Carrying Night City: Care, Survival, and the Psychology of Player Choice in Cyberpunk 2077

My current chapter project explores Cyberpunk 2077 through Ursula K. Le Guin’s “Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction.” While the game first appears to be about becoming stronger, gaining status, and making V into a Night City legend, I am interested in the quieter emotional questions underneath that fantasy. After V’s body and mind are changed by the Relic and Johnny Silverhand, the game becomes a story about identity, survival, memory, and care. This chapter examines how V’s choices and possible endings ask what is worth carrying forward when power, fame, and control are no longer enough. Rather than focusing only on combat or cybernetic upgrades, I read Cyberpunk 2077 as a game about relationships, grief, chosen family, and the difficult work of staying human in a world that treats people as disposable.