Metal Gear Solid & Modern Politics 101

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > C-SPAM > Metal Gear Solid & Modern Politics 101

Taintrunner: Apr 10, 2017; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKl6WjfDqYA

In 2001, legendary videogame visionary Hideo Kojima predicted our modern pseudo-cyberpunkish hellhole via the Playstation 2 videogame Metal Gear Solid 2. In fact, he was so accurate that the finale release of the game had to cut the Arsenal Gear smashing into Federal Hall in order to not offend post-9/11 sensibilities. Since then, the reality of the climax of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty has become our modern nightmare.

quote:

Rose: We've always kept records of our lives. Through words, pictures, symbols... from tablets to books...
But not all the information was inherited by later generations.
Colonel: A small percentage of the whole was selected and processed, then passed on. Not unlike genes, really.
Rose: That's what history is, Jack.
Colonel: But in the current, digitized world,
trivial information is accumulating every second, preserved in all its triteness.
Never fading, always accessible.
Rose: Rumors about petty issues, misinterpretations, slander...
Colonel: All this junk data preserved in an unfiltered state, growing at an alarming rate.
Rose: It will only slow down social progress, reduce the rate of evolution.
Colonel: Raiden, you seem to think that our plan is one of censorship.
Raiden: Are you telling me it's not!?
Rose: You're being silly! What we propose to do is not to control content, but to create context.
Raiden: Create context?
Colonel: The digital society furthers human flaws and selectively rewards
development of convenient half-truths.
Just look at the strange juxtapositions of morality around you.
Rose: Billions spent on new weapons in order to humanely murder other humans.
Colonel: Rights of criminals are given more respect than the privacy of their victims.
Rose: Although there are people suffering in poverty, huge donations are made to protect endangered species.
Everyone grows up being told the same thing.
Colonel: Be nice to other people.
Rose: But beat out the competition!
Colonel: "You're special." "Believe in yourself and you will succeed."
Rose: But it's obvious from the start that only a few can succeed...
Colonel: You exercise your right to "freedom" and this is the result.
All rhetoric to avoid conflict and protect each other from hurt.
The untested truths spun by different interests continue to churn and accumulate
in the sandbox of political correctness and value systems.
Rose: Everyone withdraws into their own small gated community, afraid of a larger forum.
They stay inside their little ponds,
leaking whatever "truth" suits them into the growing cesspool of society at large.
Colonel: The different cardinal truths neither clash nor mesh.
No one is invalidated, but nobody is right.
Rose: Not even natural selection can take place here. The world is being engulfed in "truth."
Colonel: And this is the way the world ends. Not with a bang, but a whimper.
Rose: We're trying to stop that from happening.
Colonel: It's our responsibility as rulers.
Just as in genetics, unnecessary information and memory must be filtered out
to stimulate the evolution of the species.
Raiden: And you think you're qualified to decide what's necessary and not!?
Colonel: Absolutely. Who else could wade through the sea of garbage you people produce,
retrieve valuable truths and even interpret their meaning for later generations?
Rose: That's what it means to create context.
Raiden: I'll decide for myself what to believe and what to pass on!
Colonel: But is that even your own idea?
Rose: Or something Snake told you?
Raiden: Ahh
Colonel: That's the proof of your incompetence, right there.
You lack the qualifications to exercise free will.
Raiden: That's not true! I have the right --
Rose: Does something like a "self" exist inside of you?
Colonel: That which you call "self" serves as nothing more than a mask to cover your own being.
Rose: In this era of ready-made 'truths',
"self" is just something used to preserve those positive emotions that you occasionally feel...
Colonel: ...Another possibility is that "self" is a concept you conveniently borrowed under the logic
that it would endow you with some sense of strength...
Raiden: That's crap!
Colonel: Is it? Would you prefer that someone else tell you? Alright then. Explain it to him.
Rose: Jack, you're simply the best! And you got there all by yourself!
Raiden: Rrrr...
Colonel: Oh, what happened? Do you feel lost? Why not try a bit of soul-searching?
Rose: Don't think you'll find anything, though...
Colonel: Ironic that although "self" is something that you yourself fashioned,
every time something goes wrong, you turn around and place the blame on something else.
Rose: It's not my fault. It's not your fault.
Colonel: In denial, you simply resort to looking for another,
more convenient "truth" in order to make yourself feel better.
Rose: ...leaving behind in an instant the so-called "truth" you once embraced.
Colonel: Should someone like that be able to decide what is "truth"?
Rose: Should someone like you even have the right to decide?
Colonel: You've done nothing but abuse your freedom.
Rose: You don't deserve to be free!
Colonel: We're not the ones smothering the world. You are.

It's time to stop running away from the realities that Metal Gear predicted, and start embracing this series as a modern text to comprehend our nightmarish present and the hellish future that awaits us lest we do nothing. How do we realize the importance of our own existence in a post-MGS world? What is to be done?

# ? Jun 19, 2018 10:00

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# ? May 4, 2024 23:46

Crusader: Apr 11, 2002

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWR-zuiIFvQ

# ? Jun 19, 2018 10:11

Taintrunner: Apr 10, 2017; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

shut the gently caress up shitlib

# ? Jun 19, 2018 10:17

The Ol Spicy Keychain: Jan 17, 2013; I MEPHISTO MY OWN ASSHOLE

I played the MGS5 intro where the guy shoots a flaming whale at you then I uninstalled the game. Anyway that's my experience with metal gear.

# ? Jun 19, 2018 10:46

Tiberius Christ: Mar 4, 2009

Nanomachines, son!

second best fictional president

e: oh wait he was a senator

# ? Jun 19, 2018 10:54

Mia Wasikowska: Oct 7, 2006

solidus snake was the president though lol

man that game is so good.

"i've been inside this arm all along!'

I wish it was anywhere near as much fun to go back and play as MG3 tho

# ? Jun 19, 2018 11:15

Pantsuit: Oct 28, 2013

Scent of Worf posted:

I played the MGS5 intro where the guy shoots a flaming whale at you then I uninstalled the game. Anyway that's my experience with metal gear.

that�s cool tho???

# ? Jun 19, 2018 11:34

Egg Moron: Jul 21, 2003; the dreams of the delighting void

but a TED talk told me to share MY truth

# ? Jun 19, 2018 11:59

Communist Bear: Oct 7, 2008

MGS1, 2 and 4 were good. The rest were garbage fires.

# ? Jun 19, 2018 12:04

C-Euro: Mar 20, 2010; Soiled Meat

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmWQd8zhEg4

# ? Jun 19, 2018 12:16

Mia Wasikowska: Oct 7, 2006

WMain00 posted:

MGS1, 2 and 4 were good. The rest were garbage fires.

what the gently caress???

# ? Jun 19, 2018 12:23

Communist Bear: Oct 7, 2008

Zas posted:

what the gently caress???

Oh yes, there was also Revengeance. The best of the series.

# ? Jun 19, 2018 12:25

Mia Wasikowska: Oct 7, 2006

WMain00 posted:

Oh yes, there was also Revengeance. The best of the series.

but I mean are you for real about not liking 3? you're loving with me right

# ? Jun 19, 2018 12:26

Communist Bear: Oct 7, 2008

Zas posted:

but I mean are you for real about not liking 3? you're loving with me right

Woops that was a typo! Yes 3 was good too. Don't panic.

# ? Jun 19, 2018 12:29

WampaLord: Jan 14, 2010

I NEED SCISSORS! 61!

# ? Jun 19, 2018 12:33

WampaLord: Jan 14, 2010

Raiden, something happened to me last Thursday when I was driving home. I had a couple of miles to go - I looked up and saw a glowing orange object in the sky, to the east! It was moving very irregularly. Suddenly there was intense light all around me, and when I came to, I was home. What do you think happened to me?

# ? Jun 19, 2018 12:34

WampaLord: Jan 14, 2010

But for real, while Kojima was a prophet in predicting some of this stuff, he didn't really give us any practical solutions beyond "hope that a really cool soldier good guy dude fixes all the world's problems"

Like look at the common man in the Metal Gear universe, he's portrayed as someone who is just being controlled by systems he can't possibly hope to affect or change, only super soldiers with animal names have any agency.

# ? Jun 19, 2018 12:35

Mia Wasikowska: Oct 7, 2006

I mean, Raiden doesn't have any agency either

The message, if there is one, is basically "log off" (but with the acknowledgement that no one playing is actually gonna do that)

# ? Jun 19, 2018 12:41

WampaLord: Jan 14, 2010

Zas posted:

I mean, Raiden doesn't have any agency either

I chose my phrasing very carefully, you need to have an animal name in the Metal Gear universe to have agency.

Like Snake or Ocelot. Raiden is not an animal name.

# ? Jun 19, 2018 12:44

Mia Wasikowska: Oct 7, 2006

i dunno i think despite the big colorful cast of heroes and villains the series is pretty honest about events being shaped by deeper currents beyond anyone's real control or understanding. that's something I always liked about it

# ? Jun 19, 2018 12:51

Mia Wasikowska: Oct 7, 2006

felix from chapo says some simiiar stuff: http://podbay.fm/show/1212245244/e/1494506760

# ? Jun 19, 2018 12:55

Tokamak: Dec 22, 2004

Metal Gear Solid was the closest thing most gamers had to reading a book. It's pretty easy to consider it a revelation if you had nothing to compare it to.

# ? Jun 19, 2018 13:01

VileLL: Oct 3, 2015

it's cool that otacon was an accurate prediction of the silicon valley type, pushed into creating horrific terror weapons by his obsession for nerd properties

# ? Jun 19, 2018 14:36

VileLL: Oct 3, 2015

it's just like one of my american movies! hollers techman as he refines the wing design for a predator drone

# ? Jun 19, 2018 14:38

Poniard: Apr 3, 2011

everything in the mgs games is from something else, kojima just mashed all of his source material together and people got exposure to it for the first time

huey emmerich is a real piece of poo poo though

# ? Jun 19, 2018 14:47

Terror Sweat: Mar 15, 2009

Taintrunner posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKl6WjfDqYA

In 2001, legendary videogame visionary Hideo Kojima predicted our modern pseudo-cyberpunkish hellhole via the Playstation 2 videogame Metal Gear Solid 2. In fact, he was so accurate that the finale release of the game had to cut the Arsenal Gear smashing into Federal Hall in order to not offend post-9/11 sensibilities. Since then, the reality of the climax of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty has become our modern nightmare.

It's time to stop running away from the realities that Metal Gear predicted, and start embracing this series as a modern text to comprehend our nightmarish present and the hellish future that awaits us lest we do nothing. How do we realize the importance of our own existence in a post-MGS world? What is to be done?

FACT: it was legendary visionary Fukushima who is responsible for this. Kojima is a hack and every game he has full creative control over is just a complete mess storywise and is incomprehensible

Unfortunately the elite saw this and hired the yakuza to kidnap Fukushima and he was never heard from again after mgs3

# ? Jun 19, 2018 15:01

Terror Sweat: Mar 15, 2009

WampaLord posted:

I chose my phrasing very carefully, you need to have an animal name in the Metal Gear universe to have agency.

Like Snake or Ocelot. Raiden is not an animal name.

Even the boss has no agency, what a cruel world

# ? Jun 19, 2018 15:02

TheIllestVillain: Dec 27, 2011; Sal, Wyoming's not a country

WMain00 posted:

MGS4 was good.

# ? Jun 19, 2018 15:07

Pablo Nergigante: Apr 16, 2002

Poniard posted:

everything in the mgs games is from something else, kojima just mashed all of his source material together and people got exposure to it for the first time

huey emmerich is a real piece of poo poo though

That's like everything that's ever been made though

# ? Jun 19, 2018 15:12

Terror Sweat: Mar 15, 2009

WMain00 posted:

MGS1, 2 and 4 were good. The rest were garbage fires.

What the gently caress, 1,2,3 were incredible. Then Fukushima left and we have the mess that is 4, peace walker, and 5. Thank goodness that hideo is such an expert at creating amazing gameplay and is a good director, but the story is a complete mess after Fukushima�s departure

# ? Jun 19, 2018 15:15

TheIllestVillain: Dec 27, 2011; Sal, Wyoming's not a country

2 is my favourite but 3 (the one with the revised camera system) is the most well crafted and balanced game i've ever played to this day

if u disagree fight me oval office

# ? Jun 19, 2018 15:28

WampaLord: Jan 14, 2010

Terror Sweat posted:

Even the boss has no agency, what a cruel world

Her entire purpose, post-death, is to inspire awful worldviews in all of the villains who think they understand what her vision was but are all getting it wrong.

So, yea, p much

# ? Jun 19, 2018 15:35

Terror Sweat: Mar 15, 2009

TheIllestVillain posted:

2 is my favourite but 3 (the one with the revised camera system) is the most well crafted and balanced game i've ever played to this day

if u disagree fight me oval office

Playing 5 with the on site procurement mod is really fun

# ? Jun 19, 2018 15:37

MeatwadIsGod: Sep 30, 2004; Foretold by Gyromancy

With the way things are going, I could see us having a president who commanded child soldiers in Liberia

Realtalk MGS2 and Deus Ex are required for CSPAM

# ? Jun 19, 2018 16:22

Typo: Aug 19, 2009; Chernigov Military Aviation Lyceum
The Fighting Slowpokes

late 90s-early 2000s games in general were pretty predictive of some current trends (see deus ex) but then again that was only like 15-20 years ago so it's not that hard to see coming

# ? Jun 19, 2018 16:27

Apoplexy: Mar 9, 2003; by Shine

WMain00 posted:

MGS1, 2 and 4 were good. The rest were garbage fires.

How in the gently caress do you say this about 3

edit: Read further; it's coo

# ? Jun 19, 2018 16:29

Pablo Nergigante: Apr 16, 2002

MGS is some drat win imo.

# ? Jun 19, 2018 16:34

Metal Cat: Dec 25, 2017

OP, it'd be cool if the scope of the thread were broadened to be about video games and politics in general. Not only because of stuff like Deus Ex that was already mentioned, but because I want an excuse to post dumb takes on games like Parasite Eve 2. :henget:

# ? Jun 19, 2018 16:37

Dreddout: Oct 1, 2015; You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.

I liked 5 a lot for the gameplay but it's very much it's own thing and not a traditional mgs game :shrug:

# ? Jun 19, 2018 16:39

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# ? May 4, 2024 23:46

WampaLord: Jan 14, 2010

Metal Cat posted:

OP, it'd be cool if the scope of the thread were broadened to be about video games and politics in general. Not only because of stuff like Deus Ex that was already mentioned, but because I want an excuse to post dumb takes on games like Parasite Eve 2.

# ? Jun 19, 2018 16:40

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