Ludic dystopias: Power, politics and play

This paper is a close reading of the first-person shooter video game Bioshock. I analyse Bioshock within a heritage of dystopian media forms. I explore the commonalities between this particular dystopic vision and those that have preceded it in book and film. Following the rich tradition of reading dystopias as reflecting the cultural zeitgeist and fears of the era they were created, I look at the political and social concerns Bioshock embodies such as the dehumanising effects of technology and the danger of corporate domination. I argue that it is in its ludic mechanisms that Bioshock reveals the most about our current anxieties. I demonstrate that this game deconstructs its own mediation to offer a broad political critique of contemporary society.