So, I took the opportunity of a holiday weekend to beat BioShock. My final score wasn't anything to be proud of -- I was a lazy photographer, didn't max out all my tracks, dealt with Cohen in the way that results in fewer achievements, and of course, no "Little Sister Savior" bonus, either. Baby did a bad, bad thing, after all. For the moment, I'm sticking to discussing endings with people I know who've already beaten it (most of them before me) -- I am, after all, a servant of the people, and I'll hold off for the time being to give each and every one of you the opportunity to play and finish the game so that we may all confabulate on the topic confabulously. That's to say, you layabouts have another week.I will say, I certainly understand why so many people were disappointed with the endings. Though I myself reaped my just reward for my epic brutality, I also saw the "good" ending, and I felt both of them, being just a touch too brief and extreme, missed the opportunity to harvest (you see what I did there?) the philosophical fruits that had been sown so tenderly throughout the game time. I will also say that I personally feel that while playing as a child-slaying monster might not have been pleasant, I feel as if I got a richer experience for it; that the fact of being a killer versus a savior worked better in terms of narrative, when held up alongside some key plot points and events in the story.
Lots and lots of people on the wide world of the internet are done with BioShock, actually, and not all of them are as magnanimously egalitarian and patient as I. Now that the game is over, they have flocked to the web's gracious bosom to share and discuss their experiences. Technically perfect, BioShock isn't, but it makes the twisted raisin of my heart twitch faintly in joy to see a game inspire so much discussion on philosophy, morals and storytelling. If you hadn't noticed, I like to analyze everything and everyone to try and determine its value to me, to us, but sometimes it's a lonely pursuit. And I can understand that -- ain't there something to be said for letting a game be a game, and after a certain point, not thinking so damn much about it?
Indeed, at times I'm guilty as charged, and so are some of my internet friends (an internet friend is like a real friend, only invisible, and with magic powers). First up, game designer Lorenzo Wang writes a balls-out freakin' dissertation on the damn game at his noisewar blog (major, complete and total spoilers) and if you like that sort of thing, tuck in and give it a read. I particularly like his section wherein he analyzes the major players' names and the symbolism behind various aspects of the setting to extract broad strokes of the game's narrative thread:
He creates Rapture, the city’s name interestingly enough meaning "carried away in ecstasy" but comes from the Latin and French root for abduction, and is the same root from which "rape" is derived. More importantly to the game, it is a reference to The Rapture, which in Christian teachings is the name of the event where Jesus Christ, king of kings, will return to take believers to heaven as the world ends. Ryan, the little king, subconsciously fancies himself to be such a savior, a subtle thorn in his anti-religious Randian beliefs.Another friend of mine wondered what commentary a game featuring the harvesting of stem cells at the expense of little children might be making on the timely ethical debate surrounding stem cell research:
Could Irrational be making a concrete statement that Stem Cell research is evil and that the extracting of stem cells is tantamount to killing children, or is it merely coincidence? Or could it be that the theme is merely window dressing that exists somewhere in-between; a specter of the modern age meant only to cause fear, doubt, and set the mood.Finally, my sometimes-doppelganger and Village Voice columnist Bonnie Ruberg gets all Freudian on the game's ass, in classic Bonnie-style:
First, of course, we’ve got the Little Sisters. Seeing as how they symbolize corrupted innocence, how they can be “used” by the adult male protagonist, and how they come paired with–protective but curiously named–Big Daddies, we can agree with Penny Arcade and say they come with overtones of pedophilia.So what do you guys think? Is all this philosophizing self-gratifying navel-gazing, or is it one of the things you love about games? I tend to get mighty sick mighty quick of people who miss out on a game as a larger experience because they're so busy hyperanalyzing the AI or examining in-depth all of the textures and mucking with the physics. But maybe those techno-nerds are just as annoyed by us ivory tower geeks. I can definitely agree that there comes a point, eventually, as with all things, that scrutinizing the sum of the parts too closely leads to losing sight of the whole.
That being said, I think I'll write this week's Aberrant Gamer all about my favorite character in BioShock. Can you guess who it is? I'll make it easy -- not Andrew Ryan.
Somewhat related note -- anyone have the .mp3 of "Rise, Rapture, Rise?" I wanna make a ringtone outta it.
