‘A Man Chooses, A Player Obeys’

Newton Cheng
Rhetoric of the Natural and Beyond
 Ryan’s Death
https://youtu.be/cZSuBmROSL8?t=2m15s

http://orig05.deviantart.net/d3bb/f/2012/204/9/
d/andrew_ryan_by_madlittleclown-d58a51u.jpg
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rapture-wide.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20140406125707
http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/bioshock/images/0/0f/W
ould_You_Kindly.png/revision/latest?cb=20091127205040
 FREE WILL
“The power of an individual to make free choices, not determined by divine
predestination, the laws of physical causality, fate, etc.”

- Oxford English Dictionary

BioShock Dystopia

Choice

Insights
BioShock Dystopia

Choice
 EXTERNAL
FREE WILL
SYSTEMS
https://gameyap.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/x-3.jpg
BioShock Dystopia

Choice
BioShock Dystopia
?

Choice
GAMEPLAY + RULES + NARRATIVE
=
 GAMEPLAY + RULES + NARRATIVE
=

PLAY
EXPERIENCE
“the mechanisms and consequences of the player’s interactions with the game”
BioShock Dystopia
?

Choice
 GAMEPLAY + RULES + NARRATIVE
=

PLAY
EXPERIENCE
“the mechanisms and consequences of the player’s interactions with the game”
 EXTERNAL
FREE WILL
SYSTEMS
 GAME WORLD

ACTION CHOICE
 REAL WORLD

ACTION CHOICE
 EXTERNAL
FREE WILL
SYSTEMS
EXTERNAL
SYSTEMS

FREE WILL
BioShock
BioShock Dystopia
BioShock Dystopia

Choice
BioShock Dystopia

Choice
BioShock Dystopia

Choice

Insights
http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/bioshock/images/5/59/Welco
me_to_Rapture_Door.png/revision/latest?cb=20091125232414
“We all make choices, but in the end, our
choices make us.”

- Andrew Ryan
Bibliography
• Tulloch, R. (2010). “A man chooses, a slave obeys”: Agency, Interactivity
and Freedom in Video Gaming. Journal of Gaming & Virtual Worlds, 2(1),
27–38. http://doi.org/10.1386/jgvw.2.1.27_1
• Booker, M. Keith. "On Dystopia." Critical Insights: Dystopia. Ipswich: Salem,
2013. 1-15. Print.
• Aldred, Jessica, and Brian Greenspan. “A Man Chooses, A Slave Obeys:
BioShock and the Dystopian Logic of Convergence.” Games and Culture 6.5
(2011) : 479-496.
• Nyman, E., and R. L. Teten. “Lost and Found and Lost Again: Island Utopias
and Dystopias in the BioShock Series.” Games and Culture (2015) : 1-15.
• Onyett, Chris. (2007, August 16). Bioshock Review [Review of the video
game Bioshock]. IGN. Retrieved from
http://www.ign.com/articles/2007/08/16/bioshock-review-5