The Challenge of Integrating Video Game Mechanics and Narrative While Maintaining Suspension of Disbelief in BioShock

Suspension of Disbelief is a vulgar necessity in fiction.  Every story starts off with the implicit statement “Let’s pretend…” Let’s pretend that this story really happened, so we can be emotionally invested in the outcome.  Let’s pretend that coincidences and destiny present themselves so prosaically that we can sum up a life in 300 pages.  Let’s pretend that motives are clear, and the narrative certain, so that we can ignore the jumble within history as well as within ourselves.

Let’s prete...