Narrative and/or Systems: BioShock and the Invisibilisation of Power

Through his emphasis on nomos, Robert Cover highlighted how narratives are a key part of our understanding of the world and of the law. In many ways, they are the driving force of everything, providing meaning and purpose to human action. However, in the context of video game studies, the ludology/narratology debate emphasized that existing approaches of literature studies would be insufficient to fully understanding video games. The reason, in line with the theories of Marshall McLuhan, is that video games were a different medium that was based around a system of rules and while narratives could still exist within a game, the form that these narratives took would ultimately change. Of course, the idea that a narrative will have unique features when it exists in the context of a set of rules raises interesting questions for the law. As part of a larger project looking into this area, this presentation uses the BioShock series of video games to explore how this relationship causes the invisibilisation of power. Throughout these games, the narrative and the system of the game are not only deeply intertwined, but this relationship is frequently used deceptively to subvert
player expectations and in doing so, question the violent, patriarchal, and colonial nature of many mainstream video games. Expanding off this point, this presentation will highlight that the stories that not only provide meaning but also determine the rules of action are simultaneously in danger of leading to manipulation, prejudice, and violence. This is particularly true in neoliberal systems where the ideological nature of these rules is being rendered invisible through normalization.