Vice, Sex drugs and rock'n roll Options

[Chrysalis]

Greets,

There will be a new Shadowrun sourcebook released by the end of the year this year called Vice. Now I was thinking on getting a little ahead of ourseves and see what kinds of ideas can we come up with in terms of Vices new and old for the 2070s.

Before you read on I should give you the warning that I have a very different approach from some towards what could be a dark, dystopian world. Please also be aware that I am used to playing in the realm of cyberpunk where these matters are more in your face and are dealt with a more open manner.

I would also like to reiterate a difficulty in talking about any of this with any frankness and that you who reply to this will also consider these points before posting:

3. No sexually explicit or offensive material. This includes links leading to materials of this nature. DSF is accessed by many people in many different settings, and we want the forum to remain accessible to everyone.

4. Discussion of politics, religion, and sex are prohibited, except as they directly pertain to Shadowrun or another game. Discussions on these subjects will be watched closely, and any innapropriate posts may result in warnings or suspensions.

As this deals with vice I will not be talking about Miami Vice, but more of the nuts and bolts of the sex, drugs, and rock'n roll. If these subjects offend you please do not click on the spoiler tag.

[ Spoiler ]

Sex

Prostitution is still big business in 2070. With UCAS being turned into a mix of both first world and third world, law is mired by corporate courts and extrajudicional areas.

Brothels, striptease bars, peepshows are all quite usual. Adding into this mix are the 2070 versions of virtual simsense environments. Porn is not only the Matrix it also comes in BTL chips as well. You can have better than real sex online.

With automation and knowbot codes lurking in the matrix perhaps it is simply an AI or agent that runs the virtual brothel, where the programmer just comes in for his monthly cut.

The traditional habits of the Ukranian mafia are replaced by sleep regulators, personafix chips and bunraku parlours. Now you don't even need to kidnap candidates or have to go to Bulgaria to buy girls in lots when you can simply do it by cruising the barrens and applying some harmless brain alteration. Once they outlive their usefulness, there are many who would pay good money for prime organs.

However, all of this technology is expensive and there is still a market for flesh and blood, not only for the affluent, but also for all those hardworking corporate drones. It means that while technology gives you ease of access, corporations have long ago known the fundamental of not shitting where you eat.

What does this mean for you? Your monthly middle-class lifestyle should be able to pay for not only those wild nights on the town, but also for the maid who not only cleans your house, but also keeps your bed warm on those rainy Seattle nights.

Drugs

In addition to the wide variety of drugs already available in the local pharmacy there are also virtual drugs, BTL chips, and hallucinogenic IC. You can by your synthcoke to go with soykaf. With extrajudicional areas you should beware what you can buy in one area maybe illegal in another. After all, corps make billions off selling drugs and any kind of competition is frowned upon.

Drugs are everywhere. It is in the food, in the air. Addiction means a captive audience and once that need is fufilled the consumer comes back for more. It keeps them working, it keeps them motivated, it keeps them as a part of the corporate system.

Shadowrunners often forget that when they take their hit to keep their edge, that celibratory snort.


Rock'n'roll

Entertainment is everywhere, it climbs in through your AR, it breaks your firewall and only dead people don't know how out of style they truly are. Consume, buy, spend.

[CanRay]

Actually, on the Rock 'n' Roll thing...

Rock from the 1950s and 1960s would be 100-years old now.

That'd make Jimi Hendrix "Classical Music" now! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

"Respect the Classics, Man!"

[bard4life]

cool thanks for the update.

[hermit]

Hidden in the spoiler is a reply to Chysalis. Warning: Reading this might mean losing your soul. Don't whine that you weren't warned.

[ Spoiler ]

Drugs are everywhere. It is in the food, in the air. Addiction means a captive audience and once that need is fufilled the consumer comes back for more. It keeps them working, it keeps them motivated, it keeps them as a part of the corporate system.

Yeah ... like the old NukIt Burgers Breakfast Burrhito from Seattle Sourcebook. "With the funny stuff in it that keeps them coming back for more. And more. And more."

In regards to sex, I'd disagree on peep shows, at least live ones. that concept especially lends itself to AR/VR applications. You could also do specialty shows there for special audiences with interetsing tastes, like orc-elf-rape or other endeavours that are a little demanding on one or all performers, and still beam it into thoudsands of peep show cubiciles.

Also, one thing that's frequently been mentioned in the books but I totally missed is sex toys. as in, androids. Both Unwired and arsenal have mentioned them as specialised applications of the Otomo drone, and I'd hazard a guess that robofetishism would be a lucrative niche for such high-tech toys.

Then there's 'willful bunraku work' - much like originally mentioned in Bill Gibson's "House of Blue Lights", "Johnny Mnemonic" and "Neuromancer" (he really seems fond of that idea), people will offer ther bodies for rent, take an implant that puts them into ASIST-induced sleep, and let customers have their way with their bodies. Like Molly said, "you rent what you have, wake up, maybe feel a bit sore, but hey, it's good money".

And to even further explore the sex topic, what about all these transhuman concepts? In one scifi book (about aliens eating earth, but that's what really stuck with me), people changed sex according to fashion. I don't see how this is impossible in the SR universe. Also, with extensive body modding, you can rearrange your body in the most absurd ways to feed your fetishes, no matter how bizarre and disturbing (We've had that aleasdy; although closed, I hope some of the topics raised in that thread do receive soem coverage).

Finally, though, I also hope the authors avoid some really overworn clichés, like the 'all elves are sex machines' trope. It IS getting annoying.

[Hocus Pocus]

one would think that in the future it will be a little more liberated in that some poor down and out below average slob with a wife and 2 kids and a heafty mortgage could go to his local brothel for a coupla babes dressed as schoolgirls and for a very short peirod of time, usually 1 minute, can take him to a place far away from it all, a land of milk and honey, with puppy dogs and humming birds. Is it to dream?

[CanRay]

Where the streets are paved with Gold and the Dragons are fluffy and warm to cuddle?

[hyzmarca]

"There's never been a paper bag."

..Dozerman gets shot for some bullshit, and that's when I 'bout reached my limit. And that's when the idea of the free zone, of Hamsterdam, come to me. Cause this drug thing, this ain't police work. Naw, it ain't. I mean, I can send any fool with a badge and a gun up on them corners and jack a crew and grab vials. But policing--I mean you call something a war and pretty soon, everybody gonna be running around acting like warriors. They gonna be running around on a damn crusade, storming corners, slapping on cuffs, racking up body counts. And when you at war, you need a fucking enemy. And pretty soon, damn near everyone on every corner is your fucking enemy. And soon the neighborhood that you supposed to be policing, that's just occupied territory.

The great thing about Z-rated areas where the police never go is that they serve as a paper bag. If you want drugs, BTLs, kinky sex, or gambling, you can just go there and the cops can do real police work, like preventing hot-tempered SINners from killing their spouses in fits of rage.



One thing I disagree about SR4 rules is that sex changes make you infertile. Since gonad transplant should be as trivial as any other procedure, it may mean that that your kids aren't genetically yours but are instead the offspring of some poor schmuck who Tanamous cut up, unless you pay big bucks for some genetic engineering, but it should be as trivial as any other organ transplant is.

[Backgammon]

In the Madrid Audrian series, sex changed people are extremely common. When I was reading it I thought it was plausible and a good idea, but in Effinger's vision I think sex changes were a little too common. But anyway, it was basically a trivial matter for men who wanted to be women to do so, and be basically indistinguishable from real women - except for the fact perhaps the sex changes pretty much all went for really hot bodies and for some reason all ended up as exotic dancers. But anyway, SR's technology should indeed make it trivial to have a perfect sex change. I continue to think, after readind the Madrid Audrian series, that this is an excellent cyberpunk theme. Just as machines blend with human, making us question what is human, a perfect sex change blurs the line of gender as well. What does it mean if your hot kittne girlfriend used to be a man? Does it mean anything at all?

As for drugs, there was an article not long ago in The Economist that talked about the future of drugs. Basically reality is aligning itself with the vision some SF writers have had for a while. As phamaceutical technology evolves, drugs start losing their nastier side-effects, basically meaning you can chew on them like candy for all sorts of beneficial effects. I think SR is already aligned in that direction. There are several "casual" drugs characters can use for small bonuses and little side effects - drugs like Betel from Arsenal. So the use of drugs as mild enhancers is probably widespread to the point of it being like coffee. People don't event think twice about it - hell, they don't even think once.

But the harder narcotics and such, the cocaine and heroine of the future, as SR describes it, and I agree, they do not compete all that well against BTLs. Escapist/party drugs are just an inferior way of trying to feel like what a BTL can do much better - feel up, feel down, feel whatever. A BTL can target that part of your brain and voilà, you're all set. But then, this is where Ghost Cartels comes in. BADs and Awakened drugs are the new ace of chemical drugs. As Ghost Cartels comes out before Vice, I imagine Vice will expand on the phenomena Ghost Cartels is going to create.

[Snow_Fox]

without being explicit about sex I think this would prove a major element. in a world with metas and magic therecould be all sorts of kinks that are not socially acceptable. Mixing species- dwarves and trolls as partners where the realative sizes in heigh alone make things seem off.

Also, more main stream, considering the japanese prejudicees agains metas suppose sarimen have a 'forbidden' passion for elf women and the need a place to meet in private-a big deal in a culture where just talking to a meta, mnver mind buying her a drink-is a taboo.

hunting rare creatures-gee fred that unicorn head on your wall looks almost real.

similarly exotic foods

and thrill seekers- like the 'normal' human who has ant spirit possessed house hold servants. A few trusted people get to see the more freakish blends. He provides a haven in the basement but has the risk thatcat some point they might take him too.

[Chrysalis]

This may offend your sensibilities. If so think happy, happy thoughts and stop reading further.

[ Spoiler ]

I think you are missing a fundamental aspect in prostitution and that is not sex, but rather power. That you can go to your local brothel and pick up your daughter's school mate and fuck her 12 ways since Sunday or then taking an elf chick and keeping her in the basement and burning her with cigarette butts. It's about control. It's about taking control of your life that the corps have planned right down to your tattoos.

It's an outlet and diversion, the higher the paygrade the more kinkier sex becomes.

Orcs, trolls, dwarfs, africans, americans, thais are fads in the prostitution business. One year trolls are in demand another it is caucasians.

Unfortunately there is a fundamental issue involved with Otomos, you can't rape them, they don't feel compassion, they are not afraid of you. There is no power or control involved in them. They are no different than being complex rubber sex dolls.

It's the same way with Bunraku parlours, ultimately as an experience from the client side it's fucking a somnambulist. Unless you are really into date rape there is no interest involved if one looks at it from a power perspective.

My own experiences since my first sexual experience 15 years ago is that men crave to have something high which they can destroy to turn their will. Sex is just the act to affirm this situation of man's primacy.

I am already on my second warning and I think I may have earned my third by even talking about this.

Unfortunately I feel that all the technology in Shadowrun in terms of prostitution is a moral cop out. As a player you just venture into the wild side as a tourist and do not have to think about the reasons or the whys. You can safely go to bed knowing that when whoever you spent your money on will have at most an experience that involves taking two aspirins in the morning.

[hyzmarca]

Chrysalis, you apparently have crappy taste in male sex partners. Either they're not doing it right or they're doing the wrong thing. Or they're just jerks. Or some combination of the above.

Sexual power dynamics have infinite potential variation and power dynamic preferences are many and varied.
There are men who will pay good money to do your laundry then be yelled at and beaten as punishment for any slight imperfection in the job real or imagined.

Most people, male and female, who frequent prostitutes do so for the companionship. It's cheaper than dating as well as safer and more honest; sex is just an aspect of that companionship. Others do it for the variety; often they're married and sometimes couples purchase these services together. Still others do so to satisfy an unusual fetish; Abies, for example, might have a difficult time finding suitable nannies outside of the fetish industry.

[WearzManySkins]

Good Thoughts/Ideas hyzmarca.

Wonder how the legal prostitution locales like in Nevada would fare in SR4 2070. In those locales, hyzmarca is correct a good percentage of the customers are there for one form or another of companionship. Some of the customers go there due it is cheaper to patronize such places than to date persons, and in such places you are guaranteed to score for the night, when in dating you are not.

During my time in service, I paid "ladies of the evening" to sit next to me. Why you ask? well for one thing unless a lady is sitting next to you, every unattached lady will cycle thru asking you to sit with you every 15 minutes. What I paid was called "Ladies Drinks" which are/were overpriced drinks that may not have any alcohol. Typically it was 2 drinks which ran about 20 Pesos which at that time was about a dollar.

Since in the locales I was in, most places that served drinks had the Ladies, only one place served drinks with out the Ladies that was the VFW post on the main drag. I also got to speak to a female person which was a different thing, since my ships were all male at that time. During those conversations I gained some insight into the life of such ladies and the reasons for their being in that line of work.

WMS

[psychophipps]

BTLs are the future because you can get the same thing, or something different catered to your needs, every single time. You get different grades of street drugs. Sometimes it's pure, sometimes it's cut with insecticide and rat poison to turn a higher profit. Hell, I had a really rough time bouncing one night with some poor college jock who didn't realize that the funny taste in that pre-rolled joint he bought was PCP.

Also, don't take this personal, but y'alls be sissies compared to the psycho stuff I toss into my games. Hell, you can damn near torture a prostitute to death or even do snuff with them over and over again with decent magic healing. Give her a Sim-Sense rig and you can record the whole thing for the depraved nouveau riche. Hell, pop a BTL and you can really have a good time doing whatever with whomever you want. Kiddie porn? Easy as pie and you can swap girls, boys, hermies, whathaveyou with the flick of a mental switch. There would be no real limits as the worst out there could be recorded once and dubbed with other recordings for distribution as a "new" recording.

To be short, the world would become a supremely screwed up place as you could literally combine your favorite aspects of sex and violence, enjoy them at the same time, and catered to your unique wants.

[RunnerPaul]

To be short, the world would become a supremely screwed up place as you could literally combine your favorite aspects of sex and violence, enjoy them at the same time, and catered to your unique wants.

When 4chan's /B/-tards ruled the Earth.



====================

This may offend your sensibilities. If so think happy, happy thoughts and stop reading further.

[ Spoiler ]

Unfortunately there is a fundamental issue involved with Otomos, you can't rape them, they don't feel compassion, they are not afraid of you. There is no power or control involved in them. They are no different than being complex rubber sex dolls.

It's the same way with Bunraku parlours, ultimately as an experience from the client side it's fucking a somnambulist. Unless you are really into date rape there is no interest involved if one looks at it from a power perspective.

[ Spoiler ]

Which can have an appeal all it's own to those who those who find themselves at the wrong end of a Sex-as-Power-Trip equation more often than not. Suddenly, there's easy access to a partner who won't try to mold you and break you into their own personal plaything. People who would at the very least be intimidated in a real sexual relationship, and at the worst, absolutely chewed up and spit out by it, now have another option, one in which they can explore sexual release in an non-threatening context.

[Hocus Pocus]

whao! fundamental is power oh my good gracious no

my fellow irrudite men above me have it all bound up and a neatly wrapped package with an old grey bonnet with some blue frills upon it!

why do you think guys parose them mostly? to get away from de nagging wife of course!

when the guy marries and the wife changes, they just want to get away from it all for a bit.


they want a coupla ladies dressed up as school girls, attentive to his every need, so full of life and vigor! unleash the spring time of youth!

perhaps they want to just talk? the wife would over ride him and talk what she wants to talk. the lady will say of course and listen attentively to him

sex? well married women don't have it. but the ladies will do WHATEVER you want and with a smile on their face and not tell you that it is "disgusting" or "your sick" or the favorite "I'm not a porn star" clearly.

yeah she will take some of your money, but the agreed upon price and not a penny more. Man wives will have you so far into debt you don't know which way is up!

*sniffle* they can fulfill all your fantasys. Maybe one day, my own fantasy will be fulfilled? oh i can picture it now *breathless sigh* do we hen pecked men dare to dream?

Where the streets are paved with Gold and the Dragons are fluffy and warm to cuddle?

to see the horizon resplendet with the sun and back droped with obsequious babes running to you in slow motion in lillies and liacs calling your name? the unicorns breying their approval with stamps of the hoofs. Pixies and faries dance all around and a rainbow bright as a thousand stars promises that dreams do come true....yes it is to dream

[Trigger]

When 4chan's /B/-tards ruled the Earth.

2070, when Rule 34 has no limits and everything is possible.

[shuya]

When 4chan's /B/-tards ruled the Earth.

rules 1 and 2 mother****er!!!

but, to actually contribute something meaningful to the thread (lolwut?), i've always seen prostitution in shadowrun as being a lot like prostitution in modern day japan; very out in the open, and it's only illegal to pimp (but if you publish a flyer with girls' pictures and phone numbers on it, you're a publisher, not a pimp). in the big cities (and even the not-so-big ones) it's very easy to pick out the "establishments" even if you can't read a word of japanese, and it's just kinda... it's there.

i also like the idea of "sin districts" where all this kinda stuff essentially gets shuffled off to and accepted; see again the "yoshiwara" district of 19th century edo (tokyo); i guess seattle's "loveland" is sorta supposed to have that kinda feel to it.

on an entirely non-sex-related note, does anybody know the canon word on whether or not weed is legal in the 21st century UCAS?

[ Spoiler ]

in b4 newfag, weeaboo, gb2 420-chan, etc....

[Heath Robinson]

... Snipped ...

I believe hyzmarca has referenced Mai's Everyday Life in relation to regeneration in a previous thread. I'm not particularly a fan of the more extreme fetishes, but I can see why it'd be attractive to some. Consider that in 2070 people can make other people look like little girls and boys (or, at least, adult-sized little girls and boys).

When 4chan's /B/-tards ruled the Earth.

rules 1 and 2 mother****er!!!

[ Spoiler ]

in b4 newfag, weeaboo, gb2 420-chan, etc....

How quaint, rules about not mentioning your secret club I presume.

[ Spoiler ]

Also, both of you are newfags, weeaboos, and should gb2 420chan.

[hermit]

Curious whether or not that will get me a warning. Read with caution, dirty stuff ahead.

[ Spoiler ]

I think you are missing a fundamental aspect in prostitution and that is not sex, but rather power. That you can go to your local brothel and pick up your daughter's school mate and fuck her 12 ways since Sunday or then taking an elf chick and keeping her in the basement and burning her with cigarette butts. It's about control. It's about taking control of your life that the corps have planned right down to your tattoos.

It's an outlet and diversion, the higher the paygrade the more kinkier sex becomes.

Orcs, trolls, dwarfs, africans, americans, thais are fads in the prostitution business. One year trolls are in demand another it is caucasians.

While a very highly regulated living environment will to some degree foster such desires, I disagree it'll be a widespread phenomenon. For most customers, prostitution is about a cheap fuck, and that's it (that's rewarding enough to them). Many more men than the violent dominant kind fashion themselves 'collectors' and love to consider themselves very appealing and, yes, powerful, solely on the account of how many women they've had sex with, not nescessarily how they bashed them up during and disposed of them in tiny bits afterwards. That's a deviation from the norm, not the norm as such.

Also, having every prostitute sold to someone who renders them useless to future customers is bad business, and this is why pimps always keep bouncers to rough up customers who rough up their meat. At the end of a prostitute's product cycle, she may end like that, but before, she's got to look appealing, and no matter what your personal experiences are, the mjority of prospective customers will not be endeared by missing teety or cigarette burn scars.

The daughter's schoolmate counts, of course, but not so much for empowerment but rather as a symptom of mid life crisis, and reaffirming of the customer he's still 'got it in himself' to get women who're close to the beauty ideal (which is that of a late teens teenager).

Unfortunately there is a fundamental issue involved with Otomos, you can't rape them, they don't feel compassion, they are not afraid of you. There is no power or control involved in them. They are no different than being complex rubber sex dolls.

It's the same way with Bunraku parlours, ultimately as an experience from the client side it's fucking a somnambulist. Unless you are really into date rape there is no interest involved if one looks at it from a power perspective.

They're an empty canvas, both of them, to be filled with whatever your fantasy is. Like to fuck your attractive elven boss? Or maybe Maria Mercurial's husband? It's all possible with these, the degree of realism in that illusion depending solely on your wallet.

Also, an Otomo makes an ideal mate for socially retarded people. It never speaks up or refuses any service asked, it can be customised to your wildest dreams, and if you feel the urge to destroy what you fuck, you'fe vone exactly nohting wrong.

Unfortunately I feel that all the technology in Shadowrun in terms of prostitution is a moral cop out. As a player you just venture into the wild side as a tourist and do not have to think about the reasons or the whys. You can safely go to bed knowing that when whoever you spent your money on will have at most an experience that involves taking two aspirins in the morning.

'Moral Cop-out' is a very important part of the red lights business. Few people want to feel bad about having had a night of fun, after all.

As for the legal houses ... at least in the German publications, those are treated no different than today - the larger ones run adverts on buses and billboards and generally behave like any business would. Then again, we're just used to that, and noone considers this anything out of the ordinary.

on an entirely non-sex-related note, does anybody know the canon word on whether or not weed is legal in the 21st century UCAS?

For all I know, the background has as of now been silent towards that. I know it's considered legal in German publications (As is Extasy).

[CanRay]

on an entirely non-sex-related note, does anybody know the canon word on whether or not weed is legal in the 21st century UCAS?

Well, considering that "Heroin" is considered a "Light Drug" in Shadowrun after BTLs and Designer Drugs hit the streets, and not worth really going after, something as minor as Marijuana is probably left alone unless the Cops really want to bust you for something, and that's all they got.

Otherwise, not worth the paperwork.

[Chrysalis]

More filth ahead.

[ Spoiler ]

I thought I would add Hermit's quotes and reply to them, but it demands actually following the whole argument.

Maybe power is not the correct word. While power is an aspect I would see that fantasy is far more powerful. The ability to pay money for the ability to fuck a girl who you could not drives directly into fantasy aspects. The idea that one hour out of your week you can go from a normal to whatever fantasy you desire. Whatever that fantasy is, whether it is simply having an hour of someone hugging you and listening to you ramble on about your crap job and your bitch wife. Sex is only part, it is about fantasy, even if that fantasy is companionship.

Prostitution is like a commodity such as meat: the fresher it is the better it is. Once it goes past its due date it is thrown out.

Real Dolls (please look it up yourself) in real life are just like Otomos. Recommended for the socially disabled, the short, etc. You could also in real life buy a 14 year old girl. And in Shadowrun to misuse your quote Hermit: "it can be customised to your wildest dreams, and if you feel the urge to destroy what you fuck, you've done exactly nothing wrong." After all if it does not have a SIN it does not legally exist.

Jumping to something similar, I was thinking about corporate judiciality. If it is not expressly forbidden in corporate law then it is not illegal. And if there is no law against it you can do it. Almost every country in the world has a minimum legal age. As corporate law is not morality but about profitability I suspect that very few corporations if any have in their constitution either caveats that allow local laws or then a mention of legal age.

I have yet to play in Phipps' games I have always wanted to though.

[Backgammon]

Jumping to something similar, I was thinking about corporate judiciality. If it is not expressly forbidden in corporate law then it is not illegal. And if there is no law against it you can do it. Almost every country in the world has a minimum legal age. As corporate law is not morality but about profitability I suspect that very few corporations if any have in their constitution either caveats that allow local laws or then a mention of legal age.

I think you are wrong there. Megacorps have as much interest as any nation to ensure there are laws against immoral conduct. Raping a prostitute and then beating her to death is NOT acceptable just because it doesn't affect the bottom line. A) it tarnishes the reputation of the corporation. Nobody wants to buy from "Those Debauched Fucks ™". B) it upsets the other citizens. How would you feel if your cowokers routinely raped 14 year olds and all of upper management knew about it but did nothing? Society demands these things be punished and "society" still exists withing a corporate context.

Common "moral" laws are necessary to manage the internal morale and behaviour of staff. If anything, megacorps are far more likely to have MORE laws than states. Think of the japanacorps that rigidly control their employees. You think Renraku is gonna let it slide that Tetsuo in accounting likes to rape hookers? That would be shameful.

Anyway, I could go on, but point is you can't not have moral laws. Humans aren't wired that way.

[psychophipps]

Common "moral" laws are necessary to manage the internal morale and behaviour of staff. If anything, megacorps are far more likely to have MORE laws than states. Think of the japanacorps that rigidly control their employees. You think Renraku is gonna let it slide that Tetsuo in accounting likes to rape hookers? That would be shameful.

Anyway, I could go on, but point is you can't not have moral laws. Humans aren't wired that way.

Umm...if we're not "wired that way", how come stuff like Seirra Leone happens? Cambodia? Burma/Myanmar? The atrocities of the Japanese occupation? The Cultural Revolution? Yugoslavian ethnic cleansing? How about the good ol' US street ghetto and all the things we as a country do to makes sure they exist?

All I can say to absolutely ridiculous bold font section above is, "Read your history, bro..."

And I feel that a distinct "Don't ask. Don't tell." policy would be in effect for most of the big boys. You think that the big wigs in Renraku are going to give two tugs of a dead dog's cock if Makoto in Accounting likes to rape and kill barrens wastrels? HA! As long as it doesn't come back to bite them in the ass (and that's what paying the pimp top dollar is for, after all) they could care less. Look at the stuff that first world corporations are doing for profits now, fer chrisake! You think it's gonna magically get better because governments have less power? Get real! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/cyber.gif)

Homie, it's time you opened to your eyes to the realio dealio that's going on out there...

[reepneep]

I would think that low level employees would be dumped for something like this simply because the bad publicity the company would receive if it became public knowledge would far outweigh the employee's value to the company. Like phipps said, the people at the top are far too valuable to throw away because they are 'kinky'.

Another thing worth considering is that since the megas produce the only media that Joe Consumer ever sees it would be VERY easy to make sure the stories never appear at all. A few bribes, a little extortion, or a few shadowruns (YAY!) and the problem of media exposure, almost no matter how big it is, goes away. If an employee of little value made them spend money on him like this, he would be gone.

[Wesley Street]

Does the "rock 'n roll" in the phrase "sex, drugs, and rock 'n roll" only apply to the stereotypical white guy devil-horn throwing long-haired guitarist/drummer or can that apply to any counter-cultural music form? Because I'm thinking that by 2070 there's no way rock music is going to be edgy in any form... especially since they now play it at GOP conventions.