A Developer Chooses, a Player Obeys: a Study of the Enactment of Objectivism in BioShock

In 2003, Espen Aarseth proposed a framework for analyzing computer and video games, saying current methodologies borrowed too much from literature and film criticism, writing that video games exist in a “virtual environment” and that “this label fits games from Tetris to Drug Wars to EverQuest” (Aarseth, 2003, p.2). While it is fair to say that both Tetris and EverQuest are video games, this is all they have in common: Tetris is a game where a single player sorts falling geometric shapes while EverQuest is a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game with millions of players and a fantasy world similar to J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.