Terrans struck me as a mix of cyberpunk and cattlepunk. Zerg are definitely biopunk. As for the Protoss, well, they never struck me as a "punk" society, really.

There are two more punk genres. Cattlepunk, which is set in the Old West, and Dungeonpunk, which is in a fantasy settng.

I can think of a few others.... dragonpunk - it's classic damsel fantasy.

Junkpunk - the lives of homeless people in a landfill. Whom happen to also be genius technophile-wizards.

Stonepunk - Life in the stone age, but modernized like the flintstones.

Tribepunk - Life in a tribe, in south america, africa, pre-colony north america, the stone ages, etc.

Truth is... you can come up with millions of punk combinations. I'm just trying to see what we can make with what's already popular.
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Zerg and protoss can't fit into any punk - since they aren't really portrayed in the same way that humans are. They don't fit with the gripping human emotions that come with a dystopia or other societal position.

Not to say that zerg and protoss aren't interesting. They're just not human, so the same sort of themes don't apply - audiences need to be given time to examine characters that effectively will think and feel differently. Inevitably, zerg get less sympathy.

[mr. peasant]

I can think of a few others.... dragonpunk - it's classic damsel fantasy.

Junkpunk - the lives of homeless people in a landfill. Whom happen to also be genius technophile-wizards.

Stonepunk - Life in the stone age, but modernized like the flintstones.

Tribepunk - Life in a tribe, in south america, africa, pre-colony north america, the stone ages, etc.

Truth is... you can come up with millions of punk combinations.

Punk genres I'd love to see:

iPunk: Like cyberpunk. Except everything is white, touchscreen and optimistic.

Wuxia Punk: The Chinese answer to Cattlepunk or Dungeonpunk. Think 50-foot tall terracotta robots, the Great Forcefield of China and Shaolin cyborgs.

Daft Punk: Around the world, digital love is burnin' one more time; harder, better, faster, stronger.

[solidsamurai]

iPunk: Like cyberpunk. Except everything is white, touchscreen and optimistic.

I'd change that to:

iPunk: Like cyberpunk. Except everything is white, touchscreen and pretentious.

Wuxia Punk: The Chinese answer to Cattlepunk or Dungeonpunk. Think 50-foot tall terracotta robots, the Great Forcefield of China and Shaolin cyborgs.

So kinda like that scene from sucker punch with samurai golems with gatling guns and the like?

Daft Punk: Around the world, digital love is burnin' one more time; harder, better, faster, stronger.

The world is depressing because humans invented robots with human-ish intelligence, only to have them all become sex addicts - thus leaving all the work to humanity again. Back to the drawing board to invent robotic sex therapists!