As if playing your next installment into the BioShock franchise within a flying city wasn’t enough, Irrational Games felt the need to take it one step further and throw the player into the middle of a colossal civil war between America and Columbia. Speaking with Game Informer, Ken Levine reveals how a catastrophic event with America reveals that Columbia is nothing more than a war ship which results in a split of approval and disapproval of the city creating a civil war amongst the nations people.

“You see a buildup of a nativist or nationalist movement, and often there’s an event that comes out of that – whether it’s a war or whatever – which either enhances that or pushes it back,” he said.

Columbia quickly becomes known as the Ultranationalists and it is going toe-to-toe with an organization known as the “Vox Populi.”

“There’s definitely a component in America today that nationalism is extremely important to certain people – a sense that America is a separate case,” he says.

“It’s something I’ve always found fascinating. It’s an interesting element to divide over – where you’re born.

“It’s kind of an accident, right? And how porous those borders are – people who are in the same country with different ethnic backgrounds and religious backgrounds – there are a lot of ways to draw demarcations.

“It’s interesting to me how important those become to people and I wanted to explore that.”

According to Levine, the decision to go in this direction rests heavily on the current trend of American patriotism in society and he felt like that was something to build on. Do you guys think this decision is one that will help empower the game and in result, increase the overall experience or would you rather leave the politics out of your BioShock?