Luke Smith

Luke Smith, also known as lukems on Bungie.net, is a lead artist working for Bungie, and a former community writer.

He was originally a video game journalist, working at Kotaku and 1up.com, and was notable for writing a critical piece disparaging Halo 2. Later, he was accepted into Microsoft and Bungie Studios to be an interface between Bungie and the fan community in March 2007, and is believed to be the replacement for Kevin Paul.

Luke Smith is characterized as a highly competitive player by his colleagues, and one of the most skilled Halo 3 players in Bungie Studios, and is notable for his "frank, uncensored opinions".

The name and description of the Steaktacular Medal ("Luke owes you a steak dinner.") come from a Bungie Hump Day Challenge in which Smith bet "a fantastic steak dinner at a real classy joint" that he could beat another team, led by Frank O'Connor, by at least 20 points. Luke's team won 50-21. Another match was played for bragging rights, and they again won, this time by a margin of 50-27.

Trivia

 * Luke Smith's gamertag is "Bang Shed".
 * He is the only Bungie staff not to equip their Halo 3 multiplayer Spartan Recon armor and the flaming helmet chest piece. As Brian Jarrard jokingly quoted: "...too cool to wear the team uniform apparently."
 * His quote regarding the Spartan laser references Star Wars's Obi Wan Kenobi's line about the lightsaber: "It's not overpowered, it's an elegant weapon from a more civilized age."
 * Luke is featured in the Halo 3 ViDoc: And on the Seven7th Day... in which he appears, alongside Shishka as his multiplayer avatar.