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| Bioshock's Setting, Rapture, the underwater city. |
When looking at the concept of an
enthymeme in the English textbook, I felt a little confused. It felt as if I
was trying to construct a smart haiku or apply the Transitive property. I kept getting caught up in
minor details surrounding the enthymeme and any enthymeme I ended up creating
something that felt simplistic and dumb. Observe:
The horror genre is intended to
be scary
Bioshock is classified as a
survival horror game
Bioshock is intended to be scary
While this does convey a very
important message, the way it was conceived feels like the topic is barely scratching
the surface. The real importance of this came out when I asked “Why?” Why is Bioshock
intended to be scary? There I felt like I was getting somewhere. So using this
same method, I am going to ask “why?” in response to the enthymeme that best fits
what my essay will try to discuss.
Bioshock is influenced by George
Orwell’s works.
George Orwell often wrote novels
as a warning.
Bioshock is a warning
I’ve listened to many interviews
about what Ken Levine, the lead designer on Bioshock, was thinking when he
created this game. He only talked about how he aimed to revolutionize what would
be expected in the next generation of first person shooter video games. He
specifically leaves the story of “What happened to the city,” up to the player.
That is why this enthymeme is also going to be the hardest to defend. Levine’s
intended audience is the Mature (I say that because the game is rated “M” for
Mature) video game playing (18-30 predominately male) person who loves first
person shooters. With no help from the author, only the game offers the
insight needed to discuss a potential purpose in this way. The atmosphere, the
setting, the characters that inhabit the setting, the story of the game, the
story of setting and the feeling it leaves you with is what will help convince
reader of this premise.
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| Take note of the genetically modified citizens of Rapture (nicknamed Splicers). Notice how they appear mutated and ugly yet wear fancy clothes and look like they are in the run down version of the Bellagio. Why do some chose to wear masks? How did they get there? Why am I asking these questions? |
Cole,
ReplyDeleteThis is really interesting! I like how you really dug into your topic and explored ideas by asking yourself questions. When you got confused or didn't understand, you asked why. I think the conclusion you came to was really interesting! I like the concept that you think that Bioshock is a warning, I have never played the game, but from reading reviews and listening to my brothers talk about it, it does sound like it could be a warning. Which is really quite an interesting idea for a video game, one of my main complaints with video games is that their often is no plot or theme to them, it's just trying to explode things and all about the effects rather than the plot. I think this is a cool idea, but I think you will certainly need to expand on it, maybe find some examples from within the game of how it is a warning, to help back up your topic.
Dear Cole,
ReplyDeleteI liked the picture of the underwater city (reminded me of the Jonas Brother’s song Year 3000 where everyone lived underwater). The second picture of the mutations scared me! (so it was like my Halloween scare for the day). On the more serious side, our enthymemes that “sounded simplistic and dumb” as you quoted, were too broad therefore making you believe they were simplistic. You should tie to how readers imply that Bioshock is a warning for genetic mutations perhaps. I liked that you integrated the audience that it caters to as being the Mature Adults, but I think you should also add the couple of boys who play it at a young age because they think it is cool and perhaps do not understand the message it portrays simply playing it for the entertainment purposes. So include why this game could convey more than simply being made for entertainment purposes.
-Joana Sipe
P.S. almost made my profile pic a picture of Anne Hathaway as Catwoman hahaha
Hey Cole,
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, you seem to be having a lot more fun with your topic than I am, which is awesome. Great job on that, even! I think that your second enthymeme wraps up not only this papers' topic, but adds to the research you've done for your first as well. Bioshock is a genuinely terrifying game (and appropriate for a night like this one), as well as one that creates for its audience a "what if" situation - which is exactly what you've proposed. If you want to further discuss Bioshock in its uses, however, a great idea would be to dive deeper into its literature and therefore its merchandise. Bioshock, like Halo and other popular franchises have grown into novels, animations, etc that could aid as delivering a point for just what audiences the message goes toward.