Bioshock: a game as art?
First off, I recommened you check out this link in the Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2013/apr/16/bioshock-infinite-ten-critical-reactions
It has discussions done by many people, from all levels, about what this game has provoked.
The fact that this game has been discussed in the Guardian, the New York times, Forbes shows that some nerve has been pinched. There will still be a debate about whether video games can be art, but I humbly offer this. If the purpose of art is to inspire us to think and feel, to cause uncomfortable debates about issues that we would not engage in, then yes, this game has succeeded.
Of course, I should like the folks in the guardian did, I should offer a spoiler alert, though I will try to go easy on it.
Yes, the game's villains show a LOT of the ugly, racist images and actions. It is NOT filtered. Columbia, the city where you raid, is very much the whitewashed, white bread idealization of America, right down to the memorial of John Wilkes Booth. Of course, what many of the critics do not get is that the very alternation between pretty facades and empty or ugly holes IS the point. It is not a sustainable place, it is a show that people have put themselves in, totally unaware that their city in the clouds is held together with fraying wires and rusty equipment. The fact is, there is a lot of America that is fighting over the facades, over painted images and frozen statues. Meanwhile, the children we claim to love so much are locked up in towers and brainwashed (like Elizabeth, one of the main characters), or outright dehumanized like the workers who are turned into machines. Tennessee Williams once said "I give you truth in the pleasant disguise of illusion." The game will use the yes, shocking imagery to illustrate things thoughts that yes, are real. The sci fi is just the sugar to help you swallow it.
I understand the point some people make that using Racists as bad guys can be cheap shock value, and that it does not guarantee that white people will actually get the point, because they will be too busy thinking they can just blast a bad guy, rather than confront the evil that runs in the veins of even the best people. However, I do think the "shock" is needed, because, right now, in this society, the very attitudes parodied in Columbia are still there? We all knew, for example, that some people were not ready for a Black President. Did we really expect the whole "birther" nonsense to be given half the seriousness it was? You do not, hell, you should not, seek the worst example in trailer parks, because there are any number of clean, crisp magazines you can buy in your local bookstore where the worst cliches about Minorites will be discussed as if they were scientific fact. I need not get into the public school textbooks where slavery was praised, or where "separation of church and state" is being called a lie. It is horrible that things that should be in the graveyard of lies come up again; it becomes fitting that the game is Bioshock infinite, where, without realizing it, you find yourself caught in a loop of repeating events, where your weakness forget things you should have remembered.
Of course, the story is about the relationship between the hero, Booker dewitt, and Elizabeth. Some get mad at that, whereas I say we needed more focus on relations, not just between those two, but other people. To those who play the game, yeah, i will be getting to Fitzroy), but the fact is, politics is personal, and while we focus on signs and flash, we forget it is about how people relate to each other and survive. If anything, the flaws in the game are that they offered less of this, and more of the shooter. Of course, Ken levine has said he wanted to appeal to the shooter, to appeal to the bang bang types. Again, another American flaw revealed, where, like Obama, he thinks his efforts to please everyone will unite people, and instead, on the forums, said meatheads are braggiong the game is not violent enough, not enough guns.
And here is where we get to discussing that ending. If you have people that played this game, you will hear them talk about iot, either very bad, or very Good. Now, double spoiler alert, I will not state what this ending is in precise terms, but I can discuss it, as it also says something about ourselves.
The ending is a tragic one, though I should say many would disagree with me.The problem comes into play because the hero, for all of his square jaw power, is weak, in that he cannot remember, or really examine, why he is in this mess. I see that as a reflection of our main weakness; we do not pauses, we do not reflect, and therefore, are prey to those who want to keep the cycle going for their own damned benefit. We are dupes, but we help the dupe, as our approach to problems tends to be to keep shooting until you run out of ammo. When and and Elizabeth are together, trying to figure out where to go at the end, they get caught in the same loop of kill the badguy. Of course, stuff happens, there are some twists that any lover of Greek tragedy can recognize; the tragic flaw, the things that makes you a hero becoming your fatal flaw. Even though in theory, they have more choices available than any human can every dream of, they are still limited by their own perspective, and as a result, the one last door is opened.
There are some numerous flaws, for example, the two of them needed a foil, someone to respond to to challenge their ideas. Bioshock 1's andrew ryan did that better, and they could have used a foil. As a minority and a leftist, I do feel that the character of Dasy Fitzroy was misused, as instead of being a plot device, she could have told both Booker, Elizabeth and the Vox Populi (her minions gone nuts) where they were wrong. I understand most of the staff in gaming are white, but there are minorities they can talk to to at least get a badly needed perspective. Now that game machines are more powerful, there is room to grow, room to put in the perspectives that allow true exploration. However, a lot of this is limited by Ken Levine's own problem, his belief that choice is a lie.
Now, we can debate free will till the sun goes nova, but the fact is, choices do matter. Perhaps the next Bioshock can parody the idea of Nihilism, the idea that choice a or B still gets you fucked, so why bother? This game had a chance to do that, and it failed. However, some artistic failures are better than most successes. While there are flaws in the game, it has provoked thought that needed to be provoked; it stands head an shoulders above many. I do not mean video games either: If our art, news media, and others were able to provoke half as many discussions about race, war, power, money, America's image of itself versus reality, Labor, then we would be in a different place. Frankly, a lot of so called journalists, authors, painters, academics and even some activists should be ashamed that company whose official purpose is to make a toy wound up doing a better job of stimulating thought than they did.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Seriously, my reflexes, memory and skills are so bad that getting killed is just another part of the game for me. 
My biggest concern is platform. I'm on a Mac. I've been lied to by so many games that I'm always wary of 'Mac compatible' games. But, my newish iMac should be able to handle it without a problem.
I'm not going to judge you, yet, on your desire to crush little girl's spines. 
awesome games
ME3 was forcing me to choose which of my friends and lovers to send to their death for another version of a stupid ending
I'll always love you Liara!
Won't this turn me into a mass killer? 
