Artist and gamer ziegfield has made it known that there are two new fan art sketches of the upcoming game Marathon from Bungie, and immediately the community has reacted with the request for more art. The humorous tweet, which is an indirect comment on the fact that the game has not even been released yet, shows how much of a good thing the new title has created in terms of early excitement and creativity. By the time the game is out, one can assume that the players would have built such a bond with the world and characters of Marathon as they are already showing their support through such actions during this early phase.
What? Really? Bungie’s Marathon is still not released? No date is announced, just a couple of previews and stuff, and the hype train is already running at full speed. Besides, one of the artists is making it super bright and fun. An online artist and gamer known as ziegfield has tweeted two drawings of Marathon, and the response has been… madness. It was the tweet revealing the simple fact “marathon isn’t even out yet and i’ve already got two pieces done 🧍🏽♂️ which runner should i do next?” it was accompanied by a slick image of two armored runners from the game looking all mysterious and poised for action.
And man, the answers were really something. They weren’t limited to just “cool art.” It turned into a huge social media event. Gamers were already picking their fav runners from the trailers that had been released and trying hard to get their choice to be the next one to be painted. The whole thing was quite a sight to see. The names that were brought up were: Triage, Recon, Thief, Destroyer, Blackbird. One user even requested Triage “holding his little boy,” which I guess refers to some lore detail that is not widely known?
One user vintii put it this way “I am collecting all marathon art like infinity stones,” which is indeed a very nice feeling. Ziegfield had to apologize that the images were only at 1440p and promised to put the full-resolution files on their website. Still, it just shows how serious people are about this. They want top-quality for their collections, even for a game that is not even a twinkle in Bungie’s eye yet!
This is hard to imagine. Fan art and involvement with characters of this kind normally occur only after the release of a game. You have your play-through, you become attached to a main or bear in the function of villain and then you start making stuff about them. In the case of Marathon, people are already making very strong claims and drawing favorites on the basis of just the teaser and marketing materials. They are capturing the entire vibe, the look of the various “Runners,” and building their own hype. It is marketing through the community, but of the fun kind.
What does this imply for Marathon’s future? Bungie has been fantastic at designing realistic worlds no matter be it Halo rings or the Destiny solar system. Marathon’s runners are no different – their designs carry a narrative just through their looks. Is that a medic? Is that the one who is good at hiding? Gamers peeking into those profiles are just going bonkers in their imagination filling the gaps. And visualists like ziegfield are making those fantasies visible.
Thus, the primary query now is not only “when does Marathon get announced?” but also “who will ziegfield be showcasing next?” The audience has voted and Thief and Triage got a major share, yet Recon and Destroyer have their faithful followers too. To be honest, this is a nice problem to face. While we are all looking forward to the date announcement from Bungie, the community is already creating the lore and the love by itself. This first burst of creativity signals that the interest in Marathon is not just for a moment – it is the beginning of a dedicated player base that will be entirely engaged in this new fantasy world. The game is still in development, but the artistic side of its fanbase is already highly impressively displaying some remarkable talents. The excitement extends to platforms like PlayStation and Xbox as well.
