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Wiki Article 1: Anthropology of Social Behavior in Bioshock

Game Summary

Bioshock is a combination action/adventure/horror first person shooter (fps) with role-playing game (rpg) elements, released in 2007 by Irrational Games. In Bioshock your role is the main character Jack who starts the game out by being the sole survivor of a plane crash in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, conveniently located within swimming distance of a lighthouse that serves as the entrance to the beautiful dystopia called Rapture located underwater so as not to be limited by the stigmas of society.Once inside the underwater world you discover that Rapture has fallen and is plagued by former citizens that were driven mad by their own desire and have become "splicers". You quest through Rapture only to discover at the end of your journey that Rapture was once your home and that experiments were performed on you making you obedient when the phrase "would you kindly" is put in front of a request. You were brought back in an attempt to overthrow the founder of Rapture, Andrew Ryan. This game became highly popular because of the combined elements of RPG and FPS games, such as the somewhat open world format that you normally cannot find in FPS games, as well as the ability to customize and build your arsenal.

Playthepast.org Article Summary

The author's main argument in this article is that there are three levels of interaction that affect our decisions and understanding of the gameplay in Bioshock. She draws these levels from her knowledge of anthropology and relates them to the storyline and interactions within the game. The author argues that the game tries to get the player to either embrace the ideal of objectivism presented by Rapture, or to completely reject it. Bioshock has three different endings depending on whether the player embraced objectivism (by killing all of the little sisters), rejected it (by saving all of the little sisters), or something in the middle (by a combination of killing and saving little sisters).

Importance of the Game

The first level is the actual behavior of people. In this case it is the splicers who once were regular citizens but were driven mad through the overuse of genetic modification for power, beauty, and other desires, and have become grotesque monsters that try to kill you. It is also seen in the actions of your quest givers, Atlas wants you to kill the Little Sisters while Dr. Tenebaum wants you to save them. This level can never truly be ignored because even when you are not directly interacting with a person, the footprints of their behavior are all over the destroyed city in the forms of piled up bodies, vending machines for genetic modifications, and other such debris.

The second level is what people say they are doing or perceived behavior. The player is not required to actively engage in this level, but by picking up audio diaries can learn more about raptures past through recordings. The most powerful example of this are the recordings left by Dr. Steinman. He uses the genetic modifications to perform plastic surgery on people, and in his recordings he raves about his creative visions of beauty and his desire to help people become "perfect". However, upon arrival to his lair the player sees that the Doctor has gone mad, and pushed his trade to the limit maiming, injuring, and even killing his patients.

The Third level is represented by the written rules and ideals of society. The ideals of Rapture are comparable to Ayn Rand’s philosophy of objectivism. These are revealed through videos, audio diaries, and actual interaction with Rapture's founder Andrew Ryan, the first being an introduction video while the player is being brought to Rapture for the first(so to speak) time.

"A man has a choice, I chose the impossible. I built a city where the artists would not fear the censor, where the great would not be constrained by the small, where the scientistwould not be bound by petty morality. I chose to build Rapture. But my city was betrayed by the weak. So I ask you my friend, if you live with pride, would you kill the innocent? Would you sacrifice your humanity?" -Andrew Ryan

My Gameplay Experience

Although this specific article has no comments or links I own this game and its two sequels. The author makes valid points and although when I played I was not doing an investigation of the game it is blatantly obvious that Rapture is a dystopian society. Upon reflection of the game after reading the PlaythePast article I can easily make connections between the audio diaries I collected and my feelings towards the characters and the society they lived in, that directly affected my choices. For example, even though harvesting the sea slugs from the little sisters would give you more Adam (and therefore more perks and firepower) it tugged on my moral heartstrings and I could not bring myself to harm the innocent little girls that the sea slug inhabited, so I chose to reject the objectivism placed before me.

Works Cited

Wikipedia Contributors. Bioshock(online). Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. http://bioshock.wikia.com/wiki/BioShock (last accessed 3 June 2014).

Katy Meyers. Anthropology of Social Behavior in Bioshock(online). PlaythePast. http://www.playthepast.org/?p=2169 (last accessed 3 June 2014).

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Final Wiki

Anonymous, SOPA, and PIPA: A Brief Explanation

• PIPA AKA PROTECT IP:
  What this stands for: Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act of 2011
  • What this means: This bill gives the Attorney General power to take action against the registered owner of a "non-domestic" site or, if unable to find an owner, the site itself if the site's only purpose is to "engage in or facilitate copyright infringement, circumvent technology control access to copyrighted works, or sell or promote counterfeit goods or services.
• SOPA:
  What this stands for: Stop Online Piracy Act
  • What this means: This bill allows the Attorney General to seek a court order against an owner (or the site itself) of a "U.S.-directed foreign internet site" to cease and desist further specified intellectual property offenses dealing with copyright infringement, unauthorized distributing of sound recordings or videos of live musical performances, the recording of exhibited motion pictures, or trafficking in counterfeit labels, goods, or services.
• Anonymous:
  Who they are: a website associated with the group describes Anonymous as "an internet gathering with a very loose and decentralized command structure that operates on ideas rather than directives".
  • What this means:Anonymous is an international group of activists and "hacktivists" that share common goals (sometimes) and have no leader.

What do Hackers Have to do With Protecting Online Privacy?

In the first part of a three part story on Anonymous they were described as a group of "tricksters". Tricksters aren't the good guys or the bad guys, they are the characters that expose contradictions, initiate change and move the plot forward. This is exactly what hackers have to do with protecting online privacy. In the second part of the story on Anonymous the author writes "Anonymous has grown up to become the net’s immune system, striking back whenever the hive mind perceived that the institutions that run the world crossed the line into hypocrisy." This is a place where anything can be discussed, and if you can get enough people behind your cause there might even be a #Op for it. In the case of Operation Payback Anonymous sprung into action against Sony for removing features originally included on the PS3 that gave the consumers more freedom, but were removed with a patch. In an Anonymous hacked press release they were sure to tell players this was not an attack on them (even though they had already gained access to player information), and that they were only trying to reclaim lost freedoms from Sony.

Edward Snowden, The NSA, and The Leak

Depending on who you ask Edward Snowden could be considered a hero or a traitor. Edward Snowden worked for the NSA, he then stole documents from them and fled the country. He released documents of his choosing for reporting stories in the U.S. to expose these programs that were happening at the NSA. In his own words the purpose of his acts were "to inform the public as to that which is done in their name and that which is done against them." In the modern age of cell phones and internet there is a whole new realm of privacy that we have to be aware of and try to protect, Edward Snowden was trying to protect the American people from possible violations of these rights that most people don't even realize are happening. In the book, No Place to Hide, written about recent events author Greenwald writes that the NSA's stated objective is to "collect it all, process it all, exploit it all, partner it all, sniff it all and know it all." There is much controversy about all of these proceedings. Two court rulings on the NSA's bulk collection of phone data have shown a split. One judge ruled that it was unconstitutional and even "Orwellian" reminiscent of the novel 1984. However, another judge ruled the exact opposite. In a video interview with NBC Edward Snowden stated that he will not come home because since he is essentially a "spy" that he will not have a fair and open trial because much of the things needing to be discussed about his case are classified. He also said that he can rest easy knowing that he did the right thing even though it was not necessarily a legal thing and that sometimes you have to break the law to change the law.

Works Cited

Norton, Quinn. Anonymous 101: Introduction to the Lulz. Wired. http://www.wired.com/2011/11/anonymous-101/all/1 (last accessed 26 June 2014).

Norton, Quinn. Anonymous 101 Part Deux: Morals Triumph Over Lulz. Wired. http://www.wired.com/2011/12/anonymous-101-part-deux/all/1 (last accessed 26 June 2014).

Norton, Quinn.2011: The Year Anonymous Took On Cops, Dictators and Existential Dread. Wired.http://www.wired.com/2012/01/anonymous-dicators-existential-dread/all/1 (last accessed 26 June 2014).

Stop Online Piracy Act. The Library of Congress. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d112:HR03261:@@@L&summ2=m& (last accessed 26 June 2014)

Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act of 2011. The Library of Congress. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d112:SN00968:@@@L&summ2=m& (last accessed 26 June 2014)

Wikipedia contributors. "Edward Snowden." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, Web. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Snowden. (last accessed 26 June 2014).

Wikipedia contributors. "Anonymous (group)." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, Web. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anonymous_(group).(last accessed 26 June 2014).