Bioshock Under Attack
It took them long enough but the mainstream media have picked up on the ethical dilemma presented to players of 2K games’ latest FPS, Bioshock. The Boston Patriot-Ledger has stated that Bioshock is
“testing the limits of the ultraviolent gaming genre with a strategy that enables players to kill characters resembling young girls.”
Despite the sensationalism of the headline (”Would you kill ‘Little Sisters’?) the article gives quite an accurate description of the choice that players of what promises to be the game of the year are presented with. Do you ‘harvest’ the powerful genetic material from the Little Sisters, a process which they don’t survive, or do you save them and get less than half the bonus?
Kenneth Levine, president of 2K Boston, developers of Bioshock, has defended the decision to include the dilemma in the game saying:
‘‘As a piece of art, we want to deal with challenging moral issues and if you want to do that, you have to go to some dark places, and ‘BioShock’ certainly does go to some dark places.’’
I am yet to play the game (I’m renting it this evening and denying my wife access to the TV) but think that Levine and 2K Boston are right to have included such an adult dilemma in a game, it adds weight to the argument that games are a valid artform. There are many films which I have found disturbing and difficult to watch due to their content (Irreversible and Dancer in the Dark, to name but two) but have appreciated as the works of art that they are. The more games challenge us and take us to the dark places in our psyches, the greater their credibility as works of art. (From Joystiq.)
Tags: 2k Games, 360, Age Rating, Art, Bioshock, Censorship, Culture, Horror, opinion, Politics, Violence
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Posted on August 25, 2007 by Mandrill | Filed Under News
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[...] game of the year, Bioshock, is already courting media controversy with its Little Sister dilemma and now Valve have banned it. Not to worry though you can still get it through Steam, Valve have [...]
[...] game of the year, Bioshock, is already courting media controversy with its Little Sister dilemma and now Valve have banned it. Not to worry though you can still get it through Steam, Valve have [...]