"BioShock itself, I comment, felt like a critique of objectivism: it was, after all, the story of a city of independent elites brought to the ground by their own greed. Levine interrupts. “I don’t view BioShock as a critique of objectivism. When Andrew Ryan says at the beginning, ‘Is man not entitled to the sweat of his own brow,’ who can say no to that, right?” Instead, he says, it’s an exploration of his own “uncomfortableness with certainty. Of political surety, of thinking you have the solution. Whether it’s religious certainty or political certainty, I get very uncomfortable with that, because I don’t feel certain myself. And I think that if you look at guys like Andrew Ryan and (Columbia’s leader) Comstock, they are very certain of their view of the world, and it is that very rigidity that often destroys them."

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Even my extensive tolerance for boring projects is up against a wall here. Street Cleaning Simulator doesn’t even provide enough mental activity to produce “The Reviewer’s Trance”, which is a mild mesmerisation-through-boredom which can often rack up large tracts of game time simply by keeping the hands busy and letting the brain disconnect from its moorings. Some games can be boring, but still busy enough. This one is not.

What am I going to do to pass the time while I slowly driving along the sides of simulated German streets? Eat? I’m all out of flapjacks. Listening to music? I guess it’s better than the dull drone of the brushes. Read Twitter in another window? No, that’s all my friends boasting about their exciting lives while I am sat inside being deliberately boring in a poorly translated sim.

Hmm. I’ve just got to focus and power through. It’s going to be okay.

The mission is over quicker than I expect, thanks to the fact that the game informs me that I can invoice for the cleaning before I have finished! I don’t know if this is some kind of meta-commentary on German street-cleaners being particular half-arsed about their cleaning responsibilities, but it’s okay by me. Screw that final seventeen yards of dirt, we’re making good speed back to HQ.

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Well, they’re not very social. A game like World of Warcraft or Counter-Strike or whatever is way more social. Because you actually meet new people in clans or guilds. You go do activities together and help each other out, right?

[With certain social games] it’s about the game exploiting your friends list that you already made, so it’s not really about meeting people. And it’s not really about doing things with them because you’re never playing at the same time. It’s about using your friends as resources to progress in the game, which is the opposite of actual sociality or friendship. Maybe not exactly, but it’s not the same thing, right? They’re really just called social games because they run on social networks but they’re way less [social] – like sitting down and playing a board game with friends at a party is a way more social game. That’s an intensely social experience, right? So, like whatever. I hate that name.

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