While listening to Ken Levine (creative director and co-founder of Irrational Games) and Scott Steinberg (video game analyst and CEO of TechSavvy Global) talk about BioShock Infinite of NPR’s On Point with Tom Ashbrook on April 2nd, they mentioned “gameplay as narrative.” As you play as the protagonist Booker DeWitt in BioShock Infinite, Irrational immerses you into the world to a point where your own personality begins to merge with Booker. The bond you establish with Elizabeth becomes your own, even if it isn’t mechanically unique. She’s not just your trope damsel in distress who needs to be rescued from the monster at the top of a tower; she is your partner, and as the story develops, she loses naïve innocence. Elizabeth has her own opinions, reacts to how you treat people, has goals, and responds to the environment, just as a real person might. As Booker and the player, you sympathize with Elizabeth along the way and become motivated beyond the original mission to “bring us the girl, wipe away the dept.” Levine even comments that Elizabeth is the most powerful character in the game.
The story of Booker, Elizabeth and Columbia hits the historical heart notes, as well. The majority of Infinite takes place during 1912 — a time specifically selected by the Irrational team due to it not being overly romanticized in literature, being revolutionary in technology, and for having extreme racism. When a game rewards the player with a baseball to throw at a racially diverse couple as the prize for winning a raffle early in the game, you know there is going to be a fair share of racism to follow. BioShock Infinite uses racism in a historically accurate way for the times, which makes the environment more believable, instead of doing it simply for shock value. As with all BioShock games, the ambiance is a dangerous character, and racism is one of Columbia’s many ‘charming’ traits.
As a geek, it can be assumed I have geeky friends. It may not be at a Big Bang Theory level, but I’d be lying if I said there has never been drinking followed by talks of quantum mechanics and string theory in the past. I’m still not comfortable with the concept of something becoming longer the moment you measure it — it down right freaks me out. As per previous BioShock titles, a whole lot of literature and science went into the plot and creation of Columbia. During the NPR interview, Ken Levine mentioned that Irrational talked with MIT professors to make the science close to realistic. Sure the literary influence in BioShock Infinite may not be as obvious as Ayn Rand’s text Atlas Shrugged or George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four with the previous games, but the level of massive research is definitely still present. It’s impossible to ignore Erik Larson’s The Devil In The White City’s influence, which Levine admitted his team read and found amazing for the time setting.
Through a blend of narrative, gameplay, action, science and history, BioShock Infinite appeals to a large audience of people. During the NPR interview, a caller mentioned they were going to get a gaming system for the sole purpose of playing this game. I’ve even had non-gamer friends have the desire to pick this up just to hear what they hype is about. Sure, 1999 Mode will challenge dedicated gamers, but on the easiest setting even non-gamers can enjoy the story while blowing through the action sequences. I’ve even heard two cases of significant others, in the GameZone office alone, demanding to watch gameplay due to getting drawn into the plot and desiring to know the final outcome. This shows that the unique exploration aspect of video games can be spread to voyeurs and not just the player.
The ability to draw in both gamers and non-gamers to take interest in BioShock Infinite is what Scott Steinberg referred to as the ‘Trojan Horse’ in the NPR interview. The action and cover art of the game is purposely designed to draw in the action/shooter/FPS crowd. The Trojan Horse analogy comes into play with this crowd picking up the title for one reason and then being surprised once they become completely immersed into the narrative of a game they didn’t think they’d normally be interested in. I’d personally love to know how many people have picked up the first two BioShock games for the first time after playing Infinite, and how many people have Googled anything to do with quantum physics over the last week?
The title of the NPR On Point discussion was “BioShock Infinite and the Future of Gaming.” If Levine’s masterpiece is the direction video games are heading, or even the bar that has been cast, what does this mean for future of all forms of media? Books and movies are not going anywhere, but have they plateaued due to limitations with narrative and their linear platform? Will video games only gain more steam and continue to push the boundaries of what potential media can manifest? Is BioShock Infinite a lone example or the pathway for the future of gaming? People have been reading novels for over a thousand years, and they’ve been watching film for a century; is interactive and explorative storytelling the next major medium in the lineage of media potential? Hopefully, yes. BioShock Infinite is by no means the first or only video game to ever do this, just the most recent and one of the best at it. As gaming becomes less niche and more mainstream, a broader audience will be introduced and new forms of narrative will be invented to surpass their predecessors.
Historian, teacher, writer, gamer, cheat master, and tech guru: follow on Twitter @AndrewC_GZ
The argument has been circling around for some time now: are video games art? As a lifetime gamer and gaming journalist, I have an obvious bias; my answer is a distinct and boisterous “yes.” When a single person or a team collaborates on something you can look at, hear, and interact with — something that moves you and makes you think — and can extract an emotional reaction out of you — yea, that’s art. Here’s the thing about video games, though; it is the only form of media capable of performing all those aspects at once while adding a new, unique layer that no other form of media can touch upon.
These solitary elements, only found in video games, are interaction and exploration. In a novel or movie, you are never able to go where you want to go, can't diverge from the linear story, interact with strangers, eavesdrop on a pointless conversation, stare at an environment until you’re ready to move on, or find/experience something that someone else may have missed. In a book or a film, you are limited by the author or the camera. Sure you may pick up on subtext or notice something missed in plot during a second read or re-watch, but ultimately, it is the same exact text word for word or the same film frame by frame. In a video game, you experience the world as the player, change the outcome as the player, go at your own pace as the player, and focus on what you want to as the player. There is, of course, a limit of what the developers add to the game, but your experience is rarely the same as someone else.
In a masterpiece like the video game BioShock Infinite by Irrational Games and 2K, on a second run-through of the game, I can easily stumble upon two people I missed my first time around and hear their completely inane conversation, historically accurate racism, or even key plot elements. If I stand somewhere a take a drink of water, my companion in the game (Elizabeth) may skip stones or lean against a wall — something that not all players may experience. These are just two examples of how video games offer more options to the participant than any other form of media.
A common counter-argument is that video games lack the narrative or depth as other media. Sure, we all like to cling to classic literature and claim that it is the best there ever could be. There are those basketball fans who say there can never be a player as good as Michael Jordan ever again. Just like that first time a Mozart sympathy sends shivers throughout your body and you declare that is the most moving piece of art you’ll ever hear — you can’t ever know that for certain. Video games have come a long way from pong. The narratives, character development and plots of video games have surpassed what can be offered through literature and film; video games are simply standing on the shoulder of giants.
Through levels of interaction and exploration, the player is not only reading or watching the story unfold, but actually taking part in making decisions that shape the rest of the story. This suspense and engagement is truly unique to video games. By no means am I saying every game has this sort of experience; I’m saying there is an evolution happening right now, and the most recent and powerful example is BioShock Infinite. The combination of vision, script, voice acting, smoke and mirrors, programming, science, art, and narrative all added to an intensely captivating experience.
