Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Worldbuilding and World Destroying in BioShock and The Last of Us

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Book cover Transmedia Storytelling and the Apocalypse

Abstract

Joyce analyses the reasons why the post-apocalyptic is such a popular video game genre and argues that it is a prime example of genre-medium coevolution. First, the chapter explains the impact of video games on convergence culture, in terms of economics and the aesthetic problems of adapting narrative forms into games. Using the concepts of narrative and industrial cores, Joyce argues that the newfound economic power of video games has created dual industrial core franchises. The chapter then examines the ludology-narratology debate and argues that the post-apocalyptic has been hugely influential in meeting the challenge of telling stories to participatory audiences. The post-apocalyptic genre offers game worlds that contain embedded narratives and can easily be enclosed for logical diegetic reasons, making them ideally suited to the medium.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Aarseth, Espen. 2004. Genre Trouble: Narrativism and the Art of Simulation. In First Person: New Media as Story, Performance, and Game, ed. Noah Wardrip-Fruin and Pat Harrigan, 45–55. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Adler, Shawn. 2008. Uwe Boll Won’t Ever Be Entering the World of Warcraft. MTV.com , April 18.

  • BioShock. 2007. 2K Games. Directed by Ken Levine.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clarke, Michael J. 2012. Transmedia Television: New Trends in Network Serial Production. New York: Bloomsbury.

    Google Scholar 

  • Consalvo, Mia. 2007. Cheating: Gaining Advantage in Videogames. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crawford, Chris. 2004. Response. In First Person: New Media as Story, Performance, and Game, ed. Noah Wardrip-Fruin and Pat Harrigan, 45–46. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Deus Ex: Human Revolution. 2011. Square Enix. Directed by Jean-Francois Dugas.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ebert, Roger. 2005. Why Did the Chicken Cross the Genders? rogerebert.com , November 27.

  • Elkington, Trevor. 2009. Too Many Cooks: Media Convergence and Self-Defeating Adaptations. In The Video Game Theory Reader 2, ed. Bernard Perron and Mark J.P. Wolf, 214–235. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Entertainment Software Association. 2006. 2006 Sales Demographic and Usage Data: Essential Facts About the Computer and Video Game Industry. esa.com. Accessed 15 June 2018.

  • ———. 2018. 2018: Sales Demographic and Usage Data: Essential Facts About the Computer and Video Game Industry. esa.com. Accessed 15 June 2018.

  • Eskelinen, Markku. 2004. Towards Computer Game Studies. In First Person: New Media as Story, Performance, and Game, ed. Noah Wardrip-Fruin and Pat Harrigan, 36–44. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Evans-Thirlwell, Edwin. 2015. Why Do Video Games Love Killing the Planet? Vice.com , April 9.

  • Fahey, Rob. 2004. Square Peg, European Hole. Eurogamer, July 16.

    Google Scholar 

  • Falero, Michael. 2015. A Brief History of Post-apocalyptic Video Games. Game Skinny, November 9.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frasca, Gonzalo. 2003. Ludologists Love Stories, Too: Notes from a Debate that Never Took Place. ludology.org . http://www.ludology.org/articles/Frasca_LevelUp2003.pdf. Accessed 20 May 2018.

  • ———. 2004. Videogames of the Oppressed: Critical Thinking, Education, Tolerance, and Other Trivial Issues. In First Person: New Media as Story, Performance, and Game, ed. Noah Wardrip-Fruin and Pat Harrigan, 85–94. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gillen, Kieron. 2007. Exclusive: Ken Levine on the Making of BioShock. Rock Paper Shotgun, August 20.

    Google Scholar 

  • Graser, Marc, and Elsa Keslassy. 2012. Fassbender Game for Assassin’s Creed. Variety, July 9.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hayward, Andrew. 2013. Why We Love the Apocalypse. IGN, May 10.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hocking, Clint. 2007. Ludonarrative Dissonance in BioShock. Click Nothing, October 7.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jenkins, Henry. 2004. Game Design as Narrative Architecture. In First Person: New Media as Story, Performance, and Game, ed. Noah Wardrip-Fruin and Pat Harrigan, 118–130. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2014. The Reign of the ‘Mothership’: Transmedia’s Past, Present, and Possible Futures. In Wired TV: Laboring Over an Interactive Future, ed. Denise Mann, 244–268. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Juul, Jesper. 2010. A Casual Revolution: Reinventing Video Games and Their Players. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kojima, Hideo. 2006. Games Aren’t Art, Says Kojima. Interview by Ellie Gibson. Eurogamer, January 24.

    Google Scholar 

  • Levine, Ken. 2007. Transcript: Interview with Ken Levine. Interview by Mike Musgrove. Washington Post, September 14.

    Google Scholar 

  • Martineau, Paris. 2017. 10 Years Ago Today, BioShock Proved that Video Games Could Be Art. New York Magazine, August 21.

    Google Scholar 

  • Metro: Last Light. 2013. 4A Games. Directed by Andrew Prokhorov.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mittell, Jason. 2015. Complex TV: The Poetics of Contemporary Television Storytelling. New York: New York University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Molthrop, Stuart. 2004. From Work to Play: Molecular Culture in the Time of Deadly Games. In First Person: New Media as Story, Performance, and Game, ed. Noah Wardrip-Fruin and Pat Harrigan, 56–69. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Motion Picture Association of America. 2018. 2017 THEME Report. mpaa.org . Accessed 15 June 2018.

  • Murray, Janet. 1997. Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Onyett, Charles. 2007. BioShock Review. IGN, August 16.

    Google Scholar 

  • Parker, Felan. 2013. Millions of Voices: Star Wars, Digital Games, Fictional Worlds and Franchise Canon. In Game On, Hollywood!: Essays on the Intersection of Video Games and Cinema, ed. Gretchen Papazian and Joseph Michael Sommers, 156–168. Jefferson: McFarland.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2017. Canonising BioShock: Cultural Value and the Prestige Game. Games and Culture 12 (7–8): 739–763.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2018. Roger Ebert and the Games-as-Art Debate. Cinema Journal 57 (3): 77–100.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pearce, Celia. 2004. Towards a Game Theory of Game. In First Person: New Media as Story, Performance, and Game, ed. Noah Wardrip-Fruin and Pat Harrigan, 143–153. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Perlin, Ken. 2004. Can There Be a Form Between a Game and a Story? In First Person: New Media as Story, Performance, and Game, ed. Noah Wardrip-Fruin and Pat Harrigan, 12–18. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Poole, Steven. 2017. Why Video Games are Obsessed with the Apocalypse. BBC.com , August 15.

  • Reed, Kristan. 2007. BioShock: Cue Rapturous Applause. Eurogamer, August 16.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schulzke, Marcus. 2013. Translation Between Forms of Interactivity: How to Build the Better Adaptation. In Game On, Hollywood!: Essays on the Intersection of Video Games and Cinema, ed. Gretchen Papazian and Joseph Michael Sommers, 70–83. Jefferson: McFarland.

    Google Scholar 

  • Straley, Bruce, and Neil Druckmann. 2013. What Inspired The Last of Us. Interview by Dean Takahashi. Venture Beat, August 6.

    Google Scholar 

  • The Last of Us. 2013. Naughty Dog. Directed by Bruce Straley and Neil Druckmann.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Aarhus University, Aarhus C, Denmark

    Stephen Joyce

Authors
  1. Stephen Joyce
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Joyce, S. (2018). Worldbuilding and World Destroying in BioShock and The Last of Us. In: Transmedia Storytelling and the Apocalypse. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93952-0_6

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation