What Does Choom Mean In Cyberpunk 2077

Cyberpunk 2077 is full of difficult lore questions, like: What on earth is a “choom” and why do Cyperpunk‘s NPCs keep calling V one? While the highly-publicized game may be most players’ introduction to the series, it is also the latest canon entry into the long-running Cyberpunk RPG franchise. Because of this, understanding the meaning and prevalence of the slang term choom requires a bit of background.

Developer CD Projekt Red has earned a reputation for crafting intricate, story-centered open worlds. And as in its Witcher franchise’s reliance on Andrzej Sapkowski’s fantasy series of the same name, CD Projekt Red didn’t create the world of Cyberpunk 2077 from whole cloth. The game is based closely on the established lore of Cyberpunk, a roleplaying series originally introduced in the first edition of the 1988 Cyberpunk tabletop game. Set in a grim future controlled by corporations, the RPG was joyfully stuffed to the brim with satirical twists on the tropes of the emerging cyberpunk science fiction genre. Alongside these conventions, Cyberpunk also introduced a number of peculiar ideas that helped make its take on the genre unique.

However, it is the 1990 second edition of the tabletop game which really fleshed out the world of Cyberpunk. Known as Cyberpunk 2020, this entry in the series further codified Night City and its “streetslang.” Intriguingly (and problematically, for recent entries in the series) Night City is heavily segregated, and its neighborhoods, gangs, and slang have a racial character. For instance, “omawari,” an actual Japanese word for police, is a Japanese slang term for cops in Night City.

What Choom Says About The World Of Cyberpunk 2077

Choom has a similar origin, although it is a bit more imaginative. According to Cyberpunk 2020, choomba/choombatta is a “Neo-Afro-American slang for a friend or a 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 one another choomba. Choom, then, is an abbreviation analogous to “bro” or “bruh” in the real world.

This parallel to present day slang and appropriation seems to be intentional. Cyberpunk is the creation of game designer and author Mike Pondsmith. As a Black game designer and an enormous fan of science fiction, Pondsmith used the vehicles of the cyberpunk genre and role-playing to make social commentary about racism and capitalism. Streetslang helped characterize his world of warring corporations and racial divisions. Since Pondsmith worked with CD Projekt Red, he probably had a hand in the ubiquitousness of choom as a term of endearment in Cyberpunk 2077.

Choom roughly translates to friend. But like so many elements of Cyberpunk 2077, the 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.

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