BioShock Infinite deals with a number of sensitive issues including politics, religion, and race. Apparently, a number of activist groups are unhappy about the way Irrational has handled these issues. In fact, one white supremacist website went so far as to accuse Ken Levine of "making a white-person-killing simulator."
Levine defended his game to PC Gamer, saying, “Trust me, I get tweets… When I started working on this game, relatives of mine were very offended, because they thought it was an attack on the Tea Party. Specifically an attack on the Tea Party, which they were very active in."
As the studio revealed more of the game's themes to the public, the backlash only got worse. “Then, when we sort of exposed the Vox Populi people, I saw a lot more left-leaning websites being like, ‘This is trying to tear down the labor movement!’" Levine explained. "I remember that I saw postings, unfortunately, on a white supremacist website, Stormfront, where people literally said, ‘The Jew Ken Levine is making a white-person-killing simulator.’"
Fortunately, it looks like Levine has got some tough skin, because he isn't backing down or shying away from including the content that he believes will make Infinite the best experience possible. Interestingly enough, he actually faced similar opposition with the original BioShock.
BioShock had the same thing, where you had Objectivists being infuriated by it, and people more on the left thinking that it was a love letter to Objectivism. I think these games are a bit of a Rorschach for people. It’s usually a negative Rorshach. It pisses them off, you know?
But I’d way rather have that than to…These games are, to some degree… If they’re about anything, they’re about not buying into a single point of view. About having a lack of confidence in anything. They’re not ever an attack on a single idea. It’s a bit of a plague on all your houses.
Look for BioShock Infinite when it hits store shelves on March 26th.
