Andrew Ayala – Interactive Digital Narratives

Bioshock Infinite: America – Land of the free, Home of the Christians

Bioshock Infinite is a game that seeks to expose its players to malicious and problematic American ideologies through the scope of its narrative. The game takes place in a pseudo-United States setting that is a floating city in the sky named, Columbia. Because Bioshock is a video game, the player unknowingly experiences American ideologies with no […]

Bioshock Infinite is a game that seeks to expose its players to malicious and problematic American ideologies through the scope of its narrative. The game takes place in a pseudo-United States setting that is a floating city in the sky named, Columbia. Because Bioshock is a video game, the player unknowingly experiences American ideologies with no subjective or biased reservations, because they are framed as Columbian ideologies and social norms. The player does not (immediately) realize they are exposed to a hyperbolic America. This allows for an initial open-minded and analytical approach to the game, as opposed to if the setting took place directly in the United States, which would cause an average American player to transport the ideals of patriotism, righteousness, and all the other problematic American ideals, into the game world.

Here I will focus on one major aspect of American ideology that Bioshock aims to criticize: Religion. The heavy saturation of religion is extant throughout the entirety of American history, let alone 1914 (the time setting of Bioshock Infinite). Entering the lighthouse at the beginning of the game, the song Old Time Religion plays over an old radio. This diegetic tune is a classic American southern gospel song has roots in black spiritual music and African-American work songs.[1] Christianity was a vital medicine for the ailment and maintenance of black oppression and slavery in the 19^th century. It provided a means of hope for slaves, in that their suffering on earth was merely temporary and would grant access to great salvation. At the same time, the bible granted justification, on the part of whites, for the oppression of blacks by using it as a weapon for oppression. Old Time Religion sings of a pining for Christianity and the belief that it will grant salvation and cleanse the soul. As Karl Marx states, religion is the opium of the masses. This gospel tune is the epitome of Marx’s statement. This tune asserts that the “Old time religion… Makes me love everybody… it has saved our fathers” and can “take us all to heaven”.[2] Old Time Religion asserts that a life saturated with religion and a steady faith in God will grant an individual true happiness.

Upon ascension to Columbia, a simple and direct adaption of Will the Circle Be Unbroken? plays. While it plays, Booker gazes in astonishment at the giant bronze female statue of the angel Columbia floating in front of him. This is an obvious reference to Ellis Island’s statue of liberty: Lady Liberty being the fist sight of American immigrants and symbolizing American ideals of freedom, equality, and the opportunity to obtain the American dream.

The Christian hymn of Will the Circle Be Unbroken? questions whether or not a heaven exists, further adding to the heavy saturation of religion we have gotten from Columbia thus far. As a line in the song questions, “Is there a better home awaiting, in the sky, O’ in the sky?”[3] This double entendre equates heaven with (pseudo-America) Columbia, the floating city in the sky. After rocketing into the city in the sky from the lighthouse, you land in what appears to be, a church with ankle-deep water flooding the ground. You approach a mass of individuals singing along to Will the Circle Be Unbroken? while a pastor gives a sermon in front of a bright tunnel. As you approach the tunnel, the pastor tells you that the only way to gain entrance to the city is through “the sweet waters of baptism”. After accepting this, which the player must do to advance, the pastor attempts to drown you. As you lose consciousness and float downstream out of the tunnel and towards the light, you are birthed into Columbia.

There is much symbolism in this ascension and rebirth scene alone. I believe the lighthouse is to be understood as a phallic object, especially with the protagonist in rocket pod being shot up and out into the heavens to Columbia. Upon reaching your destination, you set foot in this enormous, flooded, dark church, which I believe, is the womb of Columbia from which the player will be birthed out and into their New World. As an infant being birthed out of a mother’s vagina, you approach the pastor in front of a long, dark tunnel, with a light shining bright at the very end. This is a sight not too different from what an infant would see during birth. As you float downstream and draw closer to the light, you are being rebirthed, both through the waters of baptism as well as out of the darkness and into the light of Columbia.

[1] McCann, Hymns & History: An Annotated Survey of Sources (Abilene, TX: ACU Press, 1997)

[2] Ibid.

[3] Habershon, Ada R., and Gabriel, Charles H. (1907) [2nd. Pub. 1910]. “Will the Circle Be Unbroken”. In Alexander, Charles M. comp. Alexander’s Gospel Songs No. 2. Fleming H. Revell Company, New York

Bioshock Infinite: Transforming a Dark Past into Glorious Legend

Continuing on your journey, Booker DeWitt comes across the ‘Hall of Heroes’ a sector of Columbia dedicated to honoring the wars its citizens have fought in, which include exhibits of the Battle of Wounded Knee and the Battle of Peking. Both of these battles are notable in U.S. history as Americans being the aggressors in the situation, but at the time, perceiving ourselves as heroes and rightful victors. In the case of Wounded Knee, historically noted as the battle of Wounded Knee but contemporarily referred to as the Wounded Knee massacre, American lore has transformed a brutal execution of almost 300 Native Americans into a staple of glorification of westward expansion. Eyewitness accounts of the time describe the scene as sheer brutality.

“General Nelson A. Miles who visited the scene of carnage, following a three-day blizzard, estimated that around 300 snow shrouded forms were strewn over the countryside. He also discovered to his horror that helpless children and women with babies in their arms had been chased as far as two miles from the original scene of encounter and cut down without mercy by the troopers. … Judging by the slaughter on the battlefield it was suggested that the soldiers simply went berserk. For who could explain such a merciless disregard for life?”[1]

This kind of event is one of the many historical American acts of brutality and sheer lack of humanity, which time and patriotism have drowned out and replaced with a prestigious legacy. As the player discovers, Booker actually fought at Wounded Knee. The player also uncovers the traumatizing effects that Wounded Knee has left with Booker.

American history books are littered with nefarious historical events that are celebrated and portrayed as glorious, momentous episodes. The colonization of the Americas is represented as white Europeans finding a new home and creating a bastion of freedom rather than the exploitation and genocide of the Native American race. The political relationship between the United States and Central and South American states was represented as mutually beneficial and prosperous in the early 2oth Century, despite that fact that it was an exploitative puppetry system of establishing Banana Republics in the developing world. These South/Central American countries were rich with natural resources and possessed working class citizens who could be easily oppressed by a small plutocracy established and supported by the United States government and the private sector. This led to the wealth and prosperity of American corporations (United Fruit, Standard Fruit Co., etc.) and corrupt government officials in these exploited countries, while also oppressing the working class and slaughtering any political activists and movements that sought justice [2]. The roots of the exploitation of the Native American people and the Central/South American working class has roots in racism, religion, moral and ideological superiority, amongst other things.

By reliving the American experience through Columbia, ideologies are revealed more blatantly to the player and become easier to grasp. The player is able to critically analyze the concepts that the game questions: the underlying roots of racism, religious fanaticism, and political extremism in American society. Especially in this age of “Make America Great Again”, this game questions “Was America ever ‘great’?” Simply put, the answer is “No, not really.”

[1] Hugh McGinnis, “I Took Part In The Wounded Knee Massacre”, Real West Magazine, January 1966

[2] Richard Alan White (1984). The Morass. United States Intervention in Central America. New York: Harper & Row. p. 319.

Quantum Moves: Real World Effects

Quantum Moves is a very unique video game because it is more of a science experiment. Typically, the actions taken by a player in a video game are limited to the confines of the game world. However, Quantum Moves is a video game that has real world repurcussions. The game was developed by a Danish university, University of Aarhaus. Their goal is […]

Quantum Moves is a very unique video game because it is more of a science experiment. Typically, the actions taken by a player in a video game are limited to the confines of the game world. However, Quantum Moves is a video game that has real world repurcussions. The game was developed by a Danish university, University of Aarhaus. Their goal is to create a quantum computer. Every computer on this earth communicates data using binary, a string of 1’s and 0’s. These values are carried through electrons which have a particular energy value associated with them. However, scientists are on the frontier of utilizing quantum mechanics to revolutionize this system. Quantum mechanics dictates that these particles, carrying 1 or 0 values, can exist in a superposition of states where their energy is in continuous flux. This makes it so that the particle is both 1 and 0 at the same time. This is what makes quantum computing so powerful. Whereas even the world’s most powerful and complex ecomputers can take months to complete certain calculations for scientific purposes, a quantum computer can do the same calculations in a fraction of the time and requires significantly less energy. The issue is figuring out how to harness and manipulate these particles and their energy (alongside the fact that quantum mechanics is yet to be fully understood by any person on the planet). One of the steps to achieving this goal is figuring out how these superposition particles move and interact with their environment. Quantum Moves aims to get a better grasp of this concept.

The gameplay consists of the player moving their mouse to contain a seemingly fluid substance within a well. The goal is to get as much of this fluid as possible to the designated zone, trying to prevent any spillage of the fluid from the well. There is no real technique behind the game so much as just “feeling it out”. When moving the mouse around, the player gets a feel of how the fluid reacts accordingly. Thus, the player takes this into account and picks a path and speed at which to move this fluid. Though this is a seemingly simple game on the surface it results in a very useful outcome for scientists. The fluid is actually representative of a wave function for a quantum particle. To sum up a lengthy bit of quantum mechanics, these wave functions are real life data about how a quantum particle moves in a confined space. The actual location of the particle cannot be determined at any point, but rather a probability of its location is able to be determined; represented by a waveform. When the energy well containing this particle moves, the waveform sloshes around and moves as well, changing the location probability of the particle. The fluid well simulations in Quantum Moves are simulations of real waveforms of quantum particles and how they react to movement. A step to creating these quantum computers is moving these particles to a desired location without them slipping out of the well containing them. Thus, Quantum Moves gathers players’ data and uses it to approximate the best path and motion with which to move these quantum particles in order to not lose them along the way.

The gameplay and data produced by Quantum Moves has real world implications which is unique to see in a video game. Since quantum mechanics is unpredictable and difficult to understand, scientists had the brilliant idea of just “feeling out” the way it works rather than trying to solve it on paper. And there is no better way to engage people in doing such a task than to make a game out of it!

Bioshock Infinite: Ideology as Mythology

After baptism, the protagonist, Booker DeWitt, awakens outdoors in Columbia. The ambient light is blinding as you (Booker) gaze upon three obelisk statues of Columbia’s (and America’s) founding fathers: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin. You are a pilgrim, and a new child of Comstock (Columbia’s leader and prophet), who is to be raised and taught the ideologies of Columbia. You have already been drowned in the waters of Christianity, and now you will be shown and taught the rich history and ideologies of Columbia that you must hold in the same regard as the religion you have been fed: unquestionable and sacred. You are introduced to “Father Washington, Father Jefferson, and Father Franklin”, as you gaze upon their monuments for the first time in the Bioshock Infinite universe along with symbols of the Scroll, Sword, and Key.

These are symbols of Columbian ideology: the Key being science and ingenuity, the Sword being militaristic force and power, and the Scroll being knowledge and education. This symbolism is no different than what American children are exposed to through education and being raised in American society. The difference this time around is that these founding fathers and symbols are recognizable to the player now as opposed to when he/she were a toddler, first being introduced to these men through books in grade school. However, the divine semblance of these men has been exaggerated in the Bioshock Infinite universe. They resemble what appears to be more similar to ancient Greek regards of their Gods and mythology. The three statues display the founding fathers in a heightened divine state, wearing togas, rippling with muscle, and standing stories tall. This exaggerates the mythology constructed behind their history that is more subtly done in the American history books. Americans rarely seem to recognize the mythological and almost religious manner in which we regard our history and founding fathers. We praise their every action and word as sacred, to the point where we maintain and worship a two-and-a-half century old document written by them. This is no different than a nationalistic bible of sorts. We unquestioningly accept these men as all knowing founders of this country and as thanks, we abide by every word and dictate they have imparted unto us. It is difficult as Americans to question or even realize this notion in reality because our palettes have become so accustomed to the taste of nationalism and patriotism. When one has been singing the national anthem at every public juncture as a prayer and tasked with learning the Constitution and American history as scripture, it becomes obvious how nationalism can evolve into a mythology/quasi-religion right under our noses. However, when represented through the scope of a video game and framed as the ideology of “other”, specifically Columbian, the dogmatic nature of our own nationalist ideals is unveiled to the player.

Portal: Still Eyelive

Portal is a game that explores interesting concepts including space, dimensionality, and general physics. However, I believe the most interesting facet of the game is the concept of voyeurism and vision. Throughout the game, there is a running aesthetic of voyeurism that is achieved on multiple levels; from gameplay and mechanics to the mise en […]

Portal is a game that explores interesting concepts including space, dimensionality, and general physics. However, I believe the most interesting facet of the game is the concept of voyeurism and vision. Throughout the game, there is a running aesthetic of voyeurism that is achieved on multiple levels; from gameplay and mechanics to the mise en scene to the metaphysical experience of the gamer. The player, who controls/is the protagonist, Chell, awakens to the voice of GLaDOS, the A.I. operating the lab. GLaDOS appears to be observing you as she speaks about the environment around you and reacts to your actions. Upon inspection, the player can observe the chamber rooms and notice red-eye cameras tracking Chell as she moves around the room. Alongside this, the chambers are riddled with frosted glass windows several feet above the ground, which seem to peer out of an office or observation booth of some kind. These aesthetics emphasize the fact that Chell/the player is under constant surveillance, yet the surveyor is unbeknownst to her/him. This concept of surveillance of a subject without knowledge of the surveyor was pioneered with Jeremy Bentham’s panopticon, a type of institutional building where the inmates cannot tell who is watching them or whether they are being watched, thereby affecting the psychological and behavioral characteristics the inmates.

This voyeurism is also echoed in the artistic choices of the game. The complex in which Chell is being held is named “Aperture Laboratories,” a title and logo that the player encounters from the very start of the game and consistently throughout the test chambers (i.e. on cubes, GLaDOS dialogue, etc.). In optics, aperture is an opening through which light travels; most importantly, to the laymen, this commonly refers to the shutter of a camera. This compounds the emphasis of vision and voyeurism in Portal, being that the lab, in which Chell is trapped, references the notion of being watched or recorded in its own title. In company with the cameras encountered throughout the chambers, GLaDOS herself has the likeness of an eyeball attached to a larger machine base. GLaDOS is made up of multiple data cores which resemble eyeballs, and at the end of the game, the player discovers a whole storage facility full of these eyeball data cores. Along with this, the manner in which the shape of the portal and the way it functions enforces the voyeur concept. Not only is GLaDOS watching Chell like Big Brother, but by manipulating the portals, Chell can observe herself in a manner no human has ever done. The portals function as oblong pupils that dilate when shot at a surface. With the proper orientation and viewing angle, Chell can observe herself by breaking the rules of spacetime. She can see the light that bounces off her body, not by reflecting off some glass surface called a mirror and back into her eye, but as it propagates unperturbed through spacetime and enter her own eyes. Not only this, but the player can also achieve an ilinx effect, as described by Roger Caillois, by placing a portal directly above another. In this manner, Chell can jump through and fall at a continuously accelerating speed, watching herself fall for eternity: trying to catch herself like a dog chasing its tail. On top of all this, there is the ultimate metaphysical experience of the player, being quite similar to GLaDOS despite playing as Chell. This whole time, the player is observing the events occur with Chell on screen. Although he/she may control her, he/she acts as a voyeur in a peculiarly similar fashion to GLaDOS. Though we align our goals and actions with Chell, there is something to note about this juxtaposition, which I myself have trouble putting my finger on, though the sensation is quite palpable. Ultimately, I believe that although Portal is a game about puzzle solving, it is replete with aesthetics and philosophies of sight, vision, and voyeurism.