Snow day! My housemates have introduced me to Bioshock 2. In a drippy oozy
poorly-lit undersea city of Depression-era doom, I was a huge hulking
monster in a diving suit, lumbering around shooting strangers on sight
and helping the cutest little girl in the world drain the life-essence
out of bodies. If this is wrong, I don't want to be right.
The penny just dropped: 
alexx_kay worked on Bioshock. I'd never consciously taken that in till now, because I was Not A Gamer and never paid attention to that sort of thing. My hat is off to you, sir, it's a fantastic world and it may be enough to make a gamer out of me.The Hemulen tried to introduce me to gaming with Lord of the Rings: The War in the North, which had witless sub-Tolkien dialogue and characters who all looked like wax mannequins. I think the Hemulen expected me to require a female character, but that option wasn't enough to attract me. With Bioshock, I'd never seen any other media in the franchise, so I had no expectations in any direction and was constantly surprised. Also, one of my favorite tropes ever, as many of you know, is A Girl And Her Monster. Imagine if Frankenstein's monster had teamed up with little Maria and they'd gone off to kill together, and also she was armed with a giant hypodermic and had glowing yellow eyes. That's Bioshock 2. The funny thing is that the Hemulen, guiding me, was a lot like a Little Sister. Some days you're the monster, other days you're the cute kid.
Fabulous photos: cosplayers as Big Daddy and Little Sister, inside an aquarium.