RealityStudio.org

Going to guess, perhaps incorrectly, that most here are not much on video games... Being a child of the 1980s (26 for the curious), I grew up with these games and still enjoy the medium. Anyway, I have recently been playing one called BioShock, and I can't help but notice some possible Burroughsian influence...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioshock

Game contains crazed, genetically muted citizens who attack savagely, horrendously immoral physicians (some of whom throw bombs at you), syringes everywhere, major themes of mind control, hangings, etc

Am I just seeing what I want to see? A Burroughs fanboy looking for him everywhere?

Dig some screenshots and see what you think:

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_E_CHJm0Ry2A/R ... dical1.jpg
http://static.gamesradar.com/images/mb/ ... _large.jpg
http://susanowa.com/computer/bioshock/
http://popularsymbolism.files.wordpress ... ge-big.jpg

...?

perhaps we could chalk this down to Bill's word/image virus, seeping into and down onto other culture ! It certainly sounds Burroughsian.

I don't know much about games, but Fallout 3 looks also very burroughsian.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYZpR51XgW0

Bioshock is openly influenced and/or inspired by Ayn Rand. And I have to tell all those who are wondering, Ayn Rand and Burroughs are VERY, VERY, VERY different. The one nice commonality between them is that they were both libertarian and pro-choice (everything) and were very pro-human rights and anti-control. To me, that's just awesome. But when it comes to the issue of spiritual matters, view of metaphysics and the universe, and also view of homosexuality, ayn rand differes greatly from burroughs.

As for Fallout 3......Burroughs was very apocalyptic but there are certain elements in Fallout 3 that disgust me, such as the faction the Enclave. I cannot stand them. John Henry Eden is a f*ing fascist. Anytime I play Fallout 3, I make sure the ending is always disfavorable for the Enclave.

I guess I was thinking more of the imagery than the game as a whole... there's just something about those Nitro-Splicer doctors in the medical section that reminds me so much of Benway and friends...

Edit: I never meant to insinuate that Bioshock was based on Burroughs... just searching for hints of his influence in the graphics...

Allow me to push this conversation in another direction: are there any games out there that are directly influenced by Burroughs?

Anyone ever heard of "Over the Edge" ? (not sure if this is a video game or a pen-and-paper RPG)
http://index.rpg.net/display-entry.phtml?mainid=107

The answer, currently, is no. Video games have yet to experience anywhere near that level of creative freedom. Put simply, video games have nowhere near the freedom or liberty that literature has and only very recently have video games even start to become edgy in even the remotest sense. Only recently have they even threatened to challenge conformity or the moral police. Right now video games are being intensly persecuted, in the same way that at various times in history, literature and music has been persecuted. Put simply, its going to be a long time before any game would be openly Burroughsian in its influence.

true enough, most video games are deeply "moralistic" when you get down to it..possibly silent hill2 or this penumbra - black menace as slight exceptions...but a game even loosely based on say Nova express (most obvious choice - sf, chase elements), WOW. we can but dream.....

Probably the best example is in the game he lent his voice to, even if it was on the works of another author, in this case, Poe.

The Dark Eye is a fantastic game and Burroughs lends a lot of character to it. Here's a very nice article on it:

http://coregamer.web.simplesnet.pt/darkeyeng.htm

Still to a point to a single game with a single focal point of inspiration on Burroughs would be unfair and impossible.
There are a wealth of them though, with Burroughsian elements, even if arriving in 2nd hand, from another cultural medium.

In the end, it's like it was stated. Burroughs' work would only lose in a direct translation to a video game, as the concept of ludism (entertaining a player) would be difficult to implement in his ideology.

I can maybe think of more passive experiences like Gadget or the upcoming The Night Journey (although this one has no real Burroughsian influence) as the only possible way to tackle his work, in an interactive media form.

There is a reconstruction of part of Dark Eye here on RealityStudio:

http://realitystudio.org/multimedia/

dgadsfg

I can't help but disagree with the user who stated he feels video games lack the depth and freedom of literature. This personis probably unfamiliar with the fact that many videogames for a long time now have a great detailed story behind them often with great dialogue mystery and plot. and often times there are entire symphonies doing the scores for these masterpieces.

I would have to entirely disagree and say videogames are, and if not, have the potential to become the ultimate form of art. Story, visual art, musical arts, and basically unlimited room for creative influence.

yeah, i completely disagree.

and as far as burroughs influence on games them selves. It is likely that the game you are referring to was in one shape way or form directly or indirectly inspired by the work of william burroughs. especially if the creators were in fact inspired by ayn rand, because if this is true than we already know the people who made the game are readers, and if they are readers they have at least heard of burroughs, and if they read classics like ayn rand it is pretty safe to say they have ran into burroughs in some of their reading.

But yeah, i think indirectly it is definite, because as you stated burroughs was a great catalyst for the who "mutated zombie citizens devouring society, and crooked croakers and mind control was one of his most prevelant leitmotifs.

Id also like to take the oppurtunity to say that the david cronenberg film for NAKED LUNCH is absolutely amazing, and if there are any burroughs fans reading this right now who havent seen it they should just stop reading right now and search for it to watch on the web.

Anyways, don't you guys think the film for naked lunch could easily be converted in to a bad ass video game? Or even better yet a video game that plays through Burroughs' life? Wouldn't that be sweet? live the life of william s burroughs on your sony or nintendo game system? You cannot tell me that would not be cool. It could start with the beginning scenes of junky where little bill is hallucinating little beings and is informed by his housecleaner that opium is what adults smoke to induce sweet dreams and as a child he makes the conscious decision that "When I grow up I will smoke opium." And it could have everything from his going to school, meeting the beats, becoming a junky, killing his wife, travelling the world publishing books all the way to his death as a world wide icon. that would be too cool.

I can tell you one thing, there are a lot of games that are not even half as cool as that would be...

anyways, i love videogames that is why i have chosen to respond to this thread. What about the nova trilogy? Isn't it possible that this galactic mythology has had some influence on some of the sci fi games we see these days, i cant think of any one in particular but im sure there are dozens of games that take place in a intergalatic battle between good and evil setting with all sorts of odd characters mixed in the plot interacting in the most absurd ways.

I must say, i think burroughs has probably had a greater effect on modern american culture than most of us realize. I mean when naked lunch was published people litterally had it banned, not suitable for reading. I mean we see that on the beginning of every south park now that it is not suitable for viewing.

If burroughs had any major effect of culture it was making the taboo no longer taboo and the taboo finer and more sunken away from societal norms. His literature was considering trashy pornography and by many still is. But today that sort of thing is acceptable for weeknight prime time, why? because people wanna see it, they are drawn to the abnormal, those wild extreme lifestyles that everyone used to want to hide in the closet are what today people are begging to see more of, but they dont want to experience it for themselves, thats too much, just a taste.

oh and it was tasty.

You're citing other art forms (literature-story, music-symphonies) to justify video games. It's not that video games as an all inclusive art form doesn't enable it to be valid, but the very fact that it depends on ludism (it's a "game"), will always hold it back. At most, you can try and have some sort of interactive multimedia. The very fact that it depends on user-input limits the artist, as he can't fully express himself because he must make a "game, and the player/spectator because he is limited to gameplay rules.

It has potential, of course, but to challenge literature, or even cinema, there's a long long way to go.



I certainly wouldn't associate burroughs with "bad ass" video games ha ha...

If you like video games and burroughs, im sure The Dark Eye is sure to satisfy, as it is, by all measures, a great experience.

as far as i see...cronenberg's career came unstuck the moment he decided to attempt this "adaptation". and now i see he's going to remake his version of the fly..which had a fair amount of burroughsian imagery in it, now that i think of it...