Bioshock: Dystopian Video Games

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Dystopian video games merit the same critical analysis as their literary and film counterparts; providing meaningful site in which questions about the future of technology play out against the logic of dystopian alternative histories. Irrational Games’ video game series Bioshock represent an important example of video games that have the potential to be thought-provoking and complicated texts. This essay will address the alternative histories that the Bioshock series presents, understanding these alternative histories through scholarly exploration and ?. Bioshock is an exceptional exemplification of a video game that simultaneously celebrates and investigates dystopian notions of technological progress and free will. Its complexity originates from its dynamic theme which is continually reinforced through ludic gameplay elements. Through a combination of quality gameplay and complex narrative content, Bioshock investigates alternative histories that transmediate prodecural strategies. Bioshock’s entire premise centers on the concept of Rapture, the lost underwater city. Rapture’s location, ideology, and history form the foundation upon which Bioshock builds …show more content…

The game also deviates from other first-person shooters dealing with questions of the posthuman on the level of setting. While many shooters negotiate the posthuman, they typically do so in scenarios of future worlds and struggles with alien races. Bioshock rather chooses to place the posthuman within an alternate history setting. These two deviations, especially in combination, open up the game for a very different reading of interactivity and agency in regard to the utopian imagination that is embedded in the posthuman discourse (Schmeink,

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