Chances are you've heard me mention cyberpunk before, maybe as a tangent to a rant about steampunk — but this article over on GamesRadar explores the concept way better.
Joe McNeilly's "Neuromancer: 25 Years Later" looks at the connection between cyberpunk granddaddy William Gibson's work and the video game scene today. It's a lengthy read — the kind I'm more used to seeing on Gamasutra — but there's some good stuff in there about the rise of home consoles and the gamer-occupied cyberspace we're so used to navigating. Even if the history lesson bores you a bit, it's nice to know (or pretend to know) where ideas like Project NATAL come from.
Here's a good bit:
...cyberspace isn't just for boring stuff like industry and shipping. Home game consoles have all but replaced the primitive arcades that originally inspired Gibson to dream up cyberspace in the first place. Gamers project themselves into the matrix, with senses ever more immersed in the experience of HD graphics and surround sound and virtual community. Many disregard meatspace in a manner similar to Case, Neuromancer's console cowboy, forgetting to eat, sleep, drink, pee or blink during extended periods of game-trance. When neural jacks finally arrive, gamers will be the first to plug in.
Go check out the rest if you want to know where Rez fits in.
Neuromancer: 25 years later [GamesRadar]