Power of the People…of Rapture
Isn’t it a funny thing? Every once in a while you’ll walk out of your local grocery store or get a knock on your door on a random Saturday afternoon and someone is standing there with a piece of paper. They give you the 30 second “elevator speech” about what they’re bothering you with (95% of the time it’s worthless) and then ask you to sign a petition. Sometimes you do, sometimes you don’t, but rarely do you think it’ll actually end up making an impact in any major way.
Not always the case!!! There is game set for release on August 21, 2007 called BioShock. This game is one of the most HIGHLY anticipated Xbox360 titles out there. For months and months, gamers have been on the lookout for anything they can sink their teeth in to with regards to BioShock. Lucky for us, 2k Games has been more than generous with the amount of videos released in the last month or two.
Anyway, I could spend all night writing about how amazing I think BioShock is going to be, but I’ll let you do your own research on that. You can check out some previews here on Gamespot, or here at 1Up…but here is a summary giving a very abstract understanding (bear with me, it’s weird enough to be worth the read):
“In the middle of the north Atlantic, a lighthouse juts out of the water. Inside waits a rusted bathysphere, which takes you deep under the ocean to Rapture, a city sprawling along the sea floor.
A man named Andrew Ryan, a former Soviet citizen, built the city in 1946, and the society was envisioned as the ultimate capitalistic and individualist paradise, with the elite achieving for themselves, rather than for the whole. Protected by a network of giant sea walls and consisting of a cluster of enormous skyscraper-shaped hive towers, Rapture was designed to be entirely self-supporting, with all of its electricity, food production, water purification and defense systems powered by volcanic vents at the bottom of the ocean.
At one point Rapture’s population numbered several thousand at its peak during the early 1950s, composed of those people Ryan viewed as the best examples of mankind. A large and tiered economy grew among the people, with different quality products catering to different levels of the society.
The grand Art Deco architecture is at once futuristic and archaic, but as you step into Rapture, you find the city a shell of itself. The walls are crumbling and the ocean is seeping in. The hallways are littered with corpses, those who were once the best and brightest of the world above are now mutated and mad, roaming the corridors and waiting to ambush you at every turn.”
Also feel free to meander around the Cult of Rapture, the official game site…very cool and includes lots of other information. But most importantly, it includes information about one of the coolest petitions I’ve heard about in a long time.
Because of the expansive fan base for BioShock, one gamer saw an opportunity to send a message to the creators of the game. After speaking with some of his peers, he decided to start an online petition, showing just how many fans would buy a Limited Edition version of the game. When the petition was started, it caught the eye of 2k Games representatives. They decided to see how far it would go. To make it a deal, they stated if the petition reached 5,000 signatures, they would make the Limited Edition copy of the game.
By 11:15pm, only a few hours after the inception of the petition, the goal of 5,000 signatures was met. After a mere 18 hours, the number had reached 14,000, and is still climbing. Happily surprised, 2k Games is now soliciting information from their fans to find exactly what they want in their Limited Edition version as they fully intend to keep their word. At this point, I can only imagine what will be included, but I’m sure it’ll certainly please the fans. Now THAT’S what can happen when avid fans and good business people get together.
Fare thee well…
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