In a Patriot Ledger column, writer Steve Adams argues that the choice of killing Little Sisters in the FPS BioShock challenges taboos regarding video game violence. In other words, it’s another rant about video game violence.
The writer said, "One strategy enables players to attack ‘‘Little Sisters,” characters who resemble young girls…The taboo-breaking content in ‘BioShock’ rekindles the debate about the correlation between blood-spattered games and real-life violence."
But as we all know, this is a gameplay design that the game’s developer, 2K Boston, intended. Ken Levine, founder of 2K Boston (Irrational Games) and lead game designer of BioShock said, "As a piece of art, we want to deal with challenging moral issues and if you want to do that, you have to go to some dark places. And BioShock certainly does go to some dark places."
The rest of the column talks about various violent video games statistics and the usual mumbo-jumbo everyone else in the world has said about the issue. In the end, the game doesn’t force you to kill Little Sisters, it’s a gameplay choice; in fact, you don’t even see the "actual" death on-screen. Also, the game is clearly rated M for mature. Heck, Prey took it way more extreme, you kill possessed children there in its full glory.
So in the end, is this stretching the taboo of killing "children" in games? Or is this another case of "who gives a damn?!"
