Digital Culture & AudioVisual Challenges

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the implementation of questions of political ideology and utopian philosophy in the Bioshock trilogy’s narrative structure, as well the way that the game’s narrative correlates with its gameplay mechanics. By exploring the conceptual alleys of the dystopian cities of Rapture and Columbia respectively, I shall attempt to provide an outlook on the video game medium’s capabilities to incorporate philosophical literature in its design, giving the player the opportunity to come into contact with cardinal political and philosophical questions in a particularly dynamic, immersive and interactive way.

Taking place in the underwater city of Rapture, a dystopian environment based on Ayn Rand’s philosophy of objectivism, the first game explores themes such as individual freedom and the power of science and technology to transcend humanity’s boundaries in search of its higher potential. The second entry to the series retains Rapture as its setting, but turns the ideological context towards that of anarcho-collectivism, utilitarianism, and religious fanaticism. The third installment of the series, Bioshock Infinite, moves its setting towards the seemingly upbeat utopian floating city-state of Columbia, which strongly serves as an allegory towards the early United States, exploring themes such as American exceptionalism, institutional racism and class-based elitism, as well as the ethics of a violent socialist revolution.

While being highly acclaimed for the original and dynamic way in which the Bioshock series incorporates deep philosophical questions in its first-person shooter design, it has also received criticism for promoting a nihilistic horseshoe theory outlook on politics and history, as well as for leaving players with very little freedom of choice concerning their impact on the narrative and interaction with their surroundings. Nevertheless, the games’ linearity, in unison with the slow and surprising unfolding of their narrative, as well as their difficulty and chaotic world design, serve to create a deep self-referential outlook on the philosophical concept of freedom as an illusion that the acting political subject experiences while participating in a set of pre-determined circumstances.

Thus, I shall attempt to critically assess how the Bioshock games’ elaborate narrative twists and turns as well as their gameplay design serve to provide an interactive experience that allows players to become engaged with deep philosophical and political questions as well as come to contact with existing philosophical movements. The concept of self-referentiality concerning the way that the philosophical matters in question are integrated into the games’ narrative and ludic structure is going to be the epicentre of my critical assessment.

For this purpose, I shall mostly rely on proposing a dialogue between my personal experience with the games and the philosophical movements in question, as well as using visual footage from the games themselves.