BioShock: Decision, Forced Choice and Propaganda

by Robert Jackson

A historical, critical look at the famous videogame franchise BioShock, understanding it through philosophical, ideological and computational interpretations of systems, decisions and 'propaganda'.

349 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2014

About the author

Robert Jackson is an arts writer and PhD student at Lancaster University studying Computer Science, systems, aesthetics and Continental Philosophy. He is an associate editor of Speculations, a journal dedicated to Speculative Realism and writes for the digital arts collective Furtherfield.org.

Reviews

[Elia (goldenlyre) · Rating 1 out of 5]

I completely expected something different when I picked up this book, and I’m sooo disappointed in it. I didn’t even finish it. In the introduction the author immediately says they didn’t like bioshock. Throughout the intro you can tell that they have a very pretentious, rude attitude towards video games and those who play for enjoyment or to kill time or whatever because according to them dO yOu ReALLy EnJoY vIdEo GamEs?? In the intro they discuss decision making, which is also a main topic in this novel, and honestly what they wrote had me laughing. They complain about the lack of autonomy in a game that isn’t meant to be an open world game. Hello?? Ofc there’s set decisions and a pathway for the game because that’s how the game was designed. If you want an entirely Free game maybe you shouldn’t be playing roleplay games. More to complain about but I’m good

[Zora · Rating 1 out of 5]

Picked this up because usually Zero / Repeater books are interesting. Lord almighty, this is what happens when a hack who doesn't know anything about video games or philosophy (or what hipsters call theory these days) goes with his misguided conviction, telling himself, 'I can do it in the name of the critique no matter how illiterate it may sound'.

[caro_cactus]

This is bad scholarship.