Art and video games
Video games as an art form
Video games as art
Art game
The Art of Video Games
Alternate reality game
Artistic expression within video games
Video game art
Non-game
Video game art creation
Game art design
*Video game graphics
*Video game music
*Storytelling
*Pixel art
v t e

An art game or arthouse game^[1] is a video game that is designed to emphasize art or whose structure is intended to produce some kind of reaction in its audience.^[2] Art games typically go out of their way to have a unique, unconventional look, often standing out for aesthetic beauty or complexity in design.^[3] This concept extends to the realm of modified ("modded") gaming when modifications have been made to existing non-art-games to produce graphic results intended to be viewed as an artistic display, as opposed to modifications intended to change game play scenarios or for storytelling. Modified games created for artistic purposes are sometimes referred to as "video game art."

Art games are often considered a means of demonstrating video games as works of art.

Art game versus game art[link]

As video games became increasingly common as a form of media throughout the 2000s,^[4][5] video games that deemphasized the game portion of the medium (such as serious games, non-games and art games) saw a rise in production. The contemporaneity of improvements in graphic capabilities with the increases in art game releases has led to some confusion regarding the difference between games with artistic imagery and art games. This difference has been described by Justin McElroy of Joystiq as "the same [as that] between a sculpture and a building. Though a building/game can be aesthetically pleasing, an art game/sculpture is using its very structure to produce some kind of reaction."^[3] This same comparison has been used by Jenova Chen in an interview discussing art games and the prominence of non-games to the artistic gamer community.^[6]

Along with expanding on the notion of art games as comparable to architecture in a 2010 interview with Nora Young for Spark, Jim Munroe suggested that whereas video games such as the "art game" are shifting in the direction of the "high arts" within the realm of art generally, traditionally video games have occupied a position in the "cultural gutter" (making up the "low arts").^[7]

Another key difference between art games and game art is that art games are artistic creations from the outset whereas game art pieces employ non-art games as the artistic medium.^[8] Thus the "game" portion of "game art" is merely the means to an artistic end.

List of art games[link]

• Alien Garden, designed by Bernie DeKoven and programmed by Jaron Lanier was described by its creators as an art game ^[9] and ranks among the very earliest expressions of video game art.^[10].
• Moondust ^[11] (1983, C64) - a video game created by Jaron Lanier that is generally considered the first real art game, although his work Alien Garden predates it. It has been used in numerous museums as an art installation.
• Ico (2001, PlayStation 2) - a title created by Team Ico that has often been cited as an example of a game that is a work of art.^[12][13][14]
• Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (2001, PlayStation 2) - a stealth game by Hideo Kojima that has been cited as a primary example of artistic expression in video games,^[15][16] and is considered the first example of a postmodern video game.^{[17][18][19][20]}
• Invaders! ^[21] (2002, PC) - a political art game making reference to the September 11 attacks.
• Samorost ^[22](2003, PC) - a video game that employs organic and wooden materials in its presentation.
• Super Columbine Massacre RPG! ^[23][24] (2005, PC) - a video game exploring the Columbine High School massacre whose exclusion from Slamdance '07 led to a partial boycott of the event for anti-censorship reasons by numerous high-profile indie developers.^[25]
• Electroplankton ^[26] (2005, Nintendo DS) - A free-form music game considered to be the first art game for the Nintendo DS.
• Shadow of the Colossus (2006, PlayStation 2) - a title created by Team Ico that has been referenced numerous times in debates regarding art and video games.^[27]
• game, game, game and again game ^[28] (2007, PC) - A Flash based absurdist game, one of the first to combine poetry with art in a game interface, created by Jason Nelson.
• Virtual Jihadi ^[29] (2008, PC) - a political art-piece created by artist Wafaa Bilal.
• Aether ^[30] (2008, PC) - a video game that employs a unique visual style and atmosphere.
• Braid ^[31] (2008, Xbox 360, PC; 2009, PS3) - a video game that enables the player to "rewind" the game at will
• The Graveyard ^[32] (2008, PC) - A simple but highly artistically detailed game about an old woman visiting a graveyard.
• Gravity Bone ^[33] (2008, PC) - a cinematic spy game featuring cubical characters. Winner of the GameTunnel Best Arthouse Game 2008 award.
• The Path ^[34] (2009, PC) - An experimental game developed by Tale of Tales in which the player uses different characters to unfold the narrative in a Little Red Riding Hood inspired environment.
• Dear Esther^{[35][not in citation given]} (2012, PC) - A poetic, semi-randomised game.
• Passage ^[36] (2008, PC) - a meditation on death created by independent art game creator, Jason Rohrer.
• Every Day The Same Dream ^[37] (2009, PC) - An existential game by Molleindustria that addresses the topics of labor and alienation.
• Deadly Premonition (2010, Xbox 360 & PS3) - A survival horror that has been described "the strangest video game of the year" and a primary example of "games as art", praised for its "emotional range, from traditional survival horror scares to farcical comedy".^[38]
• Limbo (2010, PC, Xbox 360) - Platform-puzzler game using film noir-like ^[39][40] monochrome visuals and subtle ambient environment sounds as the player guides a boy through a dark and scary forest to find his missing sister.^[41]
• Flower (2009, Play Station 3) - Game designed to arouse emotions to the gamer and doesn't follow normal gameplay.
• Machinarium (2009, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, iPad 2, Android and soon Play Station 3) - It won the Excellence in Visual Art award at the 12th Annual Independent Games Festival.^[42]
• Rez ^[43] - a music game designed to create the effects of synesthesia for the player.
• Yume Nikki^{[citation needed]}
• Heavy Rain: A dramatic thriller modeled after film noir, featuring four protagonists involved with the mystery of the Origami Killer, a serial killer who uses extended periods of rainfall to drown his victims.^{[citation needed]}
• Child of Eden A game made to pass the feeling of synesthesia and expressing subjectively the evolution, the human feelings and evolution of societyC_d

References[link]

See also[link]

• Video games as art

This article may contain original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding references. Statements consisting only of original research may be removed. More details may be available on the talk page. (March 2011)

Tug of war is an easily organized, impromptu game that requires little equipment.

The Card Players, a 1895 painting by Paul Cézanne depicting a game of cards.

A game is structured playing, usually undertaken for enjoyment and sometimes used as an educational tool. Games are distinct from work, which is usually carried out for remuneration, and from art, which is more often an expression of aesthetic or ideological elements. However, the distinction is not clear-cut, and many games are also considered to be work (such as professional players of spectator sports/games) or art (such as jigsaw puzzles or games involving an artistic layout such as Mahjong, solitaire, or some video games).

Key components of games are goals, rules, challenge, and interaction. Games generally involve mental or physical stimulation, and often both. Many games help develop practical skills, serve as a form of exercise, or otherwise perform an educational, simulational, or psychological role.

Attested as early as 2600 BC,^[1][2] games are a universal part of human experience and present in all cultures. The Royal Game of Ur, Senet, and Mancala are some of the oldest known games.^[3]

Definitions[link]

Look up game in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Ludwig Wittgenstein[link]

Ludwig Wittgenstein was probably the first academic philosopher to address the definition of the word game. In his Philosophical Investigations,^[4] Wittgenstein demonstrated that the elements of games, such as play, rules, and competition, all fail to adequately define what games are. Wittgenstein concluded that people apply the term game to a range of disparate human activities that bear to one another only what one might call family resemblances.

Roger Caillois[link]

French sociologist Roger Caillois, in his book Les jeux et les hommes (Games and Men),^[5] defined a game as an activity that must have the following characteristics:

• fun: the activity is chosen for its light-hearted character
• separate: it is circumscribed in time and place
• uncertain: the outcome of the activity is unforeseeable
• non-productive: participation does not accomplish anything useful
• governed by rules: the activity has rules that are different from everyday life
• fictitious: it is accompanied by the awareness of a different reality

Chris Crawford[link]

Computer game designer Chris Crawford attempted to define the term game^[6] using a series of dichotomies:

1. Creative expression is art if made for its own beauty, and entertainment if made for money.
2. A piece of entertainment is a plaything if it is interactive. Movies and books are cited as examples of non-interactive entertainment.
3. If no goals are associated with a plaything, it is a toy. (Crawford notes that by his definition, (a) a toy can become a game element if the player makes up rules, and (b) The Sims and SimCity are toys, not games.) If it has goals, a plaything is a challenge.
4. If a challenge has no "active agent against whom you compete," it is a puzzle; if there is one, it is a conflict. (Crawford admits that this is a subjective test. Video games with noticeably algorithmic artificial intelligence can be played as puzzles; these include the patterns used to evade ghosts in Pac-Man.)
5. Finally, if the player can only outperform the opponent, but not attack them to interfere with their performance, the conflict is a competition. (Competitions include racing and figure skating.) However, if attacks are allowed, then the conflict qualifies as a game.

Crawford's definition may thus be rendered as: an interactive, goal-oriented activity, with active agents to play against, in which players (including active agents) can interfere with each other.

Other definitions[link]

• "A game is a system in which players engage in an artificial conflict, defined by rules, that results in a quantifiable outcome." (Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman)^[7]
• "A game is a form of art in which participants, termed players, make decisions in order to manage resources through game tokens in the pursuit of a goal." (Greg Costikyan)^[8] According to this definitions, some "games" that do not involve choices, such as Chutes and Ladders, Candy Land, and War are not technically games any more than a slot machine is.
• "A game is an activity among two or more independent decision-makers seeking to achieve their objectives in some limiting context." (Clark C. Abt)^[9]
• "At its most elementary level then we can define game as an exercise of voluntary control systems in which there is an opposition between forces, confined by a procedure and rules in order to produce a disequilibrial outcome." (Elliot Avedon and Brian Sutton-Smith)^[10]
• "A game is a form of play with goals and structure." (Kevin J. Maroney)^[11]

Gameplay elements and classification[link]

Games can be characterized by "what the player does."^[6] This is often referred to as gameplay. Major key elements identified in this context are tools and rules that define the overall context of game and that in turn produce skill, strategy, and chance.^{[clarification needed]}

Tools[link]

Games are often classified by the components required to play them (e.g. miniatures, a ball, cards, a board and pieces, or a computer). In places where the use of leather is well established, the ball has been a popular game piece throughout recorded history, resulting in a worldwide popularity of ball games such as rugby, basketball, football, cricket, tennis, and volleyball. Other tools are more idiosyncratic to a certain region. Many countries in Europe, for instance, have unique standard decks of playing cards. Other games such as chess may be traced primarily through the development and evolution of its game pieces.

Many game tools are tokens, meant to represent other things. A token may be a pawn on a board, play money, or an intangible item such as a point scored.

Games such as hide-and-seek or tag do not utilise any obvious tool; rather, their interactivity is defined by the environment. Games with the same or similar rules may have different gameplay if the environment is altered. For example, hide-and-seek in a school building differs from the same game in a park; an auto race can be radically different depending on the track or street course, even with the same cars.

Rules[link]

Whereas games are often characterized by their tools, they are often defined by their rules. While rules are subject to variations and changes, enough change in the rules usually results in a "new" game. For instance, baseball can be played with "real" baseballs or with wiffleballs. However, if the players decide to play with only three bases, they are arguably playing a different game. There are exceptions to this in that some games deliberately involve the changing of their own rules, but even then there are often immutable meta-rules.

Rules generally determine turn order, the rights and responsibilities of the players, and each player’s goals. Player rights may include when they may spend resources or move tokens. Common win conditions are being first to amass a certain quota of points or tokens (as in Settlers of Catan), having the greatest number of tokens at the end of the game (as in Monopoly), or some relationship of one’s game tokens to those of one’s opponent (as in chess's checkmate).

Skill, strategy, and chance[link]

A game’s tools and rules will result in its requiring skill, strategy, luck, or a combination thereof, and are classified accordingly.

Games of skill include games of physical skill, such as wrestling, tug of war, hopscotch, target shooting, and stake, and games of mental skill such as checkers and chess. Games of strategy include checkers, chess, go, arimaa, and tic-tac-toe, and often require special equipment to play them. Games of chance include gambling games (blackjack, mah-jongg, roulette, etc.), as well as snakes and ladders and rock, paper, scissors; most require equipment such as cards or dice. However, most games contain two or all three of these elements. For example, American football and baseball involve both physical skill and strategy while tiddlywinks, poker, and Monopoly combine strategy and chance. Many card and board games combine all three; most trick-taking games involve mental skill, strategy, and an element of chance, as do many strategic board games such as Risk, Settlers of Catan, and Carcassonne.

Single-player games[link]

Most games require multiple players. However, single-player games are unique in respect to the type of challenges a player faces. Unlike a game with multiple players competing with or against each other to reach the game's goal, a one-player game is a battle solely against an element of the environment (an artificial opponent), against one's own skills, against time, or against chance. Playing with a yo-yo or playing tennis against a wall is not generally recognized as playing a game due to the lack of any formidable opposition.

It is not valid to describe a computer game as single-player where the computer provides opposition. If the computer is merely record-keeping, then the game may be validly single-player.

Many games described as "single-player" may be termed actually puzzles or recreations.

Types[link]

Games can take a variety of forms, from competitive sports to board games and video games.

Sports[link]

Association football is a popular sport worldwide.

Many sports require special equipment and dedicated playing fields, leading to the involvement of a community much larger than the group of players. A city or town may set aside such resources for the organization of sports leagues.

Popular sports may have spectators who are entertained just by watching games. A community will often align itself with a local sports team that supposedly represents it (even if the team or most of its players only recently moved in); they often align themselves against their opponents or have traditional rivalries. The concept of fandom began with sports fans.

Stanley Fish cited^{[citation needed]} the balls and strikes of baseball as a clear example of social construction, the operation of rules on the game's tools. While the strike zone target is governed by the rules of the game, it epitomizes the category of things that exist only because people have agreed to treat them as real. No pitch is a ball or a strike until it has been labeled as such by an appropriate authority, the plate umpire, whose judgment on this matter cannot be challenged within the current game.

Certain competitive sports, such as racing and gymnastics, are not games by definitions such as Crawford's (see above) – despite the inclusion of many in the Olympic Games – because competitors do not interact with their opponents; they simply challenge each other in indirect ways.

Lawn games[link]

Lawn games are outdoor games that can be played on a lawn; an area of mowed grass (or alternately, on graded soil) generally smaller than a "field" or pitch. Variations of many games that are traditionally played on a pitch are marketed as "lawn games" for home use in a front or back yard. Common lawn games include horseshoes, sholf, croquet, bocce, lawn bowls, and stake.

Tabletop games[link]

A tabletop game generally refers to any game where the elements of play are confined to a small area and that require little physical exertion, usually simply placing, picking up and moving game pieces. Most of these games are, thus, played at a table around which the players are seated and on which the game's elements are located. A variety of major game types generally fall under the heading of tabletop games. It is worth noting that many games falling into this category, particularly party games, are more free-form in their play and can involve physical activity such as mime, however the basic premise is still that the game does not require a large area in which to play it, large amounts of strength or stamina, or specialized equipment other than what comes in the box (games sometimes require additional materials like pencil and paper that are easy to procure).

Dexterity and coordination games[link]

This class of games includes any game in which the skill element involved relates to manual dexterity or hand-eye coordination, but excludes the class of video games (see below). Games such as jacks, paper football, and Jenga require only very portable or improvised equipment and can be played on any flat level surface, while other examples, such as pinball, billiards, air hockey, foosball, and table hockey require specialized tables or other self-contained modules on which the game is played. The advent of home video game systems largely replaced some of these, such as table hockey, however air hockey, billiards, pinball and foosball remain popular fixtures in private and public game rooms. These games and others, as they require reflexes and coordination, are generally performed more poorly by intoxicated persons but are unlikely to result in injury because of this; as such the games are popular as drinking games. In addition, dedicated drinking games such as quarters also involve physical coordination and are popular for similar reasons.

Board games[link]

Parcheesi is an American adaptation of a board game originating in India.

Board games use as a central tool a board on which the players' status, resources, and progress are tracked using physical tokens. Many also involve dice and/or cards. Most games that simulate war are board games (though a large number of video games have been created to simulate strategic combat; see "Video Games" below), and the board may be a map on which the players' tokens move. Virtually all board games involve "turn-based" play; one player contemplates and then makes a move, then the next player does the same, and a player can only act on their turn. This is opposed to "real-time" play as is found in some card games, most sports and most video games.

Some games, such as chess and Go, are entirely deterministic, relying only on the strategy element for their interest. Such games are usually described as having "perfect information"; the only unknown is the exact thought processes of one's opponent, not the outcome of any unknown event inherent in the game (such as a card draw or die roll). Children's games, on the other hand, tend to be very luck-based, with games such as Candy Land and Chutes and Ladders having virtually no decisions to be made. By some definitions, such as that by (Greg Costikyan), they are not games since there are no decisions to make to effect the outcome.^[12] Many other games involving a high degree of luck do not allow direct attacks between opponents; the random event simply determines a gain or loss in the standing of the current player within the game, which is independent of any other player; the "game" then is actually a "race" by definitions such as Crawford's.

Most other board games combine strategy and luck factors; the game of backgammon requires players to decide the best strategic move based on the roll of two dice. Trivia games have a great deal of randomness based on the questions a person gets. German-style board games are notable for often having rather less of a luck factor than many board games.

Board game groups include race games, roll-and-move games, abstract strategy games, word games, and wargames, as well as the trivia and German-style board games mentioned above. Some board games fall into multiple groups and even incorporate elements of other genres: Cranium is one popular example, where players must succeed in each of four main skills: artistry, live performance, trivia, and language skill.

Card games[link]

Card games use a deck of cards as their central tool. These cards may be a standard Anglo-American (52-card) deck of playing cards (such as for bridge, poker, Rummy, etc.), a regional deck using 32, 36 or 40 cards and different suit signs (such as for the popular German game skat), a tarot deck of 78 cards (used in Europe to play a variety of trick-taking games collectively known as Tarot, Tarock, and/or Tarocchi games), or a deck specific to the individual game (such as Set or 1000 Blank White Cards). Uno and Rook are examples of games that were originally played with a standard deck and have since been commercialized with customized decks. Some collectible card games such as Magic: The Gathering are played with a small selection of cards that have been collected or purchased individually from large available sets.

Some board games include a deck of cards as a gameplay element, normally for randomization and/or to keep track of game progress. Conversely, some card games such as Cribbage use a board with movers, normally to keep score. The differentiation between the two genres in such cases depends on which element of the game is foremost in its play; a board game using cards for random actions can usually use some other method of randomization, while Cribbage can just as easily be scored on paper. These elements as used are simply the traditional and easiest methods to achieve their purpose.

Dice games[link]

Dice games use a number of dice as their central element. Board games often use dice for a randomization element, and thus each roll of the dice has a profound impact on the outcome of the game, however dice games are differentiated in that the dice do not determine the success or failure of some other element of the game; they instead are the central indicator of the person's standing in the game. Popular dice games include Yahtzee, Farkle, Bunco, Liar's dice/Perudo, and Poker dice. As dice are, by their very nature, designed to produce apparently random numbers, these games usually involve a high degree of luck, which can be directed to some extent by the player through more strategic elements of play and through tenets of probability theory. Such games are thus popular as gambling games; the game of Craps is perhaps the most famous example, though Liar's dice and Poker dice were originally conceived of as gambling games.

Domino and tile games[link]

Domino games are similar in many respects to card games, but the generic device is instead a set of tiles called dominoes, which traditionally each have two ends, each with a given number of dots, or "pips", and each combination of two possible end values as it appears on a tile is unique in the set. The games played with dominoes largely center around playing a domino from the player's "hand" onto the matching end of another domino, and the overall object could be to always be able to make a play, to make all open endpoints sum to a given number or multiple, or simply to play all dominoes from one's hand onto the board. Sets vary in the number of possible dots on one end, and thus of the number of combinations and pieces; the most common set historically is double-six, though in more recent times "extended" sets such as double-nine have been introduced to increase the number of dominoes available, which allows larger hands and more players in a game. Muggins, Mexican Train, and Chicken Foot are very popular domino games. Texas 42 is a domino game more similar in its play to a "trick-taking" card game.

Variations of traditional dominoes abound: Triominoes are similar in theory but are triangular and thus have three values per tile. Similarly, a game known as Quad-Ominos uses four-sided tiles.

Some other games use tiles in place of cards; Rummikub is a variant of the Rummy card game family that uses tiles numbered in ascending rank among four colors, very similar in makeup to a 2-deck "pack" of Anglo-American playing cards. Mah-Jongg is another game very similar to Rummy that uses a set of tiles with card-like values and art.

Lastly, some games use graphical tiles to form a board layout, on which other elements of the game are played. Settlers of Catan and Carcassonne are examples. In each, the "board" is made up of a series of tiles; in Settlers of Catan the starting layout is random but static, while in Carcassonne the game is played by "building" the board tile-by-tile. Hive, an abstract strategy game using tiles as moving pieces, has mechanical and strategic elements similar to chess, although it has no board; the pieces themselves both form the layout and can move within it.

Pencil and paper games[link]

Pencil and paper games require little or no specialized equipment other than writing materials, though some such games have been commercialized as board games (Scrabble, for instance, is based on the idea of a crossword puzzle, and tic-tac-toe sets with a boxed grid and pieces are available commercially). These games vary widely, from games centering on a design being drawn such as Pictionary and "connect-the-dots" games like sprouts, to letter and word games such as Boggle and Scattergories, to solitaire and logic puzzle games such as Sudoku and crossword puzzles.

Guessing games[link]

A guessing game has as its core a piece of information that one player knows, and the object is to coerce others into guessing that piece of information without actually divulging it in text or spoken word. Charades is probably the most well-known game of this type, and has spawned numerous commercial variants that involve differing rules on the type of communication to be given, such as Catch Phrase, Taboo, Pictionary, and similar. The genre also includes many game shows such as Win, Lose or Draw, Password and $25,000 Pyramid.

Video games[link]

Video games are computer- or microprocessor-controlled games. Computers can create virtual spaces for a wide variety of game types. Some video games simulate conventional game objects like cards or dice, while others can simulate environs either grounded in reality or fantastical in design, each with its own set of rules or goals.

A computer or video game uses one or more input devices, typically a button/joystick combination (on arcade games); a keyboard, mouse and/or trackball (computer games); or a controller or a motion sensitive tool. (console games). More esoteric devices such as paddle controllers have also been used for input. In computer games, the evolution of user interfaces from simple keyboard to mouse, joystick or joypad has profoundly changed the nature of game development.^{[citation needed]}

There are many genres of video game; the first commercial video game, Pong, was a simple simulation of table tennis. As processing power increased, new genres such as adventure and action games were developed that involved a player guiding a character from a third person perspective through a series of obstacles. This "real-time" element cannot be easily reproduced by a board game, which is generally limited to "turn-based" strategy; this advantage allows video games to simulate situations such as combat more realistically. Additionally, the playing of a video game does not require the same physical skill, strength and/or danger as a real-world representation of the game, and can provide either very realistic, exaggerated or impossible physics, allowing for elements of a fantastical nature, games involving physical violence, or simulations of sports. Lastly, a computer can, with varying degrees of success, simulate one or more human opponents in traditional table games such as chess, leading to simulations of such games that can be played by a single player.

In more open-ended computer simulations, also known as sandbox-style games, the game provides a virtual environment in which the player may be free to do whatever they like within the confines of this universe. Sometimes, there is a lack of goals or opposition, which has stirred some debate on whether these should be considered "games" or "toys". (Crawford specifically mentions Will Wright's SimCity as an example of a toy.)^[6]

Online games[link]

From the very earliest days of networked and time-shared computers, online games have been part of the culture. Early commercial systems such as Plato were at least as widely famous for their games as for their strictly educational value. In 1958, Tennis for Two dominated Visitor's Day and drew attention to the oscilloscope at the Brookhaven National Laboratory; during the 1980s, Xerox PARC was known mainly for Maze War, which was offered as a hands-on demo to visitors.

Modern online games are played using an Internet connection; some have dedicated client programs, while others require only a web browser. Some simpler browser games appeal to demographic groups (notably women and the middle-aged) that otherwise play very few video games.^{[citation needed]}

Media audiences' characteristic has been changing in consequence of the social changes and development. They are becoming active and interact more than ever before. The players of the game in this phenomenon are just like the social formation in society. They are both self-regulating, creating their own social norms and subject to regulation and constraint through the code of the game and sometimes through the policing of the game by those who run it. The values that are policed vary from game to game. Many of the values encoded into game cultures reflect offline cultural values, but games also offer a chance to emphasise alternative or subjugated values in the name of fantasy and play. The players of the game at the new century are now apparently expressing their profound self through the game. When they can play with their anonymous status, they are found to be more confident to express and to step out from the position they have never been out from. It offers new experiences and pleasures based in the interactive and immersible possibilities of computer technologies.^{[citation needed]}

Role-playing games[link]

Role-playing games, often abbreviated as RPGs, are a type of game in which the participants (usually) assume the roles of characters acting in a fictional setting. The original role playing games—or at least those explicitly marketed as such—are played with a handful of participants, usually face-to-face, and keep track of the developing fiction with pen and paper. Together, the players may collaborate on a story involving those characters; create, develop, and "explore" the setting; or vicariously experience an adventure outside the bounds of everyday life. Pen-and-paper role-playing games include, for example, Dungeons & Dragons and GURPS.

The term role-playing game has also been appropriated by the video game industry to describe a genre of video games. These may be single-player games where one player experiences a programmed environment and story, or they may allow players to interact through the internet. The experience is usually quite different from traditional role-playing games. Single-player games include Final Fantasy, Fable, The Elder Scrolls, and Mass Effect. Online multi-player games, often referred to as Massively Multiplayer Online role playing games, or MMORPGs, include RuneScape, EverQuest 2, Guild Wars, MapleStory, Anarchy Online, and Dofus. As of 2009^[update], the most successful MMORPG has been World of Warcraft, which controls the vast majority of the market.^[13]

Business games[link]

Business games can take a variety of forms, from interactive board games to interactive games involving different props (balls, ropes, hoops, etc.) and different kinds of activities. The purpose of these games is to link to some aspect of organizational performance and to generate discussions about business improvement. Many business games focus on organizational behaviors. Some of these are computer simulations while others are simple designs for play and debriefing. Team building is a common focus of such activities.

Simulation[link]

The term "game" can include simulation^[14][15] or re-enactment of various activities or use in "real life" for various purposes: e.g., training, analysis, prediction. Well-known examples are war games and roleplaying. The root of this meaning may originate in the human prehistory of games deduced by anthropology from observing primitive cultures, in which children's games mimic the activities of adults to a significant degree: hunting, warring, nursing, etc. These kinds of games are preserved in modern times.^{[original research?]}

See also[link]

Sports and games portal

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Game

• Game classification
• Game club
• Game theory
• Gamer
• Girls' games and toys
• History of games
• Lawn game
• List of games
• Ludibrium
• Ludology

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Avedon, Elliot; Sutton-Smith, Brian, The Study of Games. (Philadelphia: Wiley, 1971), reprinted Krieger, 1979. ISBN 0-89874-045-2

BioShock 2 is a survival horror first-person shooter video game developed by 2K Marin for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.^[10][11] The sequel to the 2007 video game BioShock, it was released worldwide on February 9, 2010. The Mac OS X version of the game was released by Feral Interactive on 30th March, 2012.^[1]

The game is set in the fictional underwater dystopia of Rapture, in a biopunk/dieselpunk 1968, eight years after the events of BioShock. The protagonist and player-controlled character is a Big Daddy, a being that has had its organs and skin grafted into an atmospheric diving suit. Among the first of its kind, the player-controlled Big Daddy, named Subject Delta, reactivates with no recollection of the past decade's events, and scours the city in an attempt to relocate the Little Sister that he was paired with. Fearing this reunion will ruin her plans for the city, Sofia Lamb sends out her spliced up followers that she calls "The Rapture Family" and new Big Sisters in an attempt to deter Delta.

In 2010, the game was included as one of the titles in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die.^[12]

Gameplay[link]

BioShock 2 is presented as a survival horror first-person shooter, with the player taking on the role of Subject Delta, a prototype for the Big Daddies approximately 8 years after the events of the first game. As with BioShock, the player explores Rapture and fights off Splicers, the remaining psychotic human population of the city, using a combination of the environment, weapons, Plasmids and Tonics. Plasmids and Tonics are special genetic-reencoding liquids that grant the user active or passive abilities, respectively, and include both those introduced in BioShock and new ones for this game. For example, Plasmids can give the player the ability to use telekinesis or evoke fire, while Tonics can improve the player's movement speed, attack damage, or damage resistance. Several of the weapons in BioShock 2 are those that were previously seen carried by Big Daddies from the first game, including a powerful drill and a rivet gun. The player can use each weapon in a close-range melee attack. Unlike in the first game, the player is able to equip both one weapon and one Plasmid at the same time, which they can use in quick succession to destroy foes. For example, by first freezing a foe, then shattering into pieces using a spear gun. If the player is killed, they are revived in the nearest "Vita-Chamber".^[13]

As the player explores Rapture, they will collect ammo, health and EVE (a liquid used to power Plasmid use), recovery items, and money. Money can be used to purchase more items at vending machines across the city. The player will also encounter security systems which can be hacked through a mini-game. This requires the player to stop a quickly-moving needle one or more times in the correctly-colored marked area of a gauge. Stopping it within the green area progresses the sequence and or potentially ends it while stopping in the blue area may grant a bonus to the hacking attempt; landing in a white area shocks the player (dealing a small amount of damage) while landing in red-colored areas can lead to the start of a security alert. The player also gains access to a research video camera; in BioShock 2, once the player begins recording an enemy, the player has a short time to damage that enemy in creative ways in order to score a number of points, which are then added towards the total research of that enemy type. At various levels of research, the player is then rewarded with new abilities in general or towards that specific type of foe. Certain areas of the game take place entirely underwater, limiting the actions the player can perform.^[14]

As a Big Daddy, the player can attempt to defeat other Big Daddies escorting Little Sisters. Should the player succeed, they can then either choose to Harvest or Adopt the Little Sister, gaining appreciable ADAM to be used for buying new Plasmids, gene tonics, slots or the option to Adopt them. While adopted, the Little Sister will lead the player to corpses where she can extract more ADAM. While she does this, the player must defend her from Splicer attacks. Once the Little Sister has collected enough ADAM, the player can then return her to an escape vent, again allowing the player to choose to Rescue the Little Sister, receiving a modest amount of ADAM but with the possibility of beneficial gifts later, or harvest her for a large ADAM boost. ADAM can then be spent at Gatherer's Garden machines throughout Rapture. Once the player has either Rescued or Harvested each of the Little Sisters on the level, the player will be attacked by a Big Sister. The Big Sister's agility and resourcefulness will task the players with a difficult fight before they can proceed with the game.^[14]

Multiplayer[link]

BioShock 2 features a story driven multiplayer mode where the player takes on the role of a citizen of Rapture. Set in 1959, just before the events of BioShock, the player chooses to take on the role of a splicer fighting in Rapture's civil war. The player is being sponsored by Plasmid manufacturer, Sinclair Solutions, to test out their weapons, Plasmids, and Tonics in a consumer reward program. As the player progresses through the multiplayer experience, new weapons, Tonics, and Plasmids will be unlocked (provided by Sinclair), in addition to the story of the Rapture civil war being told.^[15]

The player can choose among 6 characters to be their in-game avatar. The characters are: a welder named Jacob Norris, a housewife named Barbara Johnson, a football star named Danny Wilkins, a businessman named Buck Raleigh, a pilot named Naledi Atkins, and an Indian mystic named Suresh Sheti. Two additional characters were available as a pre-order bonus from 12game, GameStop, EB Games or Game, or through the purchase of a DLC pack: a fisherman named Zigo d'Acosta and an actress named Mlle Blanche de Glace.^[16] Another two characters were made available by downloading the Sinclair Solutions Tester pack: a criminal named Louie McGraff and a smooth-talking playboy named Oscar Calraca.

Multiplayer comes in 7 different modes, two of which have a single and team based mode.^[17] The modes are:

Survival of the Fittest 

A 'free-for-all' mode where each player gets points for killing each of the other players. Whichever player has the most kills or 20 kills at the end of the match wins.

Civil War 

Similar to 'Survival of the Fittest,' but in this mode players are divided into two teams and the team with the most collective kills at the end of the match wins.

Last Splicer Standing 

A variation of 'Civil War' in which players do not respawn after being killed. Each match consists of several rounds in which players attempt to outlive the players on the enemy team.

Capture the Sister 

A 'Capture the Flag' style mode where players are divided into two teams. One team has to protect a Little Sister while the other team tries to steal her and place her in a vent on the other side of the map. The team protecting the little sister will have a randomly chosen player be a Big Daddy. After a pre-determined amount of time, the teams switch roles. Whichever team has the most captures at the end of the match wins.

ADAM Grab 

In this mode there is one Little Sister on the map and the player must seek her out and maintain possession of her as long as possible. The first person to hold onto the Little Sister for 3 minutes wins.

Team ADAM Grab 

A variant of 'ADAM Grab' where players are divided into two teams. The objective is the same, but victory is determined by a collective score rather than individual scores, and the first team to hold the little sister for 3 minutes wins.

Turf War 

Players are split into two teams and each team must reach pre-determined points on the map to capture that point. The team with the most control points over the longest time wins.

In 'Survival of the Fittest', 'Civil War' and 'Turf War', a Big Daddy suit will spawn at a random location in the level. If a player can find the suit, the choice is given to become the Big Daddy, which will give the player greater strength and endurance, but prohibits the use of plasmids and hacking and expels any previously held damage bonuses against other players. The Big Daddy can stomp, shoot a rivet gun, melee attack and throw proximity mines. All damage dealt to the Big Daddy is permanent, and can't be replenished. Once the Big Daddy is defeated, the suit disappears, spawning in another location on the map two minutes later. In 'Capture the Sister' one member of the defending team is chosen at random to be the Big Daddy. After the player's death, the Big Daddy suit disappears for the rest of the round.^[18]

Plot[link]

BioShock 2 takes place in Rapture in 1968, 8 years after the events of the first game. Tenenbaum has briefly returned to Rapture once she realizes that someone is continuing her work by enslaving new Little Sisters. It is shown through flashbacks and audio recordings that the player character, Subject Delta (the fourth Big Daddy created), is forced to commit suicide in 1958 by Sofia Lamb, through the use of a mind-controlling plasmid. This was done in part because Delta's Little Sister, Eleanor, is actually Lamb's daughter. Lamb, originally brought to Rapture to help psychologically-stressed citizens of the underwater city cope with the lack of sunlight, used persuasion to entice her patients into a cult called "The Rapture Family", and attempted to spread her altruistic ideals throughout Rapture. Andrew Ryan discovered this through a mole, Stanley Poole, and had Lamb thrown in prison, leaving Eleanor in the care of Grace Holloway. Eleanor eventually confronted Poole about his betrayal of her mother, and Poole panicked, kidnapping Eleanor and leaving her in a Little Sister's Orphanage, eventually leading to her conversion into a Little Sister. Lamb later returned to the city, reclaimed her daughter from Delta, and gained control of Rapture after Ryan's death. Lamb guided the development of the aging Little Sisters into more dangerous Big Sisters, and sent them out to the Atlantic coastline to kidnap little girls for conversion into new Little Sisters in Rapture.

In 1968, Eleanor, now a teenager, has gained control over many of the Little Sisters, and uses them to revive Subject Delta at a Vita Chamber. Delta is drawn towards Eleanor by their past Daddy/Sister connection. Brigid Tenenbaum encounters Delta, and explains that unless Delta reunites with Eleanor, a fail-safe device will trigger that will put him into a coma. With the help of the Little Sisters under Eleanor's control and Tenenbaum's ally, Augustus Sinclair, Delta makes his way towards Lamb's stronghold, encountering both Poole and Holloway en route. As Delta progresses, it becomes clear that Lamb is seeking to use ADAM to transform Eleanor into a perfect embodiment of her altruistic ideals. Lamb's ultimate goal is to have all the collected minds and memories of everyone in Rapture become a part of Eleanor, through the use of the genetic memory in ADAM, thus making her an "Embodiment of the Family", which Lamb believes will put an end to "The Self".

Delta arrives at a containment chamber where Eleanor is held, but Lamb captures him and severs his bond with Eleanor by temporarily stopping her heart. Though Eleanor survives, Delta is now slowly dying, as the bond cannot be re-established. Eleanor uses a Little Sister to bring Delta a plasmid which allows him to control the Sisters, thus enabling him to bring Eleanor a complete Big Sister suit, and allowing Eleanor to become a Big Sister. Eleanor escapes with it, rescues Delta, and together they head for an escape pod that Sinclair has arranged to leave Rapture. The two find that Lamb has converted Sinclair into a Big Daddy, and Delta is forced to finish him off. After a final climactic showdown with the remnants of The Rapture Family, Eleanor and Delta make it to the escape pod, but a final trap set by Lamb mortally wounds Delta and starts to send the entire building into the deep ocean rift. Eleanor teleports out of the explosion to the rising escape craft, but Delta is trapped on the outside. Using the last of his strength, he manages to grab onto the side of the escape pod and climb to its top as it rises. Trapped in the flooded escape pod with her mother, Eleanor makes the choice to either kill or save Sofia Lamb based on what she has learned from the player's actions.

There are several possible endings depending on how the player has performed during the game; these are based on whether the player has rescued all the Little Sisters or harvested them, and if they have spared the lives of certain non-player characters (like Holloway and Poole) within the game. If a certain number of these non-player characters have been spared, Eleanor will save Lamb. If the player killed all, or not saved enough, of these non-player characters, she will allow Lamb to drown. When the pod reaches the surface, Eleanor finds a dying Delta barely hanging onto the pod. Depending on how the player has chosen to deal with the little sisters, the ending will change. If the player has rescued all of the Little Sisters, Eleanor will absorb the ADAM from Delta, taking his mind and memories into herself, and leaving Rapture behind forever, accompanied by a group of rescued Little Sisters. If the player has chosen to harvest all of the Little Sisters, Eleanor will absorb Delta's power and use it to make herself even stronger to dominate the world alone. A mix of harvesting and rescuing of the Little Sisters will leave Eleanor to opt against absorbing Delta's ADAM and mourn Delta's passing.

Development[link]

Initially, media reports suggested that the subtitle, "Sea Of Dreams", would accompany the second entry in the series. However, this subtitle was supposedly dropped,^[19] before 2K withdrew the statement, stating that the "Sea Of Dreams" subtitle would still be part of the full title.^[20] However, a later statement from 2K spokesman Charlie Sinhaseni clarified that the "Sea Of Dreams" title was for the trailer, and not for the game itself.^[21] The first appearance for BioShock 2 came in the form of a teaser trailer that was available in the PlayStation 3 version of the game. The first major details on the gameplay and plot of the game were revealed in the April 2009 issue of Game Informer magazine,^[22] around the same time that the "viral" site "There's Something in the Sea" was revealed. This site documents a man named Mark Meltzer's investigation into the disappearances of girls from coastline areas around the Atlantic, along with a mysterious red light that accompanies each kidnapping. On April 9, 2009 on the Spike TV show GameTrailers TV with Geoff Keighley the first BioShock 2 gameplay video was shown featuring the Big Sister. This demo showed many features including the ability to walk under water.

The story received major changes over the course of development, with two of the most important relating to the player's character and the Big Sister. Initially there was only going to be one Big Sister who would continually hunt the player down throughout the course of the game and then retreat once she was defeated. This Big Sister was written as a Little Sister who, as she grew up on the surface, could not leave the memory of Rapture behind and eventually returned. The reason for the change, as explained by Zak McClendon, lead designer for 2K Marin, "If you have a single character that the player knows they can't kill because they're so important to the story you're completely removing the triumph of overcoming that encounter with them." ^[23] Jordan Thomas explains however, "The soul of the original Big Sister character still exists, but in the form of somebody you get to know over the course of the game." ^[24] The other major change is that the player's character, Subject Delta, is no longer the first Big Daddy, but rather the fourth prototype. He is, however, the first to be successfully 'pair-bonded' to a single Little Sister.^[24]

Digital Extremes produced the multiplayer component of the game.^[25] In the multiplayer portion, players are put in a separate story where civil war has broken out in Rapture prior to the events of the first game. In the multiplayer mode the player acts as a plasmid test subject for a company called Sinclair Solutions.^[26] As the player progresses through the multiplayer maps like Mercury Suites and Kashmir Restaurant they will either have the ability to hack turrets and vending machines or search for the Big Daddy suit.^[27]

Music[link]

The score to BioShock 2 was composed by Garry Schyman, who recorded his score with a 60-piece ensemble of the Hollywood Studio Symphony at Capitol Studios.^[28] Additionally, the Special Edition of Bioshock 2 included the orchestral score from the game on a CD, as well as the orchestral score from the original BioShock on a vinyl 180g LP. ^[29]

Track listings[link]

• Disc length 47:58

• Disc length 35:10 - Regular
• Disc length 52:08 - Special Edition

• Disc length 37:47

Retail versions[link]

A Special Edition of the game was announced on November 19, 2009. This edition, which was limited to a single production run, contains the game along with three posters featuring fictional advertisements from Rapture (all of which, when looked under a black light, reveal hidden messages),^[35] the orchestral score from the game on CD, the orchestral score from the original BioShock on a vinyl 180g LP, and a hardbound, 164-page art book. It is packaged in a 13"×13" premium case with special art on both the slipcase and the box cover.^[36]

A smaller limited edition, titled BioShock 2 Rapture Edition, was officially announced on December 2, 2009. Its contents are the game and a smaller, 96-page art book, which are packaged together in a special slipcover. As with the Special Edition, the Rapture Edition was limited to a single production run.^[37] The BioShock 2 Rapture Edition is available in Europe, New Zealand and Australia, in addition to the BioShock 2 Special Edition.^[38]

Expansion packs[link]

Sinclair Solutions Test Pack[link]

"Sinclair Solutions Test Pack" is the first installment of downloadable content (DLC) for BioShock 2. The pack focuses on the multiplayer element of the game, increasing the leveling rank to 50 as well as unlocking 2 new playable characters, 20 new trials, 5 new masks, the 2 new players' special melee weapons and a third upgrade for each weapon. The DLC was released on March 11, 2010 for 400 Microsoft points, and was also available for purchase on the PS3 entertainment system for $4.99.^[39][40]

Shortly after the release of the DLC it was discovered that the "downloadable" content was already stored on the retail disc, and players were actually paying for a small file that unlocked content they already owned. This was later confirmed to be the case by 2K Games, who also claimed that this was so that all players would have the same files on the disc and so that the DLC would not split the playerbase.^[41]

Rapture Metro Map Pack[link]

The Rapture Metro Map Pack launched on May 11, 2010, for $9.99 (800 Microsoft Points) and on May 25, 2010 for PC. The DLC includes 6 new maps, an increased level cap (up to level 50 for those who did not purchase the Sinclair Solutions DLC), 2 new characters, 2 new masks, a new "rebirth" gene tonic, and a new "Kill 'Em Kindly" game mode. This DLC also adds 3 more achievements for the Xbox 360 and PC versions and 3 more trophies for the PlayStation 3 version.

Since its release, many players of the new DLC have complained to 2K, saying that the odds of playing the new maps from the Metro Pack are extremely low, with many players commenting that since purchasing the pack, they haven't played a single new map. 2K responded and said the design decision was made in order to stop "base-splitting"; where the player lobbies are split up, so that all players can still play together, regardless of whether they have purchased the DLC or not. However, players still voiced further complaints, citing that the odds of 10 people in one match all having the DLC, and then still having a 10 in 16 chance of striking an old map, means that overall, one is unlikely to be able play the new maps in a non-private match (which is required for 2 out of 3 of the new achievements/trophies). Some players suggested adding a "playlist" to feature only the new maps, so that players with the DLC could play together, rather than having to set up private matches. However, 2K Games later stated that they had no plans to add playlist functionality to the multiplayer.^[42]

Another complaint surfaced shortly after, regarding the DLC new "Rebirth!" feature. Players reported that once activating the feature at Rank 50, all leaderboard stats and ADAM scores are reset too, effectively sending the player to the bottom of the rank globally.^[43] 2K Community Manager, Elizabeth Tobey responded with the following statement:

"I don't have much to tell you currently, but whenever I do, I'll update here. For now, I want you to know that the dev team is looking in to solutions for both the DLC map playlist request and the leaderboard reset issue. I hope to have more information for you early next week, but that depends on the devs and when they can provide us some good info. For now, please know that the team is aware and they are looking in to what they can do to make you happy — and all your requests have been forwarded to them." ^[44]

Kill 'Em Kindly[link]

Kill 'Em Kindly is a new game mode for BioShock 2 multiplayer, free for download for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC. In this game mode, players can only use golf clubs to melee attack enemies, a reference back to the first game where Andrew Ryan forces the player-character Jack to kill him with a golf club. This pack is also included in the "Rapture Metro Pack".

Character pack[link]

The character pack adds two characters that were exclusive to the pre-order version of BioShock 2, Zigo d'Acosta and Mlle Blanche de Glace. This pack is also available alongside the "Rapture Metro Pack" on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 for 160 MS Points ($1.99).

The Protector Trials Pack[link]

Released on August 3, the Protector Trials pack is a single-player downloadable content which has the player defend Little Sisters against swarms of enemies in a variety of challenge rooms. The content contains six maps based on locations from the main game, alongside three difficulty levels, seven Achievements/Trophies, and new concept art and videos to unlock. The pack is available on Xbox 360 for 400 Microsoft Points (£3.40) and PlayStation 3 for $4.99^[45] (£3.19).^[46] This downloadable content was released for free on the PC on March 14, 2011.^[47] As of March 15, the DLC is playable after a patch to the main game.

Minerva's Den[link]

Minerva's Den is a downloadable single-player campaign with a plot completely separate from that of the main campaign. The player assumes the role of Subject Sigma, another Alpha Series Big Daddy, as he travels through Minerva's Den, home to Rapture's Central Computing. The campaign adds three new levels (with around four hours of gameplay) and provides deeper insight into Rapture's inner workings.

The story introduces the characters of Charles Milton Porter, who guides the player (with Brigid Tenenbaum), and Reed Wahl, who acts as the antagonist. Porter and Wahl were once partners working on a computer with advanced artificial intelligence dubbed "The Thinker", but Wahl framed Porter for treason and stole the machine. Porter, realizing that he would be taken away and that Rapture was crumbling, left instructions on how to replicate the machine on the surface, in order to ensure that his creation would benefit mankind. Sigma, under the orders of Porter and Brigid Tenenbaum, seeks to obtain the Thinker's machine code, hoping that its processing power combined with surface technology will allow for the development of a cure for the Splicers.

Unfortunately, Wahl has holed up in Minerva's Den and he's adamant to not let the Thinker be taken away since he believes due to splicing induced madness that the computer is key to a "predictive equation" that allows him to predict the future. Sigma makes his way through Minerva's Den battling Splicers, the area's experimental security bots and finally Wahl himself. Once Sigma reaches the Thinker, the latter recognizes Sigma as Charles Milton Porter: the "Porter" that contacted Sigma is the Thinker itself, simulating Porter's personality (a feature originally created by Porter to simulate the personality of his deceased wife) to provide a familiar guiding voice. Sigma obtains the codes and heads to the surface on a bathysphere with Tenenbaum, so it can be rebuilt.

The add-on also features new weapons, a new plasmid as well as a new Big Daddy type. It was released August 31 for PS3 and Xbox360. It costs $10/ 800 Microsoft Points.^[48] Work on the PC version of this downloadable content was resumed on 28 October 2010.^[47] The DLC was released on PC on 31 May 2011.

Windows version DLC[link]

Though the Windows version of BioShock 2 had received some patches and downloadable content shortly after release,^[49] 2K Games announced in October 2010 that they would not provide a final patch to fix remaining issues with the game.^[50] Furthermore, 2K Games announced they would not offer the "Protector Trials" or "Minerva's Den" content on the platform, citing "Timing and technical issues" that they had encountered but could not work around.^[51] 2K apologized to the players, as they had promised that this content would be forthcoming to the Windows platform, and that if the situation changed, they would offer it in the future.^[50] 2K later explained that in trying to prepare additional patches with support for the additional content, they encountered bugs under specific circumstances that they felt would not be acceptable to the Microsoft certification process, and while they had tried to correct those bugs, they were unable to do so in a timely manner, leading to their decision to abandon the attempt.^[52] The announcement was met with heavy criticism from some players, having felt that 2K Games took advantage of their "goodwill" in the promised game and DLC updates.^[50] In late October, 2K Games reversed their decision based on the players' responses, and have recommitted resources to complete the game patch and support for both content packs on the Windows version; the patch and "Protector Trials" would likely be available in Spring 2011, while more work is necessary to complete the "Minerva's Den" content.^[52] Protector Trials DLC for the PC version of BioShock 2 was made available pre-maturely via Games for Windows Live on February 20, 2011. Users find that the download pack, which was yet to officially arrive on PC, was available for the price of 400 MS Points. But when users paid for and downloaded the 964mb update, they were completely unable to access it.^[53] On March 12, 2011 it was announced that Protector Trials would be released for PC on March 14, 2011.^[54] The patch to the main game which enabled the DLC to run was released after the DLC itself, though the new content was playable by March 15, 2011. Though 2K was originally reluctant to confirm a release date for the Minerva's Den DLC, eventually they confirmed that it would be released at the end of May 2011.

Reception[link]

BioShock 2
Aggregate scores
Aggregator	Score
GameRankings	87.89% (X360)[55] 87.00% (PS3)[56] 87.64% (PC)[57]
Metacritic	88/100 (X360)[58] 88/100 (PS3)[59] 88/100 (PC)[60]
Review scores
Publication	Score
1UP.com	B+ (X360, PS3)[61]
Computer and Video Games	9.1/10[62]
Edge	8/10[63]
Eurogamer	8/10[64]
Famitsu	35/40[65]
Game Informer	8.25/10[66]
GamePro	[67]
GameSpot	8.5/10 (X360)[68] 8.5/10 (PS3)[69]
GameSpy	[70]
GamesRadar	10/10[71]
GameTrailers	8.8/10[72]
IGN	9.1/10[73]
Official Xbox Magazine (UK)	9/10 (X360)[74]
TeamXbox	9.2 (X360)[75]

BioShock 2 received positive reviews. Currently, it holds an 88 on Metacritic for the Xbox 360,^[58] PlayStation 3^[59] and PC^[60] versions. On GameRankings, Bioshock 2 has overall scores of 87.89%, 87.00% and 87.64% for the Xbox 360,^[55] PlayStation 3^[56] and PC^[57] versions.

GamesRadar's Charlie Barratt awarded the game with a perfect score stating that "The weapons are better. The plasmids are better. The enemies are better. At some points, even the storytelling is better. What’s most amazing and surprising about BioShock 2, however, is that by diving deeper into Rapture’s tortured history and exploring more of Rapture’s haunted world, it actually manages to make the original BioShock better, too."^[71]

Game Informer's Andrew Reiner scored the game a 8.25. He criticised the game saying that "For roughly 10 hours, BioShock 2 follows directly in its forefather’s footsteps, too fearful to inject anything new into this twisted world." However, he praised the game's ending stating that "Eventually this disappointing adventure does turn a corner. It takes 10 hours to get there, but the final two acts (lasting approximately three hours) are brilliant." He concluded with "BioShock 2 eventually becomes the sequel I hoped for, but spends too much time getting there."^[66]

IGN scored the game a 9.1/10 and said that "anyone looking for a first-person shooter that offers more than flat, stereotypical characters and copy-and-paste supersoldier plots, one that attempts to establish a sense of right and wrong and loops you into the decision making process, and one that's set in one of the most vividly realized settings around should pick up BioShock 2. It's a game in which story, setting, and gameplay are expertly blended to create an experience that's as thought-provoking as it is entertaining."^[73]IGN's review also stated that the game does not look as visually impressive as its predecessor, but it is still one of the best-looking games around because of its unique art style. In a round-table style video chat, IGN editors said that Rapture was less mysterious because players have seen it before, and that was a major strike against the game. Since the original had such an eerie mysterious feel to it, the twists and turns seen in the sequel seemed less surprising.^[76]

Tom Price of TeamXbox gave the game an overall score of 9.2/10 saying that "BioShock 2 remains one of the most original, exciting, subversive and intriguing shooters out there for you to play, and you shouldn’t miss the experience of doing that."^[75]

Eurogamer's Tom Bramwell was more critical of BioShock 2. Though he scored the game a very positive 8/10 overall, he noted that "The single-player campaign... will and should be damned for its long, slow start, during which the game struggles to make its intentions clear, but once past that the developers find a new tempo that wrings just enough extra quality out of the existing framework to justify your patience, even if the game still feels flat in the context of more daring and elaborate sequels like Mass Effect 2 and last year's Assassin's Creed follow-up."^[64]

Sales[link]

Prior to the game's release, the chairman of Take-Two, Strauss Zelnick stated that he expected the game to sell 5 million copies across all platforms.^[77]

In its first week of release, BioShock 2 was the best-selling Xbox 360 game in the UK and North America.^[78] In the U.S., NPD recorded it as the top selling game of February with 562,900 units sold on the Xbox 360, and 190,500 on the PS3. Gamasutra state a possible reason for the Xbox 360's greater sales was the original BioShock's 14 month exclusivity on the platform.^[79] It also managed to hold both the first and second positions on the Steam release charts.^[80]

In its first month of release, BioShock 2 was number 1 in sales for the Xbox 360 and number 12 for the PlayStation 3. PC sales are not tracked by NPD for top 20 results, and is therefore unknown.^[81]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Teaser site: There's Something in the Sea
• The Cult of Rapture official community website
• BioShock 2 at Feral Interactive
• BioShock Wiki, an external wiki

Michael Shermer
Shermer on the Skeptics Society Geology Tour on June 8, 2007.
Born	Michael Brant Shermer (1954-09-08) September 8, 1954 (age 57) Glendale, California, USA
Residence	Altadena, California, USA
Occupation	Academic historian of science and editor
Title	Editor-in-Chief of Skeptic and Adjunct professor at Claremont Graduate University
Religion	None (Agnostic)
Website
www.michaelshermer.com

Michael Brant Shermer, PhD (born September 8, 1954 in Glendale, California, USA) is an American science writer, historian of science, founder of The Skeptics Society, and Editor in Chief of its magazine Skeptic,^[1] which is largely devoted to investigating pseudoscientific and supernatural claims. The Skeptics Society currently has over 55,000 members.^[2] Shermer also engages in debates on topics pertaining to pseudoscience and religion in which he promulgates the need for scientific skepticism.

Shermer is also the producer and co-host of the 13-hour Fox Family (now ABC Family) television series Exploring the Unknown. Since April 2001, he has been a monthly columnist for Scientific American magazine with his Skeptic column. Shermer states he was once a fundamentalist Christian, but converted from a belief in God during his graduate studies, and has described himself as an agnostic,^[3] nontheist,^[4][5] atheist^[6][7] and advocate for humanist philosophy^[8] as well as the science of morality.^[9] He has expressed reservations about such labels, however, as he sees them being used in the service of "pigeonholing", and prefers to simply be called a skeptic.^[6]

Early life, education and career[link]

Shermer was born on September 8, 1954,^[10] and raised in Southern California.^[11] His parents divorced when he was four.^[10] Both of his parents remarried, his mother to a man with three children, who became Shermer's stepsiblings, and his father to a woman with whom he had two daughters, Shermer's half-sisters. His father would later die of a heart attack in 1986, and his mother of brain cancer in 2000.^[12]

Although Shermer went to Sunday school, he says that neither his biological nor stepparents or siblings were religious nor non-religious, as they did not hold much discussion on the topic, and did not attend church nor pray together. In 1971, at the beginning of his senior year in high school, Shermer announced he was a born again Christian, which came about through the influence of his best friend, George. For the next seven years he would evangelize door-to-door as part of his profoundly held beliefs.^[12]

He graduated from Crescenta Valley High School in 1972. He began his undergraduate studies at Pepperdine University, initially majoring in Christian theology, later switching to psychology.^[11] He completed his bachelor's degree in psychology/biology at Pepperdine in 1976.^[13]

Shermer's graduate studies in experimental psychology at California State University, Fullerton, led to many after-class discussions with professors Bayard Brattstrom and Meg White. These,^[14] along with his studies in ethology and cultural anthropology, led to him to question his religious beliefs, and by mid-way through his graduate training, he removed the Christian ichthys that he had been wearing around his neck.^[12][14] Shermer completed his master's degree from California State University in experimental psychology in 1978.^[13]

Shermer began competitive bicycling in 1979, and spent a decade in the sport. During the course of his cycling, Shermer worked with cycling technologists in developing better products for the sport. During his association with Bell Helmets, a bicycle-race sponsor, Shermer advised them on design issues regarding their development of expanded-polystyrene for use in cycling helmets, which would absorb impact far better than the old leather "hairnet" helmets used by bicyclists for decades. Shermer advised them that if their helmets looked too much like motorcycle helmets, in which polystyrene was already being used, and not like the old hairnet helmets, that no serious cyclists or amateur would use them. This suggestion led to their first model, the V1 Pro, which looked like a black leather hairnet, but functioned on the inside like a motorcycle helmet. In 1982, Shermer worked with Dr. Wayman Spence, whose small supply company, Spenco Medical, adapted the gel technology Spence developed for bedridden patients with pressure sores into cycling gloves and saddles to alleviate the carpal tunnel syndrome and saddle sores suffered by cyclists.^[15]

During the decade in which he raced long distances, he helped to found the 3,000-mile nonstop transcontinental bicycle Race Across America (along with Lon Haldeman and John Marino), in which he competed five times (1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1989), was assistant race director six years, and executive race director seven years.^[16] An acute medical condition is named for him: "Shermer's neck" is pain in and extreme weakness of the neck muscles found among long-distance bicyclists. Shermer suffered the condition during the 1983 Race Across America.^[17] Shermer's embrace of scientific skepticism crystallized during his time as a cyclist, explaining, "I became a skeptic on Saturday, August 6, 1983, on the long climbing road to Loveland Pass, Colorado"^[18] after months of training under the guidance of a "nutritionist" with an unaccredited Ph.D. After years of practicing acupuncture, chiropractic, massage therapy, negative ions, rolfing, pyramid power, fundamentalist Christianity, and "a host of weird things" (with the exception of drugs) to improve his life and training, Shermer stopped rationalizing the failure of these practices.^[19] Shermer would later produce several documentaries on cycling.^[16]

Shermer earned his Ph.D. at Claremont Graduate University in history of science in 1991 (with his dissertation titled "Heretic-Scientist: Alfred Russel Wallace and the Evolution of Man: A Study on the Nature of Historical Change").^[13] Shermer later based a full-length, 2002 book on his dissertation: In Darwin's Shadow: The Life and Science of Alfred Russel Wallace: A Biographical Study on the Psychology of History.^[20]

Before starting the Skeptics Society, Shermer was a professor of the history of science at Occidental College, California. Since 2007, Shermer has been an adjunct professor at Claremont Graduate University.^[13][21][22]

Skeptics Society and Caltech Lecture Series[link]

In 1992 Shermer started the Skeptics Society, which produces Skeptic magazine and currently has over 55,000 members.^[23] In addition, the group organizes the Caltech Lecture Series which offers speakers on a wide range of topics relating to science, psychology, social issues, religion/atheism, skepticism, etc. Past speakers include Stephen Jay Gould, Jared Diamond, Donald Johanson, Julia Sweeney, Richard Dawkins, Philip Zimbardo, Steven Pinker, Carol Tavris, David Baltimore, Lisa Randall, Daniel Dennett, Tim Flannery, Lawrence Krauss, Michio Kaku, Susan Blackmore, Christof Koch, Alison Gopnik, Ursula Goodenough, Edward Tufte, Bjorn Lomborg, Sam Harris, Jeff Schweitzer and many others. The lectures occur on Sunday afternoons, and are open to the public for a nominal fee.^[24]

Published works[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Michael Shermer

Michael Shermer, 2008.

Shermer is the author of several books that attempt to explain the ubiquity of irrational or poorly substantiated beliefs, including UFOs, Bigfoot, and paranormal claims. In 1997 he wrote Why People Believe Weird Things, which explores a variety of "weird" ideas and groups (including cults), in the tradition of the skeptical writings of Martin Gardner. A revised and expanded edition was published in 2002. From the Introduction:

So we are left with the legacy of two types of thinking errors: Type 1 Error: believing a falsehood and Type 2 Error: rejecting a truth. ... Believers in UFOs, alien abductions, ESP, and psychic phenomena have committed a Type 1 Error in thinking: they are believing a falsehood. ... It's not that these folks are ignorant or uninformed; they are intelligent but misinformed. Their thinking has gone wrong.

— Michael Shermer, Why People Believe Weird Things, 1997, 2002, Introduction

In How We Believe: The Search for God in an Age of Science, Shermer explored the psychology behind the belief in God. In its introduction Shermer wrote "Never in history have so many, and such a high percentage of the population, believed in God. Not only is God not dead as Nietzsche proclaimed, but he has never been more alive."

In early 2002, Shermer's Scientific American column introduced Shermer's Last Law, the notion that "any sufficiently advanced extraterrestrial intelligence is indistinguishable from God." Shermer's Last Law is a spin on Clarke's Third Law.

In 2002, Shermer and Alex Grobman wrote their book Denying History: Who Says the Holocaust Never Happened and Why Do They Say It? which examined and refuted the Holocaust denial movement. This book recounts meeting various denialists and concludes that free speech is the best way to deal with pseudohistory.

Science Friction: Where the Known Meets the Unknown was released in 2005. Then his 2006 book Why Darwin Matters: The Case Against Intelligent Design, marshals point-by-point arguments supporting evolution, sharply criticizing Intelligent Design. This book also argues that science cannot invalidate religion, and that Christians and conservatives can and should accept evolution.

In June 2006, Shermer, who formerly expressed skepticism regarding the mainstream scientific view on global warming, wrote that, in view of the accumulation of evidence, the position of denying global warming is no longer tenable.^[25]

The Mind of The Market: Compassionate Apes, Competitive Humans, and Other Tales from Evolutionary Economics was released in 2007. In it Shermer reports on the findings of multiple behavioral and biochemical studies that address evolutionary explanations for modern behavior.

In February 2009, Shermer published The History of Science: A Sweeping Visage of Science and its History, a 25-hour audio lecture.

In May 2011, Shermer published The Believing Brain: From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies---How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths.

Media appearances and lectures[link]

Shermer has appeared on several television shows and documentaries. In addition, he appears regularly at conferences and other speaking engagements.^{[citation needed]}

Shermer appeared as a guest on Donahue in 1994 to respond to Bradley Smith's and David Cole's Holocaust denial claims, and in 1995 on The Oprah Winfrey Show to challenge Rosemary Altea's psychic claims. Shermer made a guest appearance in a 2004 episode of Penn & Teller's Bullshit!, in which he argued that events in the Bible constitute "mythic storytelling," rather than events described literally. His stance was supported by the show's hosts, who have expressed their own atheism. The episode in question, The Bible: Fact or Fiction?, sought to debunk the notion that the Bible is an empirically reliable historical record. Opposing Shermer was Paul Maier, professor of ancient history at Western Michigan University.^[26]

Shermer made several appearances on NBC's daytime paranormal-themed show The Other Side in 1994 and 1995. After getting to know that show's producers, he made a formal pitch to their production company for his own skepticism-oriented reality show whose aim would be to present points of view of both believers and skeptics. His proposals were not fruitful, but several years later, one of the executives of that company went to work for the then-newly formed Fox Family Channel, and impressed with Shermer's show treatment, requested he pitch it to the network. The network picked up the series, Exploring the Unknown, of which Shermer became a producer and cohost. The series, which was budgeted at approximately $200,000USD per episode, was viewed by Shermer as a direct extension of the work done at the Skeptics Society and Skeptic magazine, and would enable Shermer to reach more people. The equivocal title was chosen so as to not tip off guests or viewers as to the skeptical nature of the show.^[27] Various segments from Exploring the Unknown can be found on Shermer's YouTube channel.^[28]

Shermer has been a speaker at all three Beyond Belief events from 2006 to 2008. He also spoke at the 2006 TED Conference on "Why people believe strange things."^[29]

Shermer is a frequent guest on Skepticality, the official podcast of Skeptic.^{[citation needed]}

On August 21, 2010, Dr. Shermer was honored with an award recognizing his contributions in the skeptical field, from The IIG during its 10th Anniversary Gala.^[30]

[edit] Exploring the Unknown

The following are segments Shermer's 1999 Fox Family TV series, Exploring the Unknown.

• "Michael Shermer and Out of Body Experiences"^[31]
• "Michael Shermer on How to Fake UFO Photographs"^[32]
• "Michael Shermer on Spoonbending"^[33]
• "Michael Shermer Firewalking Across Hot Coals"^[34]
• "Michael Shermer Tests the Polygraph and Lie Detection, Part 1"^[35]
• "Michael Shermer Tests the Polygraph and Lie Detection, Part 2"^[36]
• "Michael Shermer Learns the Art of Con Games, Part 1"^[37]
• "Michael Shermer Learns the Art of Con Games, Part 2"^[38]
• "Michael Shermer Decodes the Bible Code"^[39]
• "Michael Shermer Explores Graphology/Handwriting Analysis, Part 1"^[40]
• "Michael Shermer Explores Graphology/Handwriting Analysis, Part 2"^[41]
• "Michael Shermer Remote Viewing Experiment Part 1"^[42]
• "Michael Shermer Remote Viewing Experiment Part 2"^[43]

Other television and film appearances[link]

• August 1983 news segment on Shermer bicycling in Race Across America^[44]
• Unsolved Mysteries, James Van Praagh segment, 1994
• The Phil Donahue Show, 1994
• "The Power of Belief", ABC News, 1998
• Politically Incorrect, December 22, 2000
• 20/20, December 5, 2003
• Dennis Miller, May 19 and May 20, 2004
• "The Bible: Fact or Fiction?", Penn & Teller: Bullshit!, 2004^[26]
• The Question of God: Sigmund Freud & C.S. Lewis, 2004
• The Eyes of Nye on "Pseudoscience", 2005
• The Skeptic's Guide to the Universe, October 4, 2006
• "Doomsday 2012", Decoding the Past, 2007
• Larry King Live, July 13, 2007 and January 24, 2008
• Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, 2008
• "Does God Have a Future?", Nightline, ABC, March 23, 2010^[45]
• "What Were You Thinking?", Dateline NBC, April 25, 2010^[46]
• "Did You See That?", Dateline NBC, July 16, 2010^[47]
• The Colbert Report, July 11, 2011
• Paranormal Challenge, Linda Vista Hospital, August 26, 2011

Radio and Web appearances[link]

• Coast to Coast AM, September 1, 2007
• Mr. Deity and the Skeptic YouTube, September 15, 2009^[48]
• Skepticality^{[episode needed]}
• Coast to Coast AM, May 21, 2011 ^[49]
• KGO May 25, 2011

Personal life[link]

Shermer lives in Altadena, California, on the edge of a cliff in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains atop which Mount Wilson stands.^[50]

Politically, Shermer has described himself as a libertarian.^[51]

List of books by Shermer[link]

• Sport Cycling: A Guide to Training, Racing, and Endurance 1985 ISBN 0-8092-5244-9
• Cycling: Endurance and Speed (Sportsperformance) 1987 ISBN 0-8092-4775-5
• Teach Your Child Science 1989 ISBN 0-929923-08-1
• Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time. (1997, 2nd Revision edition 2002) ISBN 0-8050-7089-3
• Teach Your Child Math and Mathemagics 1999 ISBN 0-7373-0134-1
• The Borderlands of Science: Where Sense Meets Nonsense 2001 ISBN 0-19-514326-4
• How We Believe: The Search for God in an Age of Science 2001 ISBN 0-613-35413-3
• The Skeptic Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience (ed.) 2002 ISBN 1-57607-653-9
• Denying History: Who Says the Holocaust Never Happened and Why Do They Say It? 2002 ISBN 0-520-23469-3
• In Darwin's Shadow: The Life and Science of Alfred Russel Wallace: A Biographical Study on the Psychology of History 2002 ISBN 0-19-514830-4
• The Science of Good and Evil: Why People Cheat, Gossip, Care, Share, and Follow the Golden Rule 2004 ISBN 0-8050-7520-8
• Science Friction: Where the Known Meets the Unknown 2005 ISBN 0-8050-7708-1
• Secrets of Mental Math: The Mathemagician's Guide to Lightning Calculation and Amazing Math Tricks 2006 ISBN 978-0-307-33840-2
• Why Darwin Matters: The Case Against Intelligent Design 2006 ISBN 978-0-8050-8121-3
• The Mind of The Market: Compassionate Apes, Competitive Humans, and Other Tales from Evolutionary Economics 2007 ISBN 978-0-8050-7832-9
• The History of Science: A Sweeping Visage of Science and its History 2009 audio lecture
• The Believing Brain: From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies—How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths 2011 ISBN 978-0-8050-9125-0

[edit] List of Skeptic columns published in Scientific American

See also[link]

• James Randi

References[link]