I was watching a video on Youtube about Shadowrun lore the other day, and one of the commentators brought up an interesting point, so I wanted to see what everyone thought. His general train of thought was that Shadowrun has a distinctive style, but this style changes over time. For instance, when first launched Shadowrun was a combination of the wild west, with its lawlessness and duster wearing gunslingers, and Japanese cyberpunk, all neon and rebellious of the corps.
I have felt, since my return to the game from 2nd and 3rd editions, that the general "feel" of the game has shifted substantially. I couldn't put my finger on it at first, I thought maybe it was just my players who tend to want to play the good guys rather than the straight up criminals that my last group played. But after watching that video I realized that whole tone of the game has become reflective of a different time period in real life. Everything is wireless in the game now, the traffic is grid linked, and it seems to have shifted to a Mission Impossible feel.
I started wondering what a futuristic society with Shadowrun's background would look like if we had the technology that we have now and projected it into that society. With smart houses, wireless technology, widespread hacking, and VR tech very much a reality now, what would this translate into in another 50 years or so. Or did the game actually need to evolve past that 1980's version of the future? It is an alternate universe, is it conceivable that it could simply remain with pink mohawk sporting, duster sporting, wired up runners fighting to survive down on the streets amid the leavings of massive corps that have taken over the world? Maybe I'm just feeling nostalgic for the old version...