It’s always such a pleasure, being able to write about what’s fun and inspiring for me. But my time… is up. If I have not convinced anyone yet that a video game is a useful medium for conveying not only artistic messages, but also unique and fun experiences, then I doubt I ever will be able to. I’m not certain whether I wanted to convert everyone who read my blogs so that they’d become a gamer as well. Rather, I wanted to let people know that there’s more to it than meets the eye. Every medium lately has to undergo a long period before it’s accepted as a true art in the same style as painting or writing. Film made that journey, and I believe video games will too. After all, we already have those that purport to be video game critics popping up all over the internet. Maybe one day we’ll have our own Academy Awards.

One of the best games from the old reviews, I think.

While in the beginning of my blogs, as you who read them will know, I wanted to show he unique artistic achievements that I believe have really put interactive media on the track towards acceptance in artistic circles. The Path, Dear Esther, Portal, they all have unique stories, and tell them in ways that only games ever could. The sounds, images, and now interactive feedback so coalesce that the experience becomes truly unique and memorable. With the current state of gaming, independent development has become easier and easier. While the AAA studios continue to pump out sequel after sequel, sticking to safe investments and guaranteed returns, the indie developers with their small budgets and basement studios are pushing their creative limits to give us the next big innovation.

One of the most well-known and best-selling indie games.

Out of all the media I follow, gaming has got to be the one that has me the most optimistic and exciting. While, as an avid enthusiast of both, I’ll never renounce books or film, neither of those media benefit as much from the emergence of new technologies and innovations as gaming does. Any small group with enough talent and dedication can make a game that will amuse for hours on end, and cost less than a fast food meal at that. The pool of great games is growing, and whether you just dip your toe in to take a look, or dive straight in, you’ll surely be surprised what you find.

Games with hidden artistic messages may be uncommon, but even more uncommon are games with less subtle views when it comes to political issues. Bioshock, as one might expect given the introduction, belongs in the latter category.

Better late than never, huh Reilly? Bioshock is the spiritual successor to System Shock 2, an old 1999 PC game (one of the best ever made if you ask me). In that it’s a first-person shooter with elements from role-playing games (upgrades, leveling up, etc.), and takes place in a derelict, dark environment with lots of people who’ve lost control of their minds, it’s pretty much an identical game. However, the strength behind Bioshock is the unique narrative framing that it establishes. Instead of being trapped on an advanced space ship like in System Shock 2, our main character starts off on an airplane, when the plane crashes and he is forced to take shelter in some strange man-made edifice located on a nearby island. Once he enters the massive, bronzed doors, he finds

Well, he finds Rapture. Rapture is an interesting place. In fact, it’s one of a kind, an underwater city. In the calming bathysphere ride on the way down, a fellow named Andrew Ryan explains to you that, since he could not find a place for himself, where man is entitled “to the sweat of his brow,” he decided to make his own. Rapture was a place “where the artist would not fear the censor; where the scientist would not be bound by petty morality; where the great would not be constrained by the small!” I think you see where this is going.

Rapture represented the ideal libertarian paradise, where no government restraint of any kind would hinder free enterprise of all kinds. You reap all the benefits of everything that you do, no matter what, so nobody’s there to stop you when you succeed, or help you when you fail. The system produced some wonderful innovations, including ADAM (and this is where it starts to sound a lot like a video game), a strange element taken from a sea slug that has the ability to rewrite a human’s genetic code. While you’d normally think of curing diseases, or living forever, or something reasonable, the people at Rapture thought differently. Want to lift things with your mind? Fine. Want to light a fire with the snap of your fingers? You got it. Want to throw lightning as the human embodiment of Zeus? Sure.

Now, when you combine these freakish abilities with a laissez-faire system with lax laws and law enforcement… well you have a bit of a problem. Plasmids, the syringes of ADAM that rewrite genetic codes, became an addiction, and the entire underwater nation became embroiled in civil war. The “every man for himself” went from an ideology to a practical reality, and the whole system fell apart. Where, you might ask, comes the political message? Well…

Atlas Shrugged was a book I read a very long time ago, having little reason to think a game would ever draw inspiration from it. However, the “libertarian paradise” concept draws heavily on this book. There’s also the matter of the writer, Ayn Rand. Andrew Ryan, Ayn Rand, see the connection? Atlas Shrugged is a story about a successful railroad executive named Dagny Taggart, who bemoans the increasingly overbearing government regulations against her business practices. Eventually she is taken to a valley deep within the Rocky Mountains where business is free (and somehow every necessary natural resource can be found), which is essentially what Rapture is modeled after. Bioshock, however, takes a more pessimistic view of how this libertarian scenario would turn out (albeit a much more dramatic one).