Thursday, October 24, 2013
Bioshock...again... [MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS!]
Once again, I will be analyzing the popular video game, Bioshock. The game is rated M for Mature, which means that technically the target audience is anyone over the age of seventeen, however, the game is likely aimed at mostly teenaged to adult males. The meanings behind many parts of this game are about as deep as the location in which it takes place: The bottom of the ocean. Rapture is the name of the secret city constructed at the bottom of some remote part of the Atlantic Ocean, since after all, to quote the character I'll be discussing, “It was not impossible to build Rapture at the bottom of the sea. It was impossible to build it anywhere else”.
Andrew Ryan is the character responsible for creating the city of Rapture, as it was his vision to live in a world without inhibition. His philosophies greatly challenge the status quo, especially considering that the city was supposedly created some time within the 1940's and 1950's. Ryan envisioned a world where science would not be held back by morals, society would not be held back by government, and the mind would not be held back by religious debate. Obviously, in one way or another, all of these concepts contradict what just about everyone in the world believes (whether they believe in morals, government, religion, or some combination of the three), so naturally a great controversy can be generated by his ideals. It seems logical to create a world such as this, but upon playing Bioshock and finding the City of Rapture in ruins about ten or twenty years after its founding, it is clear that such ideals could prove disastrous (at least in the eyes of game writers and developers).
In a world without government (and certainly without taxation), everyone could be free to earn exactly as much money and status as they deserve without anything to hold them back. Ryan believes that “every man should be entitled to the sweat of his brow”, which may seem very appealing to many people.
There are many rules and regulations regarding the conduction of experiments and scientific research. It could very well be argued that these regulations put a serious hold on the potential growth of scientific knowledge for the world, but these holds do not exist in the city of Rapture. In real life, great strides were made in the world of science before rules were put in place to regulate scientific research (not to say that great strides are still being made). Bioshock challenges this by arguing that without these rules, remarkable discoveries could be made (and in the city of Rapture, they are).
Who knows what the world would be like without any religions, but in Bioshock, the lack of religion is supposedly beneficial for all citizens of Rapture. There are “no gods or kings, only man”, and that is the way that Rapture functions. The Great Chain (not to be confused with The Great Chain of Being) is supposed to be the only thing that joins human beings together. It is considered the force that all people are a part of, and by joining together for a common cause, they may pull the chain in the right direction. The Great Chain is somewhat of a religious symbol in itself, but it still denies the existence of any gods or other deities.
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I see, Ray, that you analyze an interesting game! I have never played the games like this. Thank you so much, Ray, now I can imagine the game. It is interesting to know who target audience is and who is playing. It is a difference! It looks like the game sales a dream world on the bottom of ocean. It is wonderful! Men and teenagers usually like travelling and extreme situations which are dangerous in real life, but enjoyable inn the virtual reality. It is interesting thought: “In a world without government (and certainly without taxation), everyone could be free to earn exactly as much money and status as they deserve without anything to hold them back.” In my opinion, it could be well in the game, but not in real life. That is why the game is good for men who love fantasy. They are target audience.
ReplyDeleteGreat job, Ray!
Tatiana
You're forgetting the part where society collapsed due to greed causing the founders of Rapture to start infighting and driving their citizens crazy with cosmetic plasmids. And that's the problem with objectivism, it collapses once it hits the fact that a lot of its followers are awful, awful people. That's why the country is so horrible these days, because we've had these people running things both indirectly (Via lobbying and the captains of industry) and directly (The shrewder wing of the Republican party), crashing the system into the ground so they can put their feet in the boot stomping a human face forever.
ReplyDeleteObjectivism is the philosophy for the spoiled, whiny, white male teenager in all of us, and it speaks to its followers privelege that it says that all outcomes in life are only due to the willingness to succeed, never having to feel the impacts of racism, the glass celling, poverty, mental illness, depresson, lack of education, facing brutality and murder for being an LGBT person, and so-on which leads most other sane people to realize that sometimes the factors for your success or failure are out of your control. And call me a naiive sentimentalist, but I don't think that people should be left to die or be told to "pull themselves up by their bootstraps" when they ate those bootstraps to survive a loooooong time ago, Charlie-Chaplin-style.
There's a reason the philosophy is associated with dudebros and fedoraed neckbeards, and this proves why.