Bioshock Infinite

[ZSorenson]

They're back......

The original creators of BioShock have returned to create a brand new 'Bioshock' game along with a totally new world.

Check out: www.whatisicarus.com for a trailer and some explanation.

The creators wanted to carry on the themes of Bioshock and the style and tone I guess, without having to stay in the same environment with the same narrative.

This time, the featured locale is "Columbia", a flying city with architecture and music from the 1910's. You can read more on the website, but I want to make some observations and maybe preempt these guys a little.

First, the world involved is obviously the Wilsonian vision for America. Yes, America - the stars and stripes are all over this game. What is interesting is the element of racism, that of overt imperialism, and also a not so subtle nod at eugenics. The baby-killing kind.

I hope the game creators are at least accurate in that they don't try and pin all that nonsense on the pro-business Republicans of the era. Heavens, the Democrats, Wilson, and the Progressive left, were the big culprits there. Period.

So, that's interesting since 'capitalists' were the enemies of BioShock 1.

Second, what is the message going to be? These guys are obviously a little philosophically literate - and their studio is called 'Irrational Games'. If it quacks like a duck...

But really, if this is another swipe at capitalism in its 'jingoistic form', then I'll be pissed.

If it's another swipe at 'philosophical extremism', I'll be disappointed, but less pissed. WWI jingoism was actually fairly bipartisan - a rare union in history between bigotted morons on the right, and bigotted sociopaths on the left. Gotta love the Progressive era...

In any event, I'd love a discussion and some speculation on what these guys might try to do with this game.

Also invited: discussion on what this game could be. Let's say you were appointed the story/philosophy head today and could decided what this should be moving forward while retaining everything already there.

Edited August 17, 2010 by ZSorenson

[nanite1018]

I think that, whatever the message of the game is, it will be beautifully executed. I'll love the game if only because of the setting: a flying city. If anything could embody the power of the mind of man, that's it (even more, I dare say, than a city at the bottom of the ocean). I've even become fascinated by the idea for the last few days, researching lighter-than-air craft, helicopters, etc. Apparently a floating city is actually possible with an enclosed geodesic dome with a diameter of approximately 1 km (worked out by Buckminster Fuller several decades ago). Boy, would that be something to see. Totally impractical as an actual money-making enterprise, but perhaps worth the cost nonetheless if only as a sort of living piece of art- a testament to human potential greater than any skyscraper. Of course, this is exactly why the city was built in the game, at least in part (it seems, from what I've read).

The game's message seems like it will be a critique of jingoism, which is less appealing to me as a topic than an examination of a semi-Objectivist society but there are some interesting ways to go about it. For example, there may be some, those that they call the "anarchists", who really simply want Columbia to be a symbol about the triumph of the human spirit, and find the jingoist attitude and slavish worship of even the worst excesses of the American government (including the eugenics programs) as disgusting and collectivist. Their attempts to overthrow the government of Columbia and end such programs could be critiqued as "anarchist" even if not actually "bad".

That would be what I would like it to be about of course. I'm not sure what it will end up being about, but I think the setting alone will make it a tremendously enjoyable game to play. Bioshock was similar- the setting itself was enough to make it a wonderfully enjoyable game. As for the philosophical message behind that game- I think it was, at worst, a critique of extremism in any philosophy, though I think that it was really a matter of a man who gave up on reason rather than let go of his dream of what Rapture was. I love the Bioshock series, and am eager to play Bioshock Infinite.

[IchorFigure]

My suspicions are very much similar to yours. This incarnation of "Bioshock" doesn't use Rand's ideas in its story notably. Just watching the preview there's a few things to take notice of:

-American flag decorations are everywhere.

-During this interview Ken Levine claims the theme of the game is "American exceptionalism".

-One of the propoganda type billboards shown

shows a women in American striped clothing stubbornly shunning a malnourished infant while holding a baby in her arms. The text reads "Burden NOT Columbia with your chafft".

And so based upon this I think it's likely Bioshock:Infinite will be just another anti-American screed circa the Bush administration. America is selfish, America is racist, America is imperialist, etc.

If it's another swipe at 'philosophical extremism', I'll be disappointed, but less pissed.

I think this a good bet. Bioshock 1 wasn't really an anti-Objectivist themed game. It was anti-ideology, anti-"extremism", which Objectivism happened to fall under. However Ken Levine's themes swipe at ideology as such on a very broad level in favor of "grey" mixed subjectivism.

The thing that angers me most about the Bioshock series is the way it appeals to your values and then insults them. Many gamers I've talked to have said their favorite features of Bioshock were its fantastic and spectacularly brilliant style showcasing the hopeful attitude of that time period. If you get past the surface of an early America however you find out the games message is that it is naive and awful, and so are you for thinking otherwise.

Edit: Changed the poor grammar of "was" to "were". Changed "American" to "America".

Edited August 17, 2010 by IchorFigure

[khaight]

I think this a good bet. Bioshock 1 wasn't really an anti-Objectivist themed game. It was anti-ideology, anti-"extremism", which Objectivism happened to fall under. However Ken Levine's themes swipe at ideology as such on a very broad level in favor of "grey" mixed subjectivism.

This became much clearer with Bioshock 2. Taken in combination with the original, the overarching theme is that taking ideas seriously -- attempting to live by them consistently -- is a recipe for disaster. Both the egoistic individualism of Andrew Ryan and the altruistic collectivism of Sofia Lamb lead to nothing but destruction. What's frustrating about the Bioshock games is that they actually do have a significant intellectual component. They aren't oblivious to the issues at stake. But their only answer to the questions they raise is the standard pragmatism so typical of modern America.

I expect this theme will continue with Bioshock Infinite, but with a different ideology taking its turn in the dock.

That said, I'm confident that the game will be visually stunning and a hell of a lot of fun to play. The folks at Irrational know how to design a game; I'm a big fan of their work. (I even own Freedom Force vs. the Third Reich, which makes me a bit of an Irrational fanboi.)

[ZSorenson]

Undoubtedly it will be a stunning game.

I have hope that the 'anarchists' will be of the libertarian bent. Columbia was described as a death star of the turn of the century. So I think the whole thing is supposed to be Avery literal symbol for America's burgeoning imperialism.

I can't shake the suspicion, however, of a moral message that success and achievement necessarily rely on the exploitation of the weak. Hello? A city 'above' everyone else. If anything, the message cautions against achievement.

Well, that wasn't optimistic.

If there is hope, then, I think it would have to be in the dichotomy of 'liberty and tyranny'. I'm just worried that achievement and tyranny and heroic individuals will be conflated together.

Like I said, the company is called irrational games.