Re: Cyberpunk as a genre of rpgs. To actually be cyberpunk, characters should view an injustice in society as something they're railing against, and everyone they interact with should also have a shame/fear/pain of living complicit within the system. It shouldn't be chrome porn.

The only faceless goons you ought to be going through are upper management, the people who operate killer-drones, & cops; those who opt to keep the world held in an iron clutch. Who sold away humanity and empathy in exchange for comfort & cash. Who suffer only when others don't.

Cyberpunks as a party, should be rallying others to change. Everyone; gangers, near-androids, transients, wage slaves, and those forced into walks of life they didn't want---they all know who put them there, they want to not have to worry, to have change, to live with dignity.

Like, more than fantasy games; you should be seeing actual community building, keeping people focused on the bigger picture, treating enemies and conflicts and human weakness preyed upon like the union busting tactics they are.

I'd also say that PCs should probably be a bit more broken by the system so they can be radicals who radicalize rather than those in need of radicalization; at chargen, but that's a narrative thought.

I was working on a post-cyberpunk game once; the corps "won" the world died to climate catastrophe; but people lived on. And it was about being either an elderly cyberpunk or the next generations, fighting the resurgent corp-states and building community networks for mutual aid.

But it all boils down to, you're not a punk if you're a bootlick to the corps. This isn't a "ah, but you live in a society" thing; this is more about how nobody who hates a MegaCorp should have brand loyalty to their guns and cyberarms. Cuz it looks hypocritical.