Playing with Puppets: Foucauldian Power Relations in BioShock and Borderlands

Abstract

The article investigates whether power/knowledge relations observed by Foucault in real life could be possibly applicable in the video game context. Two blockbuster titles, BioShock (2007) and Borderlands 2 (2009), are analysed to discuss the following aspects of Foucauldian theory: the existence of docile bodies, the creation of a dominant discourse of truth, and the maintenance of the created system. With regard to the creation of docile bodies, the perspective of two antagonists (Andrew Ryan and Handsome Jack) is centralised, and their role in creating a hierarchical system is presented. The Foucauldian rules of enclosure and rank, being crucial to the concept of docility, can be seen in the representation of the city of Rapture and the planet of Pandora. To develop the argument further, the rules connected to establishing and upholding the regime of truth, such as dissemination of knowledge, laws, monitoring and distribution of good, are analysed.