Personal Research:
Having looked at utopias and dystopia's recently I decided to look back on the game 'Bioshock Infinite' as I noticed similarities in the game to the things I have been learning during our lectures.
Taking place on a floating city in the sky known as Columbia, the city is meant to be a utopia and from first glance it appears to be so. When you first enter the city people say hello to one other and seem at peace with the religion they follow which is further demonstrated by the heavenly choir you hear when you have to be baptised on entry.
However, the player soon discovers that this city was built on old idealisms and instead of slaves being free the city still uses many black workers as servants and workmen. This racism also extends to all other ethnic groups including the Chinese and Irish where propaganda depicts them as racist stereotypes. This doesn't just affect them as workers either, they also get treated like dirt in general and at the very start of the game when the player wins a raffle during a celebration they are offered the first throw of a ball at a mixed race couple. Therefore, I believe that the developers must have taken some inspiration from Sir Thomas More's utopia as in that, even though it was meant to be a utopia they still used slave labour.
The city also represents the above groups unfairly in the media as there is a museum of history depicting a war that their religious figure took part in against the Chinese. Therefore, whenever one of the George Washington look alike robots recounts the battle it uses terms such as "slanted eyes" and "yellow skin" to refer to the opposition. Even the statues and mechanized cutouts of the Chinese share this similarity as they look like stereo-typical drawings of their race.
It was not the game developer's intention to be racist, but rather to be truthful to the era as Columbia is depicted as a city which was first launched into the air in 1893 before racial equality was considered important. The game space itself was to show the player the gritty truth behind the cities otherwise beautiful design and to further demonstrate to the player that A) you can't judge a book by its cover, and B) even in a city in the sky racism and non-equality can still exist.
By the end of the game however, the city that was meant to be a utopia becomes a dystopia when the down trodden races decide to fight for their rights. Much bloodshed and destruction occurs during this part of the game and therefore the once clear and bright colour palette of the environment becomes darker and uses a lot more red to represents blood and the colours worn by the people during the uprising.
Thus another utopia collapses as a result of people's inabilities to work together equally and to sort out issues before they escalate. Whether we will ever witness a utopia working is yet to be seen. However, it is always interesting to see the ideals a utopia is built on before it collapses under the greed of others.
Harvard Referencing:
- Breet, M. (2013) City of Columbia screenshot [Online image]. Available at: http://mattbrett.com/blog/videogames/2013/bioshock-infinite/ (Accessed: 9/5/2013).
- Kulka, P. (2013) Ball in hand screenshot [Online image]. Available at: http://guides.gamepressure.com/bioshockinfinite/guide.asp?ID=18949 (Accessed: 9/5/2013).
- Narcisse, E. (2011) Uprising screenshot [Online image]. Available at: http://www.ifc.com/fix/2011/07/bioshock-infinite-ken-levine-irrational-games-e3-2011-demo (Accessed: 9/5/2013).
- Unknown. (2013) Museum screenshot [Online image]. Available at: http://bioshock.wikia.com/wiki/Hall_of_Heroes (Accessed: 9/5/2013).
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