• • BioShock Infinite interview – Bill Gardner on “explor[ing] new ways to push narrative in 
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BioShock  | Bill: [....] BioShock games are frequently a reflection of where Ken [Levine]’s head is at: what’s going on in the world, what his perspective is. I think he was very fascinated by objectivism at the time [in the original BioShock]; I think he was reading a lot of [Ayn] Rand, and what not. [....] [T]here’s an appealing message to objectivism, or at least to the way that Andrew Ryan pitches it, initially: is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow? Who can’t get behind that? But, I think, when you start talking about the way he took his world and segregated it and compartmentalised it and basically limitless freedom in terms of industry or art or whatever, I think that can get ugly pretty quick. So, yeah, some regulation is needed, absolutely.  

• • 10 of the best video game worlds 
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BioShock  | A vast art deco underwater city built by the Ayn Rand-inspired Andrew Ryan, Rapture was intended to be an Objectivist paradise. Free from religion, monarchy and the interference of government, it would be a place where any man or woman could make themselves a success through hard work – and a bit of genetic engineering. But the dream turned sour when this gene splicing resulted in half the population turning murderous, and by the time of BioShock Rapture is a vast horrific ruin, and a reminder of how the grandest dreams can turn into the worst nightmares.  

• Top 10 strangest characters in IT 
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4. Peter Thiel. Shaun Nichols: Peter Thiel comes off to me as something of a cross between Larry Ellison, William Randolph Hearst and Ayn Rand. He made a boatload of money as the founder of PayPal, and then moved into the venture capital industry with investments in the likes of Facebook, LinkedIn, Yelp and Friendster. Not a bad record at all. But it's Thiel's actions outside of the board room that are the most interesting. A hardened Libertarian, Thiel was a big supporter of 2008 presidential candidate Ron Paul and earlier this year he wrote an article for the Cato Institute that was a bit contentious, to say the least. Among the main points of the article was the suggestion that women's suffrage was partly to blame for the decline of capitalism.