Bioshock Infinite Argumentative Analysis

It is in this question of choice that Bioshock Infinite truly relates to postmodernism. Story-driven games are trying harder and harder to give the illusion that the player has a significant effect on the story’s outcome. To do this, games have been bombarding players with a multitude of choices, giving the illusion that these choices can alter the game’s end, even though all possible scenarios have already been thought out, written, and programmed. This is the way that Bioshock Infinite attempts to challenge the universally accepted way that video games have begun to tell stories. It critiques the typical choice and user interactivity that many other video games employ and flips the notion that instead of you being the one who has been playing

Anna DeWitt was your daughter, who was taken from you by Comstock. In a major plot twist, you learn that Comstock is also you. As it turns out, no matter how many infinite dimensions you go to, the only way to fix what has happened is to kill yourself—to stop Comstock, yourself, from doing these terrible things. These dimensions are generated by every single choice that the player has made in the game. So ultimately, the player never really had any ability to make a choice, because no matter what choice the player makes throughout the game, the ending is still the same. All of these choices that the game threw at you turn out to be completely pointless. These alternate universes that have spawned from the various choices of the player have been described in the game using “constants” and “variables.” Certain parts of each universe will have a set amount of constants while other parts have been changed according to the choices that the player picked throughout the game. This thought of “constants” and “variables” can be applied to video games as a whole as well. While there are constants programmed into in every video game (certain dialogues, characters, cutscenes, objects, etc.), there are a large amount of variables that depend on the player’s choices such as extra items or different dialogue. But no matter what, whether it is constants or variables, each part has been specifically programmed and thought out. There can never be a story-driven video game that gives players complete free choice that would significantly impact the game’s story. All games have a set plot and set choices that the player has the ability to make. This is what I believe that Bioshock Infinite is trying to critique when compared to other story-driven video games that advertise themselves as having a story that is completely dependent on the choices that the player makes in the