Category:Corporations

Corporations in the Cyberpunk universe are mostly large, powerful conglomerates largely called "megacorps". Following a vast socio-economical collapse and a period of martial law, the United States government has had to rely on several megacorps to survive. This has given them a veritable carte blanche to operate as they will. This included the repeal of important anti-trust, worker/consumer protection and environmental protection laws. In this enviroment, megacorps have a great deal of control over their own employees. As megacorps maintain a tight control of the job market, termination means abject destitution with no hope of meaningful employment. Such people end up as wayfaring Nomads or as homeless "Zeros" surviving in urban war zones. The only exception to this are people with a lot of valuable information or skills that would be highly sought after by competing companies. Such employees are kept on if only to protect that info, although they would get the worst kinds of work. Otherwise, such "assets" are literally "in for life" with a high risk for "early retirement" should they seek "other opportunities". Employees are provided for with safe, company-owed gated communities. They are typically monitored in their own homes with no legal recourse. The pressure to maintain one's lifestyle and job security creates an extreme degree of company loyalty.

Megacorps are so powerful, it is not unusual for them to maintain a small personal army. They are refereed as "Corporate Security", but they are armed and equipped like military personal. Competition between corporations have boiled over into all out warfare called "Corp Wars". Such conflicts are as violent and intense as national conflicts, generally using neighborhoods has battlefields (although, most neighborhoods in the world of Cyberpunk would only be made safer by carpet bombing the hell out of it).

Needless to say, to all but hardcore Ayn Rand fans, mega-corporations are not the good guys. But given the cyberpunk genre, nor are the heroes...