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DonCoquixote

(13,615 posts)
Tue Apr 2, 2013, 08:40 AM Apr 2013

Bioshock and what it says about America(spoiler alert)

Warning, in addition to discussing the game, I will have to give some spoilers about the ending..even though I will try to minimize this, I feel I owe people a warning. Feel free to avoid this if you wish to avoid spoilers.


Now, many people poo poo the idea of Video Games as art. True, there is a lot of crap, just as there a lot of crapmocies, crap books, and crap whatever else. The medium is also young. Howeever, there is a series that actually does something that is very dofficult for artists of any genre to do, make Americans actually think about themselves, specifcally, the dark side of our character. However, I offer there are two games that, in the context of play, manage to slip in heady issues about history and philosophy; the orginal Bioshock, and the latest, Bioshock infinite.

Quick summary of Bioshock. A rich man, who is a very thinly veiled image of Ayn Rand (right down to the family fleeing from the Russian revolution) forms a philosophy, and decides to leave the world, forming his own Utopia, called "Rapture." This is a libertarian Utopia, where altruism is a sin, and corporations can run ramshod without limits. Now, keep in mind, you have billionaires like Peter Thiel actually PLANNING somethign like this.

http://theweek.com/article/index/218393/libertarian-island-a-billionaires-utopia
http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/peter-thiel-floating-nation-photos-reveal-tech-moguls/story?id=14381713#.UVrKs5OceSo

The raw fact that something that would be considered ludicrous in Sci fi is being actually worked on is scary enough; that alone would show that the rich, especially the American rich, have perhaps gone mad. but let's get back to Bioshock. Of course, in this utopia, corporations sell high experimental medicines that become the addiction for the ultra rich; they become powerfulcannibalistic monsters that lose their humanity, ending in complete anarchy and hellish chaos. What drives the point home is that the monsters do not just scream like zombies, even as you fight them, they scream about in blather right out of Free republic about how they "need" to kill and rob you. They still act like they are in control, even though one look in a mirror could horrify them if they were still sane. The overall picture is that rapture started off as this swank, free place, but the very greed of the people who made it stole their humanity, and made it a hellish wreck you spend the game trying to escape from. All the while, the game does a brilliant job of puttingthe idea of conservatism, and the reality. Because you play the game, you have to get involved, to move about, to dig through, to solve puzzles and interact with characters,which of course means that you cannot be a passive viewer. You literally have to understand what is happening to survive.

The reason I praise this is because, well, I have relatives who are Ayn Rand fans, or should I say were. When I tell them Jack Ryan is Ayn Rand, and point how howe some quote were as close as you could get without getting sued by her estate, they realize "You know, you are right, this stuff can go wrong." Think of it as a candy coat to make the medicine go down. After all, when the monsters who are trying to kill you and eat little girls (yes, that happens) spout stuff that sounds like a GOP tirade, it makes you ponder whose side you are on

Now,for bioshock infinite. In this game, you find yourself in a well rendered utopia that is what the confederacy would have been. To be more precise, a city that broke away from the Union, and uses super science to terrorize the globe. The artwork is outright stunning, and that artwork is used not to be pretty,but to show how ugly the racism is. In the game, what sorts of as this nice little carnival becomes a disgusting fest where you are literally offered to punish a mixed race couple. Of course, not joining in will get you in trouble, but that does not make your choice easy. The city itself is filled with posters and propaganda about America being pure and white, with some of the propaganda literally coming alive in the form of machines,which of course, become your enemies once you become a pariah. Again, you wind up confronting all that religiopus and racist crap that we do not want to admit is part of the american character, and you realize what it is like to be at the getting end of all that crap.

Of course,now, this is the minor spoiler. If you have a gaming friend that has been complaimning, this is why. I will trim it down, but by the game's end, you wind up realzing that the character you play actually helped set all this crap in motion. You wind up confrotning the fact that all this evil you were fighting, you at one point actually DID. To say more would not only be a spoiler, but it would complicate this with talks of philosophy best reserved for it's own OP. I will stick to the polticalpoint,meaning that you , like all of us, have to confront the fact that, even though you may never have intended to do evil, the actions you did, inculding the ones wrapped in golden ideals, caused a lot of evil. Of course, that is the hardest lesson to accept.

And since some of you know the ending, I will say this, it is a cop out. Not by the artist, but by the characters who think they can avoid the consqeuences by taking a classic cop out of cop outs. There is the angsty lie that choices are lies, and that issomething that others may agree with, but most us here do not. The ending not ruin the rest of it, indeed, it shows that we as Americans rely too much on out ability to kill, die and suffer and think that will solve the problem. The Canadaians here use a term "The myth of redemptive violence." Here that myth is illustrated, and the sick feeling you see could inspire us to see that that myth is NOT so damned redemptive.

The point is, most entertainment, most journalism, cannot actually force a person out of themselves. Some drugs might, but getting high has also been co opted by American culutre, to the point of being full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. Video games like Bioshock can allow people to step out of themselves, and see what they would overlook.

PS: to those who think the female lead is some passive Disney Princess,I say you are wrong, she is a strong character that does NOT need to strap on guns and act like a man to do what she needs. I will also add that in the end scene, she migth as well be the Angel of Death, as she diessects the character'smind and life in a way that is without any pity. Yes, she has induced many a nightmare by now.








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Bioshock and what it says about America(spoiler alert) (Original Post) DonCoquixote Apr 2013 OP
Thank you for the post. LisaLynne Apr 2013 #1
sure , but I will warn you DonCoquixote Apr 2013 #2
We call it Iraq The Straight Story Apr 2013 #3
touche, but DonCoquixote Apr 2013 #4

LisaLynne

(14,554 posts)
1. Thank you for the post.
Tue Apr 2, 2013, 09:06 AM
Apr 2013

I am something of a gamer, although I've missed the BioShock series (can't play them all, right?) and I completely agree that they are able to tell stories and comment on society just as much as any other medium and perhaps, as you suggest, more so, because of the interactive element. You participate in a video game in a way that you just don't when watching a movie or reading a novel and I think they are highly under-appreciated for that element. I will admit there have been several that have had me in tears at the end.

After reading what you've written about BioShock, I may just have to play through the series now.

The Straight Story

(48,121 posts)
3. We call it Iraq
Tue Apr 2, 2013, 09:38 AM
Apr 2013
meaning that you , like all of us, have to confront the fact that, even though you may never have intended to do evil, the actions you did, inculding the ones wrapped in golden ideals, caused a lot of evil. Of course, that is the hardest lesson to accept.

DonCoquixote

(13,615 posts)
4. touche, but
Tue Apr 2, 2013, 09:42 AM
Apr 2013

Iraq, for many people,was nto something they coudl see; the BS mill alreayd had it packagaed, not wanting to repeat what happened in nam. Yes,it seems odd that a video game might do a better job of showign that than our news, but that does nto stop it from being true. Sometimes,artist have to tell a lie to trick their audience into swallowing the truth.

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