Mashing Buttons

In my last Bioshock game progress post, I touched on the topic of family.

Your family

In the very first scene of the game’s opening cinematic, the main character, Jack, opens a present addressed to him “With Love, from Mom + Dad”. As he does this, he says: ”They told me, ‘Son, you’re special. You were born to do great things.’ You know what? They were right.”

Although, the rest of this particular scene is later revealed to play out in an unexpected way — a way which could be argued to only reinforce the family element even further — it highlights two important points: the character is away from family, and the character finds some self-definition and meaning in the idea of family. The family seed is sown in the very first scene.

The banner on entering the lighthouse reads: “No Gods Or Kings. Only Man.” It refers to “man” as a species, a race, a community. Rapture describes itself as a type of meritocracy, focusing on the unlimited achievements of which an exceptional individual is capable, and yet its founder, Andrew Ryan, knows that it cannot work with just one person alone. It needs many people working together to operate. By its seclusion, it becomes a large community – almost a family – and the dynamics of a family are more evident in the upper echelons, with characters fulfilling the family reunion archetypes: the patriarch (Andrew Ryan), the mother (Dr Brigid Tenenbaum), the estranged cousin (Frank Fontaine/Atlas) and the crazy/weird uncle (Sander Cohen).

As the story of Bioshock unfolds, the ways that the major characters fill these roles become even more obvious, even literal. Really, the story of Bioshock is the story of how you discover who you and your family really are, and to what lengths you will go to be a member of that family.

Big Daddies & Little Sisters

Big Daddies were created to protect Little Sisters. There is no actual genetic connection between the two but, as the real world has shown us, that isn’t necessary for a familiar bond to exist or be created. Although this father-daughter paradigm exists to serve a practical purpose, there is more to it.

This interdependent relationship is something that both parties feel as genuine and personally affirming. From my early impressions of Bioshock 2, the sequel discusses this aspect in greater detail, but it is still hinted at in the original title when we see the interactions that exist between the two while casually going about their business.

The relationship is probably a bit more like adoptive father/daughter. The Little Sister calls the Big Daddy Mr Bubbles and treats him more like a friend, yet when a threat arises, the dynamics of the relationship change dramatically, becoming a protective one of parent and child.

The most confronting part of this whole experience is that, to make progress and reach the Little Sister herself, you must destroy these adoptive relationships. You, who are seemingly doing what ever you can to stay alive and see your family again, must destroy several two-member families in the process. If the Big Daddy / Little Sister family concept was introduced and enforced earlier in the game than it is, destroying these families would prove far more difficult emotionally than it is “physically” (and if you’ve never played the game, killing a Big Daddy can be incredibly difficult).

And yet, the abduction of girls to become Little Sisters destroyed many families, too. The greater good of Rapture’s community – the sourcing of ADAM that is the sole purpose of the Little Sisters – is the argument but how can a mother and father be separated from their children so? A sub-story within Rapture’s history is revealed through recordings of a mother who makes a series of audio diary entries about the disappearance of her daughter, her discovery of her child transformed into a Little Sister, the grief and depression suffered by her and her husband at the loss, followed by their decision to commit suicide. The last recording is discovered beside their bodies, embracing one another on a bare mattress, surrounded by photographs and an empty bottle of sleeping pills.

When is it okay to divide a happy family? When is it okay to create a new family but for a horrible purpose? And if it is a horrible but happy family, like that of the Big Daddies and Little Sisters, when is it okay to divide it? Where do we draw the line?

One big happy family

Can you describe the remaining united citizens of Rapture as a family? Well, no. Rapture’s philosophy was one of meritocracy, creating an individualistic drive. The survivors of Rapture’s civil war are those who put themselves first to ensure their survival. They are unsympathetic to the needs of others (they attack me for my ADAM, not because I am a threat to them in any way).

The individual characters, too, have their own struggles with the concept of family.

Andrew Ryan at first appears intolerant to the idea of family but later, upon seeing Jack – his own distorted flesh and blood, he changes his mind. Instead of killing Jack, he commands Jack to murder him. Not even Andrew Ryan could kill his own son.

Dr Bridgid Tenenbaum is renowned for her lack of maternal instinct. She is not interested in the feelings of people. After creating the Little Sisters, however, she is reviled by her own maternal instinct; disgusted. Eventually her instincts prevail. She succumbs to them, doing whatever she can to protect and save the Little Sisters.

And more…

There are even more examples of how the concept of family is used to manipulate the plot and the player, but I won’t go into too much detail as they’re used primarily to keep the story moving forward.

In particular, Frank Fontaine tricks Jack into thinking that he’s helping to save his family, when in fact it’s just a massive ruse to convince Jack to do his bidding. The discovery and subsequent explosive murder of Atlas’s family is played out in grim and horrific circumstances, empowering the player to believe that his next steps are for the purpose of protecting the ideal of the family rather than the destruction of it.

Bioshock is teaching us that the interests of the family as a whole are always more important than the interests of the individual, yet at the same time forcing the player to question that idea and test it out for ourselves.

It has taught me that family as a concept is often too strictly applied. A family formed circumstantially is just as valuable to its members as a family formed genetically. Personally, I don’t spend a lot of time talking to my genetic family – my life has simply taken a different path – but that doesn’t mean I don’t still have a sense of family. Right now, in my home, my family is my partner and our dog. In the past, my family has been my close-knit social circles. When I travelled, my family changed as often as twice a week. Which then raises another question: what is family?

For Andrew Ryan, it was the elite of Rapture. For Frank Fontaine, it was Rapture’s working class. The Little Sisters had their Big Daddies (and vice versa).

As for the player, family is a concept undergoing discovery with every new encounter. If you want to get technical, Bioshock is a first-person shooter with role-playing elements and a great storyline.
Experientially, however, Bioshock is an exploration of what “family” really means.