One of the reasons video games are good is because they let players escape themselves for a while and step into the shoes of someone that is altogether more awesome. Like a badass zombie killer. Or a buzz-cut space marine. Or even an effeminate boy-child righting the wrong of an exploding RPG town. But Bioshock 2? It makes me feel like a tramp. And that's the homeless, sleeping-in-the-park kind of tramp. Not the sex-happy female sort. That would be peculiar.
Over a period of several hours, I monitored my activities in Bioshock 2 and created this pie-chart to get the point across visually and with less words:
As you can see, a staggeringly significant portion of time in Rapture is spent scavenging the floor and picking up anything that happens to be lying around. This, based purely on casual observations, is what I imagine it is like to be a tramp. Making the experience even more tramp-like, is my inability to pass a bin or ashtray in the game without giving it a thorough ransacking.
Here is a list of some of the popular actions performed in Bioshock 2 rated with an affirmative tick or negative cross based on whether those actions are also considered to be the habits of a tramp.
I know other games involve a certain amount of scavenging and hunting through trash receptacles, but Bioshock 2 (and Bioshock before it) has taken the concept of converting real-life tramp habits into game mechanics and elevated the practice to a whole new level.
Am I alone in this, or have you also experienced feelings of being in a tramp-like state while playing Bioshock? Anyone?
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philipshaw - March 10, 2010 7:12 p.m.