Mix It Up: Why Cyberpunk 2077 still hits for some trans people, despite its transphobia scandals

One of the central themes of the cyberpunk genre is the debate over identity. After all, in a world where you can modify your body however you please and connect without limits to a massive number of people, where does the self find solid ground? Who are you amid this endless flow of connections and modifications? Is there at least an essence of self, or only constant transformation?

For decades, countless cyberpunk works have tried to answer these questions, each within its own paradigm, diving into this dystopian, hyper-capitalist future dominated by tech conglomerates, where everything feels a little more magical thanks to the repeated presence of LED billboards — which, of course, is no different when it comes to Cyberpunk 2077.

These very questions stirred something deep within me and eventually drew me to be excited about the game prior to its release — back in 2018, when I was only 16. For that newly discovered trans non-binary girl, there was a certain fantasy in imagining a universe where you could freely be whoever you wanted, without having to answer to anyone. But when a certain ad for the game came out in 2019, I realized I might have been frighteningly wrong about its messages — and seven years later, I can confirm that feeling.

Yet, browsing through Discord servers and Reddit posts over the past few years, I have noticed that my aversion to the game is, even within the trans community, something of an exception. Somehow, the trans experience built into Cyberpunk 2077 struck a chord with a considerable share of the audience, to the point where I kept hearing, without having to look far, how important that story had been to people's own journeys of self-discovery.