[Tsuyu]

If the people of Rapture never found out about ADAM, what do you think would've happened? Could Andrew Ryan's core concept of his utopia work? Or was it doomed to fail, ADAM discovery or not?

Things like this runs through my head as I play this game, heh.

[HodgePodge]

Doomed to failure I'm afraid, at least as far as I see it

[Dark Drakan]

I think his concept was fine its just people and their greed that ruined it and he put to much faith into Raptures inhabitants for it to be anything but doomed to failure.

[Hexadecimal]

The concept could work, but not the way they had it so long as people weren't willing to hold true to the ideals Rapture was based on... the whole problem with Fontaine and his smugglers compromising their isolation would have doomed them all eventually, and the shifting loyalties and people's thirst for power rather than the purity of what Rapture represented would have led to a collapse, if not by Adam than by some other means... that's not to say it couldn't have worked... just not with the sorts that he allowed to tag along...

[Orpheus Lupus]

It was most likely going to fail, although the game makes it clear that it's mostly because of Fontaine. Letting in a mobster was probably a bad idea ;-)

But the way things seemed to be going, even if Fontaine hadn't come along someone would have eventually. The problem with utopias is, ironically, that you do in fact end up with the world's greatest geniuses cleaning toilets. Not exactly utopian.

"Next week we show you more of Ryan's greatest mistakes!..."

[Tsuyu]

Sure, there might be problems that are unavoidable with his dream, but the question still remains that if they didn't discover ADAM, would it have gone to such extreme lengths as to dooming Rapture?

I don't think Ryan would've gone to such extremes. And perhaps Fontaine's uprising would not have lead to an full-out war like it did had they not had plasmids at their disposal.

[Albion Knight]

The struggle for power would definitely brought an end to the utopia. Adam brought with it an instable people that was not controllable by anyone, even themselves. With out Adam it would have ended it as some kind of dictatorship with an occasional uprising of violence. Not a utopia but not a wasteland either.

[Hexadecimal]

Originally Posted by Albion Knight

The struggle for power would definitely brought an end to the utopia. Atom brought with it an instable people that was not controllable by anyone, even themselves. With out Atom it would have ended it as some kind of dictatorship with an occasional uprising of violence. Not a utopia but not a wasteland either.

did they have nuclear weapons down there now?

I think without finding Adam, it may have taken longer to slowly disintegrate, but would still have happened... not because Rapture wasn't viable... but because he allowed so many unsavoury characters in...
with different people down there, even with the discovery of Adam, success could still have been possible, I think

[Albion Knight]

Originally Posted by Hexadecimal

did they have nuclear weapons down there now?

Took me a second to get that oops thanks

Originally Posted by Hexadecimal

I think without finding Adam, it may have taken longer to slowly disintegrate, but would still have happened... not because Rapture wasn't viable... but because he allowed so many unsavoury characters in...
with different people down there, even with the discovery of Adam, success could still have been possible, I think

I agree. Ryan wanted people who were independent thinkers. Someone was bound to challenge his authority but Fontaine made it happen in a way that brought everything down. Adam just hastened the process.

Note: I haven't finished the game so I may be missing some details