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BIOSHOCK

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libGommi

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@Minarchist

It is not "free of morality" it's "free of petty morality" there is a major diffrence.

It was actualy Bioshock that introduced me to objectivism. It is the only truly great game I've played. It was a perfect example of waht an objectivist utopia could look like. It's fall due to the parasite of fontaine and ryan comprimising a perfect example of the pitfalls to be avoided in objectivism.

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There were also failings in Ryan's foundation when he created Rapture. The three major failings in its creation was the prohibition of religion (Don't get me wrong, I'm an atheist, but prohibition creates black markets, which helped Fontain gain power,) complete isolationism (inflating black market opportunities,) and his emphasis on the "White collar" individuals. Ryan seemed to put little emphasis on dedicated, yet unskilled, labor, which also helped Fontain/Atlas gain power.

I rather enjoyed both Bioshock games, though it seems that the creators are trying to put forth a message against “extremes.” The first game is lassie-faire capitalism (though they presented more of a parody than model,) collectivism in the second game, and (what appears to be) jingoism in the third.

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He never prohibited religion a public announcment in neptunes bounty actually says

"The freedom to chose a god requires the freedom to reject it, keep your religion to yourself."

And I think his avoidence of the surface was crucial to Rapture's survival as it kept away the parasites.

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Atlas,

I also love Bioshock (only played the first) however I do not think that it was Levine's intention to present Objectivism/ Ayn Rand/ or even Capitalism in a positive light. It certainly is fair to cite Fontaine as a parasite which led to Rapture's destruction however I think Levine tried to show that free market capitalism is inherently evil. He package deals selfishness (Objectivism's definition of the concept) with cut throat force. Capitalism IS exploitative by nature according to Levine.

Although I do not agree that Levine succeeded in damning capitalism or Rand, he definitely tried to. If I had to guess Irrational Games philosophic/intellectual convictions, they probably would involve relatvism, moral greyness, nonabsolutism, and mixed economy, altruist-tainted ethics. A balance between freedom and force.

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  • 1 month later...

For those of you who don't have the game, I've put together some of Andrew Ryan's radio speeches into a little video (no spoilers) :

It begins with the speech from the intro video, followed by his speech on Marxism, Capitalism, Socialism and altruism.

It's not perfect but I like the result smile.gif

This video actually led me to Ayn Rand and Objectivism. I don't think the game portrays Objectivism at all, let alone in a good light but I remember in grade 7 we were reading Animal Farm and had to come up with our idea of a Utopia and I based it off of Rapture. I liked the ideas in the game when I played it in '07 despite the misleading setting in which they were placed and when I saw this video last year I was interested enough to look further and discover Ayn Rand.

Edited by oso
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  • 6 months later...

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