Yeah, figured I'd get that warning. Oh well.
Ultratwinkie said:
Other than the bit I threw in a spoiler because I knew it wasn't pertinent to anything and I knew it was a complete ranting strawman, I'm not sure where the strawman is.
Paragraphs 1 and 2 were me explaining the lack of Grandfather Paradox.
Paragraph 3 was me arguing that she didn't need to be a social retard, given her situation. And you're right, it would probably make more realistic sense for her to have no social sense or grace. But I'm willing to assume that one way or another Comstock and co found a way to negate that-- among those tools being the tears, Songbird, and superficial exposure to the outside world. In order to groom her as a charismatic leader who would set the hearts of the people alight with her vision, they would have had to. That, and I'm willing to allow a bit of a break from the reality of psychology in order to make a more interesting narrative.
Paragraph 3 was me arguing against your problems with Elizabeth's mechanics-- namely, that she never gave you the ammo you needed and therefore was of no use to you. And as it turns out, waiting around for ammo drops just isn't your style. I can respect that. But it's not really a problem with Elizabeth's design, I don't think.
I don't really think media has the power to really threaten anyone's beliefs, whether or not they live in fear of being offensive or not. It has the power to critique them, sure, but it's been my experience that anyone who has a deeply-held belief that is critiqued by a game will just get mad at or ignore parts of the game that go against what they believe in. Fence-sitters can be swayed one way or the other, but there's no real threat. Bioshock isn't really there to convince anyone of anything, as far as I can tell-- the games are more about taking a philosophy and taking it to an extreme in order to highlight its weaknesses. In Rapture that's supposed to be Objectivism, in Columbia the devs have said it's Jingoism.
Also, I don't know what culture you've been living in, but from where I'm sitting video games have been terrified of really offending someone since the mid-90's, and those that haven't been have mostly just played that fact for shocks more than anything. And yeah, Bioshock beat me over the head with its themes. But there aren't a pack of indie gamers roving from forum to forum calling it the deepest most introspective game ever made either. Of course I don't think Bioshock is the limit or pinnacle of thoughtful game design, but I don't think I ever implied that it was the greatest game ever made either.
But then, I'd been actively not following Infinite and it ended up being something of an impulse buy, so maybe it was hyped more than it ought to have been. That was most of the reason I wasn't following the game: I could see the industry revving up to assign a bunch of labels and expectations to it that no game could ever live up to, like they do with every AAA title. The industry seemed ripe to Molyneux the hell out of the game.