GameTavern - View Single Post

Professor S · 05-03-2009, 05:07 PM

I recently finished BIOSHOCK after having played it for a bit, but then putting it down after getting stuck at one point. I have to say I greatly enjoyed it, but it's definitely not your average FPS. Some thoughts:

1) Bioshock is a literary experience, more so than any other modern game I've played. Often games are compared to movies, and the format fits that of film, but Bioshock is decidedly not like a movie. It has multiple characters, several side stories that run in non-linear fashion but all compliment the end story. It plays out much more like a book that way. And like a book, the game really doesn't pick up steam until you're 30% of the way through it.

2) Whoever the artists were for this game should be millionaires. The game oozes ambiance and beauty.

3) Bioshock uses the nature of video gaming to tell it's story. It's always been a accepted conceit that you move from one mission to another based on objectives. But who is mandating these objectives? What are their motivations? Why are you blindly following these orders, assuming they are the best course of action. By using this conceit as a plot device, the designers turned the nature of electronic gaming into a plot device, and it played out brilliantly.

4) Finally, the game did make you think. Even though Rapture is by no means a true reflection of objectivist ideals, I think it shows what can happen when anyone becomes so enamored with their own ideology that all reason falls before it. In actuality, I think the world of Rapture borrows from a deadly mix of objectivism (markets uber alles), fascism (everything in the end interest of Rapture/the state) and early 20th century Fabian progressivism (eugenics and social. This story is about all absolutist beliefs, not simply those of Ayn Rand.

In the case of Bioshock, objectivism just happened to be the canvass for this story to be formed and told. It would have worked just as well, with Communism or any other "ism" in it's place. We just wouldn't have had that pretty art deco design to look at the whole game, and I think it was a new world and idea to explore that hasn't been done to death.

I'm eager to visit this world again, and await Bioshock 2.

05-03-2009, 05:07 PM	#1
Professor S Devourer of Worlds Professor S is offline Location: Mount Penn, PA Now Playing: Team Fortress 2, all day everyday Posts: 6,608	"No Gods or Kings" revisited I recently finished BIOSHOCK after having played it for a bit, but then putting it down after getting stuck at one point. I have to say I greatly enjoyed it, but it's definitely not your average FPS. Some thoughts: 1) Bioshock is a literary experience, more so than any other modern game I've played. Often games are compared to movies, and the format fits that of film, but Bioshock is decidedly not like a movie. It has multiple characters, several side stories that run in non-linear fashion but all compliment the end story. It plays out much more like a book that way. And like a book, the game really doesn't pick up steam until you're 30% of the way through it. 2) Whoever the artists were for this game should be millionaires. The game oozes ambiance and beauty. 3) Bioshock uses the nature of video gaming to tell it's story. It's always been a accepted conceit that you move from one mission to another based on objectives. But who is mandating these objectives? What are their motivations? Why are you blindly following these orders, assuming they are the best course of action. By using this conceit as a plot device, the designers turned the nature of electronic gaming into a plot device, and it played out brilliantly. 4) Finally, the game did make you think. Even though Rapture is by no means a true reflection of objectivist ideals, I think it shows what can happen when anyone becomes so enamored with their own ideology that all reason falls before it. In actuality, I think the world of Rapture borrows from a deadly mix of objectivism (markets uber alles), fascism (everything in the end interest of Rapture/the state) and early 20th century Fabian progressivism (eugenics and social. This story is about all absolutist beliefs, not simply those of Ayn Rand. In the case of Bioshock, objectivism just happened to be the canvass for this story to be formed and told. It would have worked just as well, with Communism or any other "ism" in it's place. We just wouldn't have had that pretty art deco design to look at the whole game, and I think it was a new world and idea to explore that hasn't been done to death. I'm eager to visit this world again, and await Bioshock 2. __________________ Last edited by Professor S : 05-03-2009 at 05:14 PM.