Ima tell you this story before I can tell you the next ‘un. (If you’re impatient, jump ahead to 3:24 on the video.)
Way back in 2008, Irrational Games came out with a first-person shooter video game called Bioshock
The city was full of hints lying around talking about the moments from just before everything went to pieces… doctors giving speeches about how people should have the right to change their sex or their race because, after all, “it’s yours to change!”. Speeches from artists who were discussing getting bored with the old limits. Speeches from botanists who weren’t above selling the oxygen from their plants… and, yes, a downright chilling speech from Andrew Ryan Himself in which he explains the title to this very post.
Well, without getting too deep into the various strawmen built by the game (there was talk of problems with “smuggling”, for example), the game was a brilliant discussion of objectivism. The ideas explored were like nothing I had seen outside of a very few, very small corners on the internet. This is the background I hope you keep in mind when we start discussing Bioshock: Infinite in a couple of days.
the intro is great. so is that speech about burning down his forest. i don’t know if it was a brilliant dissection of objectivism, but it was extremely unique both in setting and in terms of watching a truly impressive stab at utopia explode in absolutely horrible ways. (actual gameplay not so much, which is what makes 2 completely forgettable)
side note: i love system shock 2 as much as is possible and all but i think it’s time we called “no more” on the whole audiodiary thing. actual diaries seem plausible – people engaging in conspiracies and madness while podcasting to themselves and just leaving them around just seems totally ridiculous now. in fairness to ss2 it was a bit more plausible and integrated in a future setting rather than the alt-history vacuum tube past.Report
The nice thing about audiodiaries is that they allow the narrative/world-building to go forward while not interfering with the gameplay like having to stop and read a page would. Despite the implausibility of every half-baked madman recording his thoughts, I’m generally fine with that tradeoff.Report
Imagine having a monologue that you JUST HAD TO GIVE… now imagine not having the internet.
You’re fumbling for a tape recorder even now, I can see it.Report
i have a whole routine about how cell phones robbed people of their inner monologues because no one ever had to be alone again, but giving it over the internet seems kinda self-defeatin’.
anyway, being all pc master race and whatnot i have no problems with reading. 🙂
if anything, i think it’s more jarring that someone would play something out loud (also those things are like 4 feet long, wth?) while giant monsters made out of robot parts with a human heart and curly’s head run around looking for them.Report
Reminds me of this, obvs.Report
I knew what that was going to be before I even clicked the link.Report
Mimeograph machines!
Remember the ink splatters, the blotches on the paper, the joy when it actually worked for a few minutes, and you could make dozens of copies in five minutes?Report
I remember when video games were just video games. I’d probably play more if that were the case.
This development is probably a good thing, for this and other reasons…
Also, does “Bioshock 2” have the commercial where the girl jumps into the muscular gray guy’s arms and then disintegrates? Regardless, that is at least the second gaming commercial to make me really interested in playing a game I have no interest in playing.Report
i don’t believe so, if youtube is to be considered a reasonable source.
i will say that games never were just games. consider pac man. maze game, sure. but also the tale of one man’s ill fated attempt to escape the ghosts of his past through compulsive overeating.Report
When I was in college, the joke about Pac-Man was that if endlessly playing arcade games in childhood had really warped our worldview and behavior, we’d be running around in darkened rooms with flashing lights, listening to repetitive electronic music and gobbling energy pills.
Wait…
I never really got into The Go! Team, but I really liked this video.
Surprising amount of pathos, with her huddled there, terrified – they always get you in the end, don’t they?Report
Yeah I loved Bioshock. Bioshock two was awesome too though a bit more wonkey.Report
I’m just surprised it wasn’t scurvy and a lack of Vitamin D to bring down Rapture.Report
Or The Man from Mars, shooting people dead and eating their heads; after which he consumes cars, bars, and guitars.Report
Well played!Report