BioShock: Welcome to Rapture

Reblin-Renshaw, Lyz

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-63868-9_2

Lyz Reblin-Renshaw²

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Abstract

This chapter covers the original BioShock’s historical context and core ludological/narratological elements. It focuses on how choice and control are formed through the gameplay and story, asking whether or not players’s truly get a say in the game’s direction.

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Notes

1.
Frank Cifaldi, “Analysts: FPS ‘Most Attractive’ Genre for Publishers,” Gamasutra, 2006, https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/99195/Analysts_FPS_Most_Attractive_Genre_for_Publishers.php.
2.
Matt Barton, Dungeons & Desktops: The History of Computer Role-Playing Games, (A K Peters, Ltd. 2008), 2–3.
3.
Martin Annander, “Boom, Headshot!,” Gamasutra (2017), https://gamasutra.com/blogs/MartinAnnander/20170425/296704/Boom_Headshot.php.
4.
Ibid.
5.
IG. Admin, “From the Vault-The BioShock Pitch,” Irrational Games Insider, May 20, 2010, http://irrationalgames.com/insider/from-the-vault-may/.
6.
Andrew Ryan, “A Man or a Parasite,” Audio Diaries, Hephaestus.
7.
“BioShock,” BioShock Wiki, http://BioShock.wikia.com/wiki/BioShock.
8.
Douglass C. Perry, “The Influence of Literature and Myth in Videogames,” IGN, May 18, 2006, http://www.ign.com/articles/2006/05/18/the-influence-of-literature-and-myth-in-videogames?page=3.
9.
Anne C. Heller, Ayn Rand and the World She Made (New York: Doubleday, 2009), 195.
10.
Heller, 92.
11.
Ibid.
12.
Andrew Ryan, “From the desk of Andrew Ryan,” Video, Bathysphere Station.
13.
IG. Admin, “From the Vault-The BioShock Pitch.”
14.
IG. Admin, “From the Vault-The BioShock Pitch.”
15.
Ibid.
16.
Ibid.
17.
Ibid.
18.
Brendan Vance, “Ghosts of BioShock,” Brendan Vance (blog), March 25, 2015, http://blog.brendanvance.com/2015/03/25/the-ghosts-of-bioshock/.
19.
Critical Path, “CRITICAL PATH-Robin Hunicke-Games Are about Choice,” YouTube, March 2, 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhZYQbEW0nM&list=WL&index=64.
20.
Brigid Tenenbaum, Dialogue, Medical Pavilion.
21.
On-screen Instructions, Medical Pavilion.
22.
Ajar, “BioShock Spoiler Thread,” The Escapist (forum), August 26, 2007, http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.48000-BioShock-Spoiler-Thread#318863.
23.
Bonnie A. Nardi, My Life as a Night Elf Priest: An Anthropological Account of World of Warcraft (Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2009), 137.
24.
Nardi, 139.
25.
Ajar, “BioShock Spoiler Thread.”
26.
Ibid.
27.
Ibid.
28.
Patricia Bayer, Art Deco Architecture: Design, Decoration and detail from the twenties and thirties (London: Thames and Hudson, 1992), 12.
29.
David Garrard Lowe, Art Deco New York (New York: Watson-Guptill Publications, 2004) 8.
30.
Heller, 113.
31.
Bayer, 7–8.
32.
IG. Admin, “From the Vault-The BioShock Pitch.”
33.
Heller, 46.
34.
Heller, 235.
35.
Irrational Games’ Official Channel, “Rapture: A Modern Day Atlantis?,” YouTube, October 4, 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsJDrsKNYxI.
36.
Vossen, “Level design for melee combat systems.”
37.
Ibid.
38.
Vossen, “Level design for melee combat systems.”
39.
Murray , 113.
40.
Jack, Narration, Apollo Air Flight DF-0301.
41.
Andrew Ryan, “A Man Chooses and a Slave Obeys,” Dialogue, Rapture Central Control.
42.
Rich Stanton, “Through The Looking Glass,” Rock, Paper, Shotgun, March 26, 2014, http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/11/26/bioshock-and-looking-glass/.
43.
LeBlanc, 457.
44.
Wesley Yin-Poole, “Levine: BioShock Infinite ending ‘like nothing you’ve experienced in a video game before’,” Eurogamer, December 18, 2012, http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-12-18-levine-bioshock-infinite-ending-like-nothing-youve-experienced-in-a-video-game-before.
45.
LeBlanc, 457.

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Independent Scholar, Tujunga, CA, USA
Lyz Reblin-Renshaw

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Lyz Reblin-Renshaw
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Reblin-Renshaw, L. (2020). BioShock: Welcome to Rapture. In: Ludonarrative Synchronicity in the 'BioShock' Trilogy. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63868-9_2

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63868-9_2
Published: 12 December 2020
Publisher Name: Palgrave Pivot, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-63867-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-63868-9
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)

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