Blabbering About Games: Bioshock Infinite

I have just finished watching the first-person shooter game Bioshock Infinite, and wow. It reminds me of my favorite Kaisoo fanfic Arbitrage by fumerie, since the fanfic touches on the concepts of presentism vs. eternalism (I've discussed these two topics in this post). While the fanfic focused on eternalism, this game focuses presentism, along with the multidimensional theory being tagged on to that concept (parallel, alternate universes and all that good stuff).

Looked like a carnival to me

I've discussed presentism in another post before, but basically the concept goes on that your fate is not predetermined. Instead, your future does not exist at the present. In other words, your life ahead is an empty slate, and you are the one who "draws it out," metaphorically speaking, as you go along your life. That means, if you ate bread and eggs for breakfast this morning, that was your own decision. You could've chosen cereal, but you chose bread and eggs. Cool. You yourself made a mark on your fate. Everything is YOU YOU YOU. YOU DID THIS, YOU DID THAT. They're all YOUR decisions. That's presentism.

In Bioshock Infinite, the creators also tag on the multidimensional theory, which means that you might've chosen bread and eggs in YOUR universe, but in another parallel, alternate universe, you actually chose to eat cereal for breakfast. These two different universes were created and now co-exist because you had those two different options for breakfast. If you had more than one other option for breakfast, then more alternate universes would've been created, respective to the number of options you had. (So in another universe you would've had pancakes for breakfast, and in another you would've had peanuts for breakfast.)

Therefore, yes, that also means that you could be alive in one universe, but dead in another. So, to top this off, many, many, many, different universes are created as you go through your life, according to this theory, because you face many OTHER decisions in your life, not just what to have for breakfast. So many different combinations of choices.

The game plays around with these two concepts and mixes them together, which creates a really big clever but mindblowing mess.

I was not spoiled at all about the ending to this game, God bless. I resisted and didn't read the comments under the YouTube videos, which was why I was thoroughly surprised and thoroughly impressed. To be honest, the game itself seemed to bore me at first, because I had NO idea what was going on. NO CLUE and all I saw was gory and violent fighting. So I got a little bored. But I still stuck to the end 'cause I heard it had a good story, and MAN I'm glad I did.

[Warning: Spoilers up ahead... but read on if you don't give a rat's butt]

So... before I start talking about a little bit of stuff in this game... I have to point out that I kinda shipped Booker with Elizabeth, LOLOL. Awkward. (Reminds me of my experience with the TV show Heroes... -sigh-) But I wonder if Booker felt that way that towards her at any point, because I remember when Elizabeth gave herself to Songbird, she reached out to him as she was swept away and he did too... so I wonder...

I'm pretty sure Booker would've changed his feelings completely when he found out she was his daughter, though. LOL.

????!??!??!?? THIS LED ME THE WRONG WAY

Now, on to what I really want to say...

What I got from this game is that the lovely Zachary Hale Comstock used Robert and Rosalind Lutece to steal his own baby from Booker DeWitt, who is actually his own self from an alternate universe, so that Columbia will still be ruled by Comstock's bloodline.

DeWitt

(Jerkface) Comstock

So. Comstock is a power hungry (and sterile) jerkface.

And he stole from himself.

What a loser.

LOL, just kidding. The plan was actually very clever though, so applause for the Luteces... Anna DOES have Comstock's blood. But even so, Comstock is not Anna's biological father (because he didn't do da sex for her) even though Comstock and Booker are the same "person."

Comstock is Booker, but at the same time he's not.

God, this can really confuse the crap out of people.

At first, I was really confused about Booker's character because I was thinking about eternalism... I thought that Booker had the same intentions as his future Comstock, to create Columbia and be the racist bastard that Comstock is. So I thought Booker in his universe was also a bad guy.

But actually, Comstock is the result of the alternate decision Booker could've made at the baptism. So only in THAT universe, Booker is a bad guy. But he goes by the name Comstock. Hm.... that means there must be a bad Karen in another universe... and that means in another universe, there's a Karen who doesn't have ear piercings, who knows nothing about piano... and who took Elementary Calculus in junior year. LOLOL

And a tear was made at
this very moment!

Now, I understand why there were tears... because those tears held decisions. Ugh, so awesome. And that means there's a universe in which Elizabeth didn't kill Daisy Fitzroy... man, all the things you could branch off from this theory.

I'm kinda curious about three other things though. One is why Booker joined the Vox Populi. It wasn't really explained fully, since the general explanation for it would be that it's just another one of the many alternate universes. Somehow, it came out to be like that. But... I'm still curious... did he know what he was putting himself into?

And the other thing I'm curious about is exactly when did Booker come to realization that he was also Comstock? 'Cause honestly, when Booker said "I am both [DeWitt and Comstock]," I was like, wait WHAT? Maybe it was because he remembered stuff, I guess... but wow, he picks things up pretty quickly.

And the last thing, what happened at the 'baptism' up in Columbia at the beginning of the game, when Booker was practically being drowned by that priest? Booker just woke up in a fountain, and then that scene was done and over...

Anyway, overall, it was a great game; I liked it a lot. Plays around with a great theory... I love reading about multidimensional theories and philosophies of time. :3

Now, I'm gonna take a look at the DLC's because that's just what you do after seeing a game like this.