Ever the sucker for a feel good story (particularly feel good stories that jive so well with the themes of this blog), this one was too good not to share.
A few days ago, the gaming blogosphere was jazzed up about some very impressive concept art for the anticipated sequel to the game Bioshock. Concept art is normally released as the first real taste of a game's flavor (the teaser) so the presence of this particular set of artwork was not wholly unusual. What made this art special, however, in addition to its quality, was that it had actually been created by a fan instead of the studio itself. A student named Ben Mauro had created this concept art as part of a project for his Architecture 2 class. He then posted it to his personal blog and it spread like wildfire.
But the story doesnt end with Ben earning some well deserved street cred. Ripten, one of if not the first site to repost Mauro's work, said yesterday that they had been contacted by 2K Games (the publisher of Bioshock) who wanted to find a way to get in touch with Mr. Mauro to thank him for his efforts (and I would suspect potentially discuss, in some detail, his post college career plans).
There are a lot of things I like about this story. For starters, this tale all began as a class project. When you talk about areas where gaming can play a big role in Education, Architecture doesnt usually sit at the top of most lists. However it is a subject very well suited to some of the benefits gaming can offer. Ben Mauro's work was conceptual, but with the sophistication of todays game engines, modeling out a space could provide benefits that, in some cases, could outweigh the CAD industry standard, particularly when it comes to visualization.
Two: This is a great example of a company (2k Games) harnessing the power of community rather than spurning it. Who can say whether or not 2K will end up signing Mauro's checks one day, but the very idea that they are seeking him out for personalized praise shows a new way of thinking about business that, in my opinion, is the wave of the future. Its also a great PR move.
Three: Its always nice to see talent get recognized.
Four: Though it is far less prominent, the dark side of the internet tends to be what gets the lions share of media attention. We don't often take the time to stop for a minute and consider just how unbelievable it is that a random college kid could post some art on his blog and within a few days have made an impact on a community of millions, to say nothing of the potential impact it could have on an enormously popular game franchise.
Five: As I've been writing this post, the weather ourside went from miserable, gray, windy wintery hail mix to a brighter shade of almost sunny gray with patches of blue sky peaking out. I'm not saying... I'm just saying...
If you want to see the rest of his Bioshock concept art or some of the other art he has (dude's got some skill) you can hit up his website, http://www.benmauro.blogspot.com/.
Images taken from ripten.com
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