Ken Levine

Ken after a charity live streamhttps://twinfinite.net/2015/12/ken-levines-new-game-is-inspired-by-the-likes-of-dark-souls-and-fallout/Ken Levine has many award winning games that he's known for but, one thing I will always remember him for is his role as the circus of value clown. The annoying clown voice you hear echo through the halls of Rapture, the imaginary underwater city he created for his game. He played the role for his game BioShock, because he was the best actor they could afford at the time, a free one. Levine is the creative lead at irrational games located in Boston and worked on such masterpieces as BioShock,  BioShock Infinite, System Shock 2, and Thief the Dark Project. Growing up he was a shy nerd with a lisp that was bullied. But he persevered and became one of the most talented and successful game developers ever. Like Levine a hero must possess selflessness and ambition, without these values a hero won't be able to achieve a goal or a goal that has an impact. Levine was ambitious he was trying to create a game that had a story as deep as a movie and a game as fun as the rest. He showed selflessness during the making of his games sacrificing his happiness for others. Ken Levine possess ambition and selflessness, he demonstrates this through the way he makes his games and how he makes other people's lives better.

The logo for Kens game studio Irrational Gameshttps://restartreplay.com/xbox-360/bioshock-developer-irrational-games-winding-down/

Ken Levine’s ambition led him to revolutionize the way games told stories. He showed they could be as deep and interesting as any other medium. Because of the passion that fed his ambition he did things no one had ever done before."I wanted to to create an interactive experience as sophisticated as a movie, a game that could appeal to non-gamers as well as gamers," Levine says. "BioShock is the game I always wanted to make,” (Restuccia 22). Levine’s ambition led him to make a great story that made people take video game storytelling seriously. Heros change people's minds, whether it was Jackie Robinson changing the minds of sports fans making it acceptable for an African American to play professional baseball or football, or Gandhi showing people a war can be won without a gunshot or violence. Levine might not be on the same level as they are, but he still made a change.Unlike other stories at the time, his borrowed heavily from Ayn Rand's work like the Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. The main antagonist Andrew Ryan is the physical embodiment of Ayn Rand and Rapture is the Galt's Gulch or the place where all the talented and gifted went to protest the control the government had over their work Even the name of the imaginary city is connected. The definition of rapture is, transporting of believers to heaven at the Second Coming of Christ. This lines up with what Ayn Rand said in her book and what Andrew Ryan did, he brought his followers to “Heaven” or Rapture where people could live free of the chains that the government put on them.Gamers and non gamers were introduced to the philosophy of Ayn Rand through BioShock. Her philosophy was “My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute,”(Rand, appendix to Atlas Shrugged).What she described there is Objectivism and rational Individualism, in other words you live life for your happiness and work hard to achieve your goals while using reason as your moral compass.Ken told all of this through a medium that is made to entertain and not to teach.All of this made his underwater city fell believable and lived in. “The city is recognizable on a human level because, for better or worse, Mr. Levine is not like other artists making video games. Yes, he describes himself as a nerd, someone who collects action figures and comic book art. But he professes to care more about popular culture and American history than he does about playing,” ( Goldberg 12). Levine wove classic literature and philosophy into his characters, setting and themes like Ayn Rand's the Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. Ken went beyond what most stories do, he innovated the way stories were told in the medium. He had a more serious story that had real emotional weight. Additionally the themes were deep and were a commentary on games themselves, like control and choice and how in games you don't really have control. Ken’s ambition led him to make a story that did things no one had done before and because of this it changed people's minds. Also while he made  BioShock he showed that helping others was more important than making money.

A portrait of Levine in front of his game BioShockhttps://www.rollingstone.com/glixel/features/inside-bioshock-video-game-series-with-ken-levine-w439921

Ken along with his ambition was very selfless. He gave high paying jobs to people in his community when he didn't need to and he never compromised his vision for money. Ken helped people in his state even when the state’s legislature didn't. “Lost in the state's quest to support the biotech industry with $1 billion in incentives and the push to bring in casino gambling, game studios like 2K Games are quietly adding scores of high-paying professional jobs that are squarely a part of the creative economy. With entry-level jobs in the industry starting at $30,000 and ranging as high as $125,000,” (Restuccia 6). Instead of paying his employees less to make a bigger profit he employed 80 people with salaries that they could live off of unlike the state of Massachusetts. He is a hero because he made other people's lives better rather than his own. Ken also is a hero because he allows creative people with talent to have well paying jobs that showcase the talent that they have. Another thing he did was wait  until his game was finished to release it to the world. “Pre-Production on BioShock began in 2002, but the game wasn't released until 2007. Before the release, Irrational Games became so strapped for cash that Levine and his partners were forced to sell the company to publisher Take Two Interactive,” (Ken Levine 5). Levine is unlike most game developers, he spent the time and money his game needed to be great. He is a hero because he wasn't selfish and didn’t rush his game to make the most money for the least amount of work. Through it all he kept his integrity and made a game that made others happy, instead of  leaving them feeling unsatisfied and robbed. In the end the only thing heros accomplish is making others people's lives better instead of their own. Ken also didn't originally want to make BioShock because of the disappointing sales that System Shock 2 had, the game BioShock was greatly inspired by. But because his team wanted to, and him being the selfless person he is, he agreed to work on BioShock. Again, he made others happy not himself, thus making him a hero in my book. Ken was a selfless person who cared more about others than his happiness or paycheck.

Ken Levine's ambition and selflessness helped him to make other people's lives better through the games he created. Levine changed the way games were made and the way they were perceived. He gave many high paying jobs to people in Boston. Ken was always striving to make other people's lives better whether it was his employees or the people that play his games. Also, Levine inspires others because he persevered through his troubled past to become one of the best game developers ever. Even through this journey he never lost his integrity from incentives like money or fame. He let his true talent and ambition carry him to the top and being the selfless person he is, he brought people to the top with him.

Any Rand the person who heavly influenced Ken's workhttps://www.biography.com/people/ayn-rand-9451526 

Works cited

"Ken Levine." Gale Biography in Context, Gale, 2013. Biography in Context, https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/K1650008770/BIC1?u=powa9245&xid=d48627e4. Accessed 4 Feb. 2018.

Restuccia, Paul. "Hit video game raise profile of developer." Boston Herald, 16 Sept. 2007, p. 028. Student Resources in Context, https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A168723048/SUIC?u=powa9245&xid=ac19e2f5. Accessed 4 Feb. 2018.

Goldberg, Harold. "The Nerd as Auteur." New York Times, 24 Mar. 2013, p. 1(L). Student Resources in Context, https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A323371527/SUIC?u=powa9245&xid=964156da. Accessed 4 Feb. 2018.