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Andrew Ryan (BioShock)
Andrew Ryan is a fictional character in the ''BioShock'' video game series developed by Irrational Games. He serves as the primary antagonist of the first half of the first ''BioShock'' and a minor character in its sequel, ''BioShock 2'' and its prequel, '' BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea''. Ryan is portrayed as an idealistic business magnate in the 1940s and 1950s; seeking to avoid scrutiny from governments and other oversight, he ordered the secret construction of an underwater city, Rapture. When civil war sees Ryan's vision for a utopia in Rapture collapse into dystopia, he descends into reclusiveness and paranoia. After his victory in the war, he becomes increasingly ruthless in his control over the remaining inhabitants of the city. Ryan was created by Irrational Games' Ken Levine, based on figures like Ayn Rand, Howard Hughes, Charles Foster Kane, and Walt Disney. The character has received significant praise from critics, with ''Electronic Gaming Monthly'' ranking him n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
BioShock (series)
''BioShock'' is a Retrofuturism, retrofuturistic video game series created by Ken Levine (game developer), Ken Levine, published by 2K Games and developed by several studios, including Irrational Games and 2K Marin. The ''BioShock'' games combine first-person shooter and Role-playing video game, role-playing elements, giving the player freedom for how to approach combat and other situations, and are considered part of the immersive sim genre. Additionally, the series is notable for exploring philosophical and moral concepts with a strong in-game narrative influenced by concepts such as Objectivism, total utilitarianism, and American exceptionalism. The series consists of three main games. ''BioShock'' (2007) and ''BioShock 2'' (2010) take place in the 1960s in the fictional underwater city of Rapture (BioShock), Rapture. ''BioShock Infinite'' (2013) is thematically and narratively tied to the first games, but takes place in 1912 aboard the floating city of Columbia. After ''Infin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Atlas Shrugged
''Atlas Shrugged'' is a 1957 novel by Ayn Rand. It was her longest novel, the fourth and final one published during her lifetime, and the one she considered her '' magnum opus'' in the realm of fiction writing. ''Atlas Shrugged'' includes elements of science fiction, mystery, and romance, and it contains Rand's most extensive statement of Objectivism in any of her works of fiction. Rand described the theme of ''Atlas Shrugged'' as "the role of man's mind in existence". The book explores a number of philosophical themes from which Rand would subsequently develop Objectivism, including reason, property rights, individualism, and capitalism, and depicts what Rand saw as the failures of governmental coercion. The book depicts a dystopian United States in which private businesses suffer under increasingly burdensome laws and regulations. Railroad executive Dagny Taggart and her lover, steel magnate Hank Rearden, struggle against "looters" who want to exploit their productivity. Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
VG247
''VG247'' is a video game blog published in the United Kingdom, founded in February 2008 by industry veteran Patrick Garratt. In 2009, CNET ranked it as the third best gaming blog in the world. History Founded in collaboration on 1 February 2008 between games journalist Patrick Garratt and Eurogamer Network, ''VG247'' was set up to be a news-only blog, the first of its kind in the UK to have a specialist games blog found among the likes of American sites ''Kotaku'' and ''Joystiq''. At launch, ''VG247'' did not review video games and focused instead on news, interviews, and previews. Garratt was the only staff member at the time of launch, although grew in time with the addition of contributors Mike Bowden and Nathan Grayson. In early 2009, the site relaunched itself, rebranding from ''videogaming247.com'' to ''VG247''; at the same time the site changed its primary url to ''www.vg247.com'', and launched a new site design, with improved features, and staff. The site added additi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Galt
John Galt () is a character in Ayn Rand's novel ''Atlas Shrugged'' (1957). Although he is not identified by name until the last third of the novel, he is the object of its often-repeated question "Who is John Galt?" and of the quest to discover the answer. Also, in the later part it becomes clear that Galt had been present in the book's plot all along, playing several important roles though not identified by name. As the plot unfolds, Galt is acknowledged to be a philosopher and inventor; he believes in the power and glory of the human mind, and the rights of individuals to use their minds solely for themselves. He serves as a highly individualistic counterpoint to the collectivist social and economic structure depicted in the novel, in which society is based on oppressive bureaucratic functionaries and a culture that embraces mediocrity in the name of egalitarianism, which the novel posits is the result of collectivist philosophy. Character biography The novel unfolds Galt's ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
GameSpy
GameSpy was an American provider of online multiplayer and matchmaking middleware for video games founded in 1996 by Mark Surfas. After the release of a multiplayer server browser for the game, QSpy, Surfas licensed the software under the GameSpy brand to other video game publishers through a newly established company, GameSpy Industries, which also incorporated his Planet Network of video game news and information websites, and GameSpy.com. GameSpy merged with IGN in 2004; by 2014, its services had been used by over 800 video game publishers and developers since its launch. In August 2012, the GameSpy Industries division (which remained responsible for the GameSpy service) was acquired by mobile video game developer Glu Mobile. IGN (then owned by News Corporation) retained ownership of the GameSpy.com website. In February 2013, IGN's new owner, Ziff Davis, shut down IGN's "secondary" sites, including GameSpy's network. This was followed by the announcement in April 2014 that G ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Art Deco
Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920s and 1930s. Through styling and design of the exterior and interior of anything from large structures to small objects, including how people look (clothing, fashion and jewelry), Art Deco has influenced bridges, buildings (from skyscrapers to cinemas), ships, ocean liners, trains, cars, trucks, buses, furniture, and everyday objects like radios and vacuum cleaners. It got its name after the 1925 Exposition internationale des arts décoratifs et industriels modernes (International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts) held in Paris. Art Deco combined modern styles with fine craftsmanship and rich materials. During its heyday, it represented luxury, glamour, exuberance, and faith in socia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Communists
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered around common ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange which allocates products to everyone in the society.: "One widespread distinction was that socialism socialised production only while communism socialised production and consumption." Communist society also involves the absence of private property, social classes, money, and the state. Communists often seek a voluntary state of self-governance, but disagree on the means to this end. This reflects a distinction between a more libertarian approach of communization, revolutionary spontaneity, and workers' self-management, and a more vanguardist or communist party-driven approach through the development of a constitutional socialist state f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New Deal
The New Deal was a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1939. Major federal programs agencies included the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), the Works Progress Administration (WPA), the Civil Works Administration (CWA), the Farm Security Administration (FSA), the National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933 (NIRA) and the Social Security Administration (SSA). They provided support for farmers, the unemployed, youth, and the elderly. The New Deal included new constraints and safeguards on the banking industry and efforts to re-inflate the economy after prices had fallen sharply. New Deal programs included both laws passed by Congress as well as presidential executive orders during the first term of the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt. The programs focused on what historians refer to as the "3 R's": relief for the unemployed and for the poor, recovery of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Capitalistic
Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, private property, property rights recognition, voluntary exchange, and wage labor. In a market economy, decision-making and investments are determined by owners of wealth, property, or ability to maneuver capital or production ability in capital and financial markets—whereas prices and the distribution of goods and services are mainly determined by competition in goods and services markets. Economists, historians, political economists and sociologists have adopted different perspectives in their analyses of capitalism and have recognized various forms of it in practice. These include ''laissez-faire'' or free-market capitalism, anarcho-capitalism, state capitalism and welfare capitalism. Different forms of capitalism feature varying degrees of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Objectivism
Objectivism is a philosophical system developed by Russian Americans, Russian-American writer and philosopher Ayn Rand. She described it as "the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute"."About the Author" in Rand first expressed Objectivism in her fiction, most notably ''The Fountainhead'' (1943) and ''Atlas Shrugged'' (1957), and later in non-fiction essays and books. Leonard Peikoff, a professional philosopher and Rand's designated intellectual heir, later gave it a more formal structure. Peikoff characterizes Objectivism as a "closed system" insofar as its "fundamental principles" were set out by Rand and are not subject to change. However, he stated that "new implications, applications and integrations can always be discovered". Objectivism's main tenets are that reality exists independently of consciousness, that human beings have direct ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Utopia
A utopia ( ) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia (book), Utopia'', describing a fictional island society in the New World. However, it may also denote an intentional community. In common parlance, the word or its adjectival form may be used synonymously with "impossible", "far-fetched" or "deluded". Hypothetical utopias focus on—amongst other things—equality, in such categories as economics, government and justice, with the method and structure of proposed implementation varying based on ideology. Lyman Tower Sargent argues that the nature of a utopia is inherently contradictory because societies are not homogeneous and have desires which conflict and therefore cannot simultaneously be satisfied. To quote: The opposite of a utopia is a dystopia or cacotopia. Utopian and dystopian fiction has become a popular literary catego ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shacknews
''Shacknews'' (originally Quakeholio, then ShugaShack) is a website that hosts news, features, editorial content and forums relating to computer games and Video game console, console games. It is currently owned by a company called Gamerhub Content Network. Gamerhub Content Network purchased the site in January 2014. History ''Shacknews'' was founded in 1996 by Steve "Scary" Gibson, 20 years old at the time, as a website dedicated to following news about the then-upcoming game ''Quake (video game), Quake'' from id Software. The original name of the website was "''Quakeholio''". Through the years the website evolved to cover more than just Quake and the name was changed. "''Shugashack''" was chosen after a discussion with friends about the general direction of the page and content. After a few years of frequent spelling confusion and interpreting the name as that of a Pornography, pornographic website, the site was renamed "''Shacknews''". ''FileShack'', a site for game demos, pa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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