Cyberpunk 2077 has impressively realized its setting of Night City, right down to the slang used by its inhabitants, including the oft-repeated “choom”. The concept of devotion is heard throughout the game, and the main character, V, is often referred to as such. Night City and Cyberpunk 2077‘s slanghowever, was not created by the developer CD Projekt Red. Both predate the video game by some time and have their roots in the wider Cyberpunk franchise, so it takes some background to understand the meaning and prevalence of the slang term choom.
Developer CD Projekt Red has built a reputation for creating intricate, story-centric open worlds, which are on full display in Cyberpunk 2077. Like Witcher franchise is based on Andrzej Sapkowski’s fantasy series of the same name, Cyberpunk 2077‘s Night City and its wider fictional universe was canonized by other works. The game is closely based on the established knowledge of Cyberpunkan RPG series originally introduced in the first issue of 1988 Cyberpunk tabletop game.
The origin and definition of “Choom” in Cyberpunk 2077
Set in a bleak future controlled by corporations Cyberpunk tabletop RPG is filled to the brim with satirical twists on the tropes of the new cyberpunk science fiction genre. Alongside these conventions, Cyberpunk also introduced a number of peculiar ideas that helped make its take on the genre unique.
The second edition of the tabletop RPG, dubbed Cyberpunk 2020helped codify Night City itself and its language. According to Cyberpunk 2020, choomba/choombatta is “Neo-African American slang for a friend or family member.“ As in modern-day America, non-black residents of Night City have appropriated this piece of African-American culture and are also prone to calling each other choomba.
Choom is therefore an abbreviation analogous to “brother” in the real world. It also ends up looking like the word chum, which used to be a particularly popular synonym for friend, but this doesn’t seem to be a central part of how it was created. Night City isn’t technically a part of Cyberpunk‘s New United Statesbut it is the primary locale for a setting that mainly satirizes facets of modern American culture.
In an interview at the official Cyberpunk 2077 YouTube channel Mike Pondsmith goes into more depth on how he arrived at the word choom. He explains that he was “looking for some kind of Afrikaans” sound, and that he sought to avoid anything that would be too obviously dated. While leetspeak was taking off in 1980s message board systems at the time, Pondsmith correctly predicted that it would fall out of favor over time (although it certainly had a long run).
Choom, Slang, & The World Of Cyberpunk 2077
Outside Cyberpunk tabletop RPG, “choom” is heard in both Cyberpunk 2077 and that Cyberpunk: Edgerunners anime. Since neither players nor viewers give an explicit explanation for the phrase, it’s understandable why some would feel a little lost hearing it. Although the context is not too difficult to deduce, it can be implemented in either a sincere or condescending way, and Cyberpunk 2077 dialogue has so much else going on that it can be hard to make sense of it all.
With V unceremoniously dropped on the street at the beginning of a Cyberpunk 2077 playthrough they tend to quickly fall into a series of esoteric conversations. “Choom” serves as an example of how deep the world of Cyberpunk actually goes, as well as how language can influence world-building. On the other hand, it has also had an impact on the real world, with fans of Cyberpunk in all its incarnations occasionally using the term by itself, especially when discussing the franchise in community spaces.
In any case, the word “choom” certainly makes its mark. Although often casually dropped into conversation, certain uses prove memorable, such as Judy’s distinct intonation of “His own choomba shot him.” Even more iconic is David Martinez saying “Whatever, choom. Like I give ass**t in Cyberpunk: Edgerunnersin a context that viewers of the show will find hard to forget.
Choom’s parallel to today’s slang and appropriation seems deliberate. Cyberpunk is the creation of game designer and writer Mike Pondsmith. As a black game designer and huge fan of science fiction, Pondsmith used the vehicles of the cyberpunk genre and tabletop roleplaying to create social commentary on racism and capitalismwhere the framework extends to many other topics, such as transhumanism. Street slang helped characterize his world of warring corporations and racial divisions. Since Pondsmith worked with CDPR, he may have had a hand in making “choom” so ubiquitous as a term of endearment in Cyberpunk 2077.
Choom roughly translates to friend, but like so many elements of Cyberpunk 2077the slang term is derived from a specific cultural context and carries a touch of sardonic weight grounded in the pointed satire of the earliest entries in the long-running Cyberpunk series. Science fiction as a genre is known for extensive world-building, but usually uses the future as a means to reflect on the present. Star Trek‘s centuries of conflict in the universe and Dune‘s almost unrecognizable future achieve – at a basic level – the same goal as Cyberpunk 2077s extensive use of slang: pointed criticism of modern society.
- Released
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10 December 2020
- ESRB
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M for mature: Blood and gore, intense violence, nudity, strong language, strong sexual content, use of drugs and alcohol
- Motor
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REDengine 4
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