New York Times Bridges The Arts With BioShock
What disappointed me most about the recent gaming-related cover story in Time magazine was the pandering to its supposed audience and the pessimistic fatalism that the article gave us: the world-at-large was labeled anti-gaming, and gaming was shoved in a static ghetto. None of that is automatically wrong, it's just incomplete - and kind of pathetic. Games as emergent-art-form, the opening of the eyes of non-gamers, the incremental progress gaming makes as our culture at large realizes that gaming is already part of the mainstream - all of these would have been wonderful (and accurate) threads to pluck out of the story.
Fortunately, the more forward-thinking New York Times published a glowing look at BioShock today, examining reviews and gamer responses to take a look at a fine example of a medium on the rise:
"So begins BioShock, the intelligent, gorgeous, occasionally frightening new game from Take-Two that has already emerged as the sleeper hit of 2007. Anchored by its provocative, morality-based story line, sumptuous art direction and superb voice acting, BioShock can also hold its head high among the best games ever made."
Hear that? "Morality-based story line" - finally, someone's seeing it from a grounded position. The Times speculates on sales figures, which could be nearly 2 million already, and even deals an offhand blow to the wrong-headed naysayers who believe the passive violence of television is less harmful that the interactive experience of gaming:
“I can understand the Mature rating,” said Jerry Cushing, a 15-year-old in Montclair, N.J., who’s been playing the game. “They present you with this moral dilemma, and it’s really up to you what you do with these little girls. But that’s what a game should be all about: making choices.”
And there we have it: the smartest and most succinct comment on the state of game ratings and the nature of the game today, from a 15yo young man. He understands the rating, but inherently knows that it's the choice that makes the game - but doesn't make the gamer.
tiny dancer
Posted to Miscellany on 8 September 2007
· Comments (3)
Other stuff like this: bioshock, new york times
It's refreshing to see a respected news journal perform on a level expected by both gaming and news interest groups.
After seeing the best and worst endings of the game as well as a bunch of other gameplay and cut scene clips, I have to admit I'd have been disappointed if I played and finished it. (I don't own a 360 or a PC with Windows on it, so I figured it was okay to get spoiled.) It might have been better if it gave you the credits or something to decompress rather than just dumping you back to "Press Start" after the final (admittedly well done, especially the "sister savior" ending) cut scene. The story is really compelling (and I hope they stick to their guns and don't try to bend it so as to make a "Bioshock 2") but the story's payoff should have been fleshed out a little more than a minute.
But it's about time we had a game that required the player to make moral choices and changed the outcome because of it. I don't get any of that from Mario and Zelda, nor from the arcade games I grew up with, nor the id and Epic shooters I was playing in the 90's.
Plus, they did a really good job of selling the early-60's sci-fi setting, and didn't skimp on licensing period music. It would have been way too easy to include all kinds of generic nu-metal or skate punk or whatever its teen-and-twenty-something target market is listening to this year, but instead they got Billie Holiday.
No doubt about it, my personal preferences aside, this is a landmark game that transcends its category and its console, and one that I think will have more fans replaying it than Halo or Gears in 20 years. I also hope that if they end up doing a movie of it, they get somewhere a lot better than Bay or Boll.
It wasn't just Billie!
I almost wet my pants when I heard Django Reinhardt followed up by The Ink Spots!
*swoon*