And the best part? Instead of just taking it in his stride and admitting his mistake, Crecente blames CAG, as if they somehow made him post a completely unsubstantiated rumour on his award-winning SERIOUS GAMES JOURNALISM blog.
Hey, Brian? I'm pretty sure blaming others for your own gullibility isn't the sort of behaviour typically condoned by the Official Association of Proper Journalists. Maybe you should, I don't know, check the facts before posting your next big scoop. Just a thought.
We have a real treat for you today! As a personal favour, Kotaku editor Brian Crecente set aside some time in his very busy schedule to create this video review of Super Smash Bros. Brawl, exclusively for Eegra.
We poke fun at Kotaku from time to time, but in all seriousness, Brian is a class act and I'd like to thank him for his generosity and professionalism.
Following on from Brian Crecente's recent editorial at Kotaku, I'd like to offer my own take on the role of Ayn Rand's philosophy in Bioshock. It probably won't be as intelligent or insightful as Brian's analysis, but it should contain more swear words, and I know how you kids these days love pointless profanity, what with your rap music and such. So, anyway - here goes!
Ayn Rand was a lady who lived in the 50s and had a lot of crazy ideas. Her craziest idea, next to the one about turning handicapped people into furniture, was that one day she wanted to build a big city under the sea and populate it with metaphors and moral dilemmas. In Bioshock by 2K Games, Ayn Rand's dream - or is it nightmare? - becomes reality. GAME reality!
The main character in Bioshock is a man named Andrew Ryan, who you will notice shares the same initials as Ayn Rand - 'A' and 'R'. This is not a coincidence! Wily game designer Ken Levine has done this on purpose, employing the literary device of 'using the same initials' to draw your attention to the fact that Ayn Rand and Andrew Ryan share many similarities. For example, both Ayn and Andrew sport immaculately groomed moustaches, hate the elderly, and support the ban on homosexual marriage. Andrew is perhaps more successful than Ayn in that he actually built - and subsequently destroyed - an undersea dystopia, but then Ayn went on Donahue, which doesn't even exist in Bioshock. So I guess it's a tie.
In any case, the point is that a lot of characters in Bioshock think Andrew Ryan is evil and crazy, but the reality is that - like Ayn Rand - he simply ate too many DNA brain slugs. Despite what crazy people like Jack Thompson and Ken Levine say, I feel this is the REAL and TRUE moral lesson that we as gamers should learn from Bioshock - that is, if you're going to eat slugs to gain superpowers, then try not to eat too many, because otherwise you might go nuts and have to be put down by a man in a beige turtleneck.
Whoops! I just realised - I completely forgot about the swears! Okay, well, as a poignant conclusion to what I hope you agree is a thoughtful and soul-stirring bit of modern philosophy, I offer you the following words: SHIT DICK DOODLE BUM.
Think about that, friends. Think about it ... and PONDER.
I’ve not read any of her books, and am only vaguely familiar with her ideas, so maybe I’m arguing from a position of ignorance here, but still – have you ever met someone who likes Ayn Rand that you didn’t want to kick in the balls? Admittedly, the same could probably be said of most people who like Nietzsche, but ... shutup. In any case, you don’t have to read Rand to know she’s an evil bitch: just look at her face, for God’s sake. It’s like her mouth was custom made to scowl at retards. Decent people don’t have features like that.
Anyway! The reason I bring this up is because Brian Crecente – hated final boss monster of Kotaku – has written an interesting (if wanky) analysis of Rand’s objectivism as it appears in Bioshock. Although Crecente forgets to define objectivism and explain how it manifests in the game (which I think was sort of the whole point of the article), he does get some guy who likes Rand to more or less call Ken Levine a worthless sub-human. I mean, those weren’t his exact words, but you can tell that's what he meant. It’s all in the subtext.
Ayn Rand was a lady who lived in the 50s and had a lot of crazy ideas. Her craziest idea, next to the one about turning handicapped people into furniture, was that one day she wanted to build a big city under the sea and populate it with metaphors and moral dilemmas. In Bioshock by 2K Games, Ayn Rand's dream - or is it nightmare? - becomes reality. GAME reality!
I’ve not read any of her books, and am only vaguely familiar with her ideas, so maybe I’m arguing from a position of ignorance here, but still – have you ever met someone who likes Ayn Rand that you didn’t want to kick in the balls? Admittedly, the same could probably be said of most people who like Nietzsche, but ... shutup. In any case, you don’t have to read Rand to know she’s an evil bitch: just look at her face, for God’s sake. It’s like her mouth was custom made to scowl at retards. Decent people don’t have features like that.