These expositions began with the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations held in London in 1851. To briefly review, the Columbian Exposition was international in scope and Chicago had to beat out fierce competition within the United States in order to host the event. When placed in the context of the prior baptism and church cloister-like setting complete with robed religious NPCs, these figures are perhaps trying to place the historic figures within a biblical context as depicted in classical religious art. Non-European cultures were portrayed as barbaric, exotic, uncivilized and childlike.įigure 3: Sculptures of the founding fathers in Bioshock Infinite are shown dressed in ancient robes and labeled Father Franklin, Father Washington and Father Jefferson. The game takes an exaggerated view of these themes, presumably to explore a scenario – “what if America did not have a separation of church and state?” However, the game presents these ideas without nuance or complexity (see Figure 1and Figure 2) thus missing real opportunity for exploring these issues, their history and our own complicity.įigure 2: Screenshot from Bioshock Infinite(top) and an image from an 1893 Columbian Exposition book (bottom) illustrating the historically correct face of racism. The Columbia of Bioshock Infinite is modeled on the Columbian Exposition of 1893, also known as the Chicago World’s Fair, which is used in the game to convey ideas of American nationalism and racism. The game takes place in Columbia, a floating city off the shore of northeastern America, an immense and beautifully realized game world.
The result is greater immersion and buy-in for the player.įigure 1: Screenshot from Bioshock Infinite showing use of game objects Using objects to convey story elements like this requires the players to participate in meaning making by assembling the fragments into a coherent narrative. Players move through this world, absorbing narrative elements indirectly through video and audio “clips,” ephemera such as posters, and overheard snippets of NPC dialogue. Bioshock Infinite does a masterful job of incorporating historical elements to express the narrative and its themes beginning with the start of the game (see Figure 1). Environmental objects such as texts, cell phones, voice recorders and ephemera are now being used to help convey narrative as well. However, the use of these objects has become increasingly sophisticated. Trope is a figure of speech through which speakers or writers intend to express meanings of words differently than .Games have traditionally used assets and art to build a sense of place, to create a game world. Support us on Patreon! to another book review! This time I'm. Cited by 4 — The Architecture of Bioshock as Metaphor for Ayn Rand s Objectivism.narrative design.19 A tie-in novel – Bioshock Rapture (2011) by John. Cited by 5 — academic field, game studies has run a parallel course to the Bioshock series.
If yes, maybe we should create a new catégorie as the Bioshock Game, Bioshock ( . It depends if the book contains a lot of descriptions and new things I think. FDR's New Deal has redefined American politics. Foucault, Discipline and Punish, New York: Vintage Books, 1995, p.įree book BioShock: Rapture by John Shirley.