A new video game came out yesterday called Bioshock Infinite. I was shocked and a little creeped out to see how the story line is very similar to the Mormon religion. If you're going to play the game and don't want any spoilers, don't read on, but I'm just going to describe the beginning.

In the game you are taken to a mysterious floating city in the sky ruled by a prophet who looks exactly like John Taylor. In their temple they were white temple clothes and the women wear veils. They all talk about how holy and perfect their prophet is, and they have statues set up around the city to commemorate him and his family. In order to enter the city in the game you have to let them baptize you, which is kind of funny because they hold you under water until you almost drown. In the floating city, the city of Enoch really, people are happy, there is little crime, and only the elect are allowed to enter there. Also, the people there are super racist, they have black slaves and look down on all other minorities. Oh and there is also a temple in the city where they wear masonic clothing and do rituals, and above their door there is an all-seeing eye. The doors in the city look almost like they have a honeycomb on them like at the Salt Lake Temple, only when you look closely it's a pineapple.

No references to polygamy that I can see yet, but the Mormon influence on the game is super obvious. If it were not such a fun game I'd be too creeped out to play.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/26/2013 12:43PM by DonQuijote.

A quote from one of the creators of the game:

The BioShock creator’s words echo any number of age-old stories which serve as the basic building block for many a religion. “That’s the story of Moses, that’s the story of Mohammed; they’re sort of the prophets leading the people to either a new religion or a new land,” he said. “It’s a very old story, and it tends to be similar [even as time goes on].”

“Like [Mormonism founder] Joseph Smith. Why would Joseph Smith and Brigham Young have led the people away from New York State unless they felt that they couldn’t live there, and they needed to go and form a promised land” You don’t go form a promised land unless you have a problem with the land you’re in, whether it’s Egypt or upstate New York.”

http://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/ken-levine-considers-his-role-as-storyteller-and-auteur-on-bioshock-infinite/

currently playing it!

Well, why not? The Morg is just like a videogame, nonsense for idiots.

Please do not compared video games to the hideousness of TSCC.

Calling video games nonsense for idiots makes you sound like a Mormon apostle. I'm an educated database administrator and I love video games as a pastime. Much better than mindless reality TV.

Is there an epic shootout in a jail? Please tell me there is an epic shootout in a jail.

Well, now I'm tempted to buy it, just to punch John Taylor in the face!

Well so far I've brutally murdered many of his loyal followers. I think at the end I'll probably get to kill him too.

If its anything like the original, that won't be nearly as satisfying as you'd hoped.

Damn, you're good.

My kids bought this game. My daughter finished it in less than 2 days. I just heard a character in the game say: "for the first 30 pages I am just going to regurgitate scripture." Bwaahahahahaha

I also saw similarities to Mormonism in this game, but I thought that's where it ended, was similarities.
After reading this though its obvious to me that someone at Irrational knew what they were doing. Honestly its pretty great how much the game points to BY, yet its so inconspicuous. It makes me want to play it again.

http://www.exploringmormonism.com/?p=1211



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/05/2014 08:00AM by ldsidiot.

I think that the cult in the game is a composite of several well known cults. Ironically, at least two of those cults were Mormonism at different times in its history. There was a good touch of Brigham Young era Mormon cultism, and I noticed a lot of the 1930s, let's be just like the Nazi's only American, era of Mormonism.

Yep, that is exactly my take on it.

That's a lot of what I took from the game as well, but I added the link above because they go through and point out things I never would have made the comparison otherwise. While the game isn't focused directly on Mormonism, its got more of a take on the BY era than I originally thought. Overall, I really loved the game.
It's too bad Irrational is essentially gone now.