History Headscratchers / Bioshock1

** People were allowed to leave: No one got there, got a load of the place, and split? Nobody hired a P.I. to find their son or daughter?

** Exactly. Rapture very, very quickly went out of Ryan's control, and he was trying to avoid being a tyrant (at least initially), so he may have tried to give some sort of symbolic power like the day-to-day decisions to the council while keeping hold on most of the power behind the scenes. Note how you didn't have to get the genetic key from one of the council members. Ryan may have built Rapture, but he was first and foremost a businessman, not a politician.

** I always figured Jack replied to whoever was speaking to him over the radio and they decided not to include it. In that case, Fontaine knew Jack was defying him because Jack said something like, "Nah, go fuck yourself."

* Rapture apparently had a city council. Isn't that against everything Ryan preached?

** People were allowed to leave: No one got there, got a load of the place, and split? Nobody hired a P.I. to find their son or daughter?

*** Discussing about euthanasia is very risky business. There is a similar sub-quest in MassEffect where you have to choose between disconnecting a brain-dead dude or leaving him be. No matter what you choose, your teammates will always say that's the right decision. By doing so, both in MassEffect and in [=BioShock=] 2, the developers can hide their true beliefs. Thus, no one can say they are evil murderers or cruel bastards who leave people to suffer.

****** Or perhaps a novelty Splicer that blocks their joints in place, and makes their skin grow gypsum-like tumors?

** Probably so that the player doesn't realize the mind control aspect until TheReveal. Also, from a storytelling point, it helps emphasize how the player (and Jack) had an idea of free will during the game, but not actual free will.

** Also, there's the simple fact that most people would hear the basic pitch of Rapture, see it as a deathtrap, and head straight in the other direction.

** Probably so that the player doesn't realize the mind control aspect until [TheReveal]. Also, from a storytelling point, it helps emphasize how the player (and Jack) had an idea of free will during the game, but not actual free will.

** Probably so that the player doesn't realize the mind control aspect until [[TheReveal]]. Also, from a storytelling point, it helps emphasize how the player (and Jack) had an idea of free will during the game, but not actual free will.

* Why the "would you kindly?" spoken by [[spoiler:Ryan]] TAKES AWAY control of the player completely but NOT when [[spoiler:Fountaine]] does it? We wouldn't have a game if we started the game and immediately loose control on the very beginning after hearing those words, i suppose? In fact, if the plan was to control the player with that, then how is it possible for [[spoiler:Ryan's]] use of that to be even MORE powerful than the one who actually planned to use it? AKA [[spoiler:FOUNTAINE]]

* How can Andrew Ryan, as an ultra-capitalist,promote man being "entitled to the sweat of his brow"? Isn't Capitalism, as an economic model, based on generating profits by not paying the working classes the full vlaue of their labour?

* Okay, how is [[ItWasHisSled Fontaine controlling you with hypnotic orders]] supposed to be a deconstruction of MissionControl? I didn't pick up the radio because some guy on the other end told me to, I picked it up because the game wouldn't progress unless I did! [[SeriousBusiness This is entrapment, I will not stand for it, and Ken Levine can expect to hear from my lawyer]].
** You should go a step further and ask: why this is supposed to make an impact on me for "following orders blindly" like a little sheep that only obeys what the games tells him to do? when the ONLY reason i did such things that made the lives of everyone WORSE, is because the game REFUSES to let me go anywhere else? The twist will only affect people that doesn't actually do much thinking on why would being brainwashed make any difference since that is no the real reason of why i am not dissobeing those orders.......is just that there really isnt another place to visit or do anything else. So why would the game just plain insult the player for going along with? It could have been more powerful if ALL the choices lead to the same conclusion to feel the horror of free will being an illusion, or to at least demonstrate that the antagonist were effectively very well prepared to anticipate your every move and fuck you over no matter what you do.
** The game refuses to let you do anything else '''because the brainwashing refuses to let you do anything else'''. That's the '''point'''. There are plenty of other options you could have chosen if not for the fact that '''your character is brainwashed''' ''and'' '''you yourself are slaved to the game's design'''. It's a meta thing.
*** And yet i am in perfect control of what to scavenge in whatever order i want, to kill whoever i want the way i want, and even choose whatever plasmid i want even if it may be a bad choice and may kill me. The game should have been more linear if that was the case, and more open once you are free of the mind control to reflect that, but its linear all the time (may as well be a cutscene all the time or even a movie). Why would Fountain risk his puppet to do stupid choices like using the wrong plasmid or NOT use an In Universe Game Breaker to get the job done ASAP and not risk loosing its best asset? What would have happened if i DIDN'T die but instead became braindead, a state where i am not technically dead so the Vita Chamber can't revive me yet? all because he let Jack do the thinking and fucked up. He didn't even stop me from re-activating Ryan's own vita chamber after he died, and when Fountaine revealed himself and wanted to kill me after taking control. Why take ANY risk and give me any Free Will? Jack would have rebelled even BEFORE that revelation because, in his mind, he is just a stranger trying to survive in the city he has never been, and yet the Vita-Chambers only resurrect him specifically and not the Splicers. "Gee, how convenient that a complete stranger like me has all the benefits of even DEFYING DEATH" but does Fountain prevents me from thinking that or even order me to destroy the audio messages implying that the Vita Chambers are tuned for Andrew Ryan DNA ONLY, and yet i also ressurrect? going meta isn't going to do anything when the own narrative cannot bring answers on its own.