We knew it was coming. Any game that features little girls as an enemy was bound to eventually draw the attention of the mainstream media. That attention has been brought by the Boston Patriot-Ledger, which argues that BioShock is "testing the limits of the ultraviolent gaming genre with a strategy that enables players to kill characters resembling young girls."Despite the shock-inducing lead, the article goes on to give a more or less accurate description of BioShock's choice between saving and harvesting the creepy Little Sisters. 2K Boston President Ken Levine defends the artistic vision of the game, of course, while a psychology professor tells the paper that young people who play violent games "had lower feelings of empathy and stronger 'pro-violence attitudes''' whatever that means. The conclusion tries to draw a link between BioShock's violence to a stabbing death allegedly inspired by Grand Theft Auto, but the connection is pretty weak.
Regardless of any alleged real-world effects, we can't help but feel a little squeamish deciding on life and death for these poor, twisted little girls. So what's your decision? Have you been sparing your Little Sisters, or harvesting them for their sweet, sweet serum?
