Next Metal Gear Solid May Be Too Controversial to Release

[Gottesstrafe]

I don't always like the results, but I do appreciate the fact that for a franchise as big as Metal Gear is, Kojima seems very willing to take risks with it. I'm hoping he follows through with the idea of a game based on The Boss and the Cobras.

Amen to that. I'd also like to see a game featuring Big Boss during his Green Beret days, maybe while he's training with The Boss or in Vietnam with Python. Hell, just anything with Big Boss. Aside from that I thought Kojima said he was tired of the Metal Gear universe (or perhaps it was just Snake) and wanted to pursue other games?

Honestly though, I'm just waiting for the scene when Solidus meets Solid Snake for the first time and says "I ain't yo daddy. How's it going brother?"

 

[Mcupobob]

Sounds like someone is pulling a peter Molyneux. Don't get me wrong, I like Metal Gear series. I just never though of it as a mature series, or had a interesting story or comprehensible story. Coarse could be that I was young when I started playing Metal gear, and when the 4th one came around and I couldn't honestly tell you what was going on even after sitting through all the cut-scenes.

 

[Shocksplicer]

I'm guessing... Interactive Necrophilia. Frequently interrupted by Codec conversations with Otacon about how much they love shooting puppies. While Snake wears a "Two Broke Girls" T-shirt.

No, that last one goes too far even of Kojima...

 

[Dagda Mor]

I'm pretty sure that he's doing this so that they stop forcing him to make more metal gear solid games.

That was the idea with MGS2, and it didn't work then.

 

[weirdee]

I'm pretty sure that he's doing this so that they stop forcing him to make more metal gear solid games.

That was the idea with MGS2, and it didn't work then.

far be it from kojima to stop doing things that don't work, though

 

[Reaper195]

"But I'm approaching this project from the point of view of a creator," he admits, "where I'm prioritizing creativity over sales."

Said no other game developer. Ever.


I really hope this game sells well.

 

[ExtraDebit]

Give me a BREAK! it's a fucking metal gear game! it's gonna sell no matter what!

And what's all these taboos he's talking about? We already got Bill Maher on the subject of religion, SAW series for gore, Hostel for torture, human centipide for really disturbing shit, what else is there? The only real taboo I can think of for the western world is child porn/pedophile.

 

[-Dragmire-]

"I'm going to be targeting a lot of taboos, a lot of mature themes, that really are quite risky,"

All right everyone place your bets. I've got betting odds right here.

I've never played more than 20 minutes of a metal gear solid game so I do not know the story or what Hideo Kojima writes about at all. But I do know what is considered taboo in games so without further ado.

The intentional killing of children by protagonists 3:1
Rape 9:1
Torture done by protagonists 5:2
Child molestation 10:1
Necrophilia 14:1 (you know I've seen enough discussions about it on the escapist that I don't think it would go over that badly by gamers if it were done).
Bestiality 16:1
Domestic animal abuse 15:1
Buying two poverty stricken pregnant women and telling them that they won't get out of the arena alive until one has eaten the other's fetus 2,000:1 But that would make for one hell of a game.

What about incest? 18:1

... I wonder if anyone's made Fetal Fight yet. I search it but... I'd really don't want to.

 

[Generic4me]

I bet it's a bunch of bullshit.

He probably kills some 15-year old brat. OOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHH THE HORRRRRRORORORS.

 

[kburns10]

I really hope he takes the risk! I will definitely support him and I know all of his fans will as well.

 

[Hawk eye1466]

All the best luck to him if it's as mature and interesting as he hopes I'd be more than happy to try it out.

 

[Chunga the Great]

It's a Metal Gear Solid game, which means I'll buy it. Especially after how amazing Peace Walker was.

 

[grigjd3]

Awwwww, was somebody out of the limelight too long? Does a certain developer want more media attention? That's such a good Kojima. Yes, yes, it is good to market your game by making statements sure to attract the attention of the news-starved masses.

 

[sageoftruth]

Ground Zeroes = 9/11 reference?

I was wondering that too. If someone's deliberately chasing after taboos, that's a pretty good one. Still, does 9/11 really mean much in Japan? Considering Hideo's love of conspiracies, I'm willing to wager that the Patriots, or whoever is behind the scenes, will be revealed to have been behind both 9/11 and the bombing of Hiroshima. Can't wait to find out.

 

[Saika Renegade]

"I'm going to be targeting a lot of taboos, a lot of mature themes, that really are quite risky,"

All right everyone place your bets. I've got betting odds right here.

I've never played more than 20 minutes of a metal gear solid game so I do not know the story or what Hideo Kojima writes about at all. But I do know what is considered taboo in games so without further ado.

The intentional killing of children by protagonists 3:1
Rape 9:1
Torture done by protagonists 5:2
Child molestation 10:1
Necrophilia 14:1 (you know I've seen enough discussions about it on the escapist that I don't think it would go over that badly by gamers if it were done).
Bestiality 16:1
Domestic animal abuse 15:1
Buying two poverty stricken pregnant women and telling them that they won't get out of the arena alive until one has eaten the other's fetus 2,000:1 But that would make for one hell of a game.

Squick alert:

So far, there's been heavily implied rape courtesy of Volgin in Metal Gear Solid 3 and domestic animal abuse from the same game (how do you feel about shooting domesticated military dogs and an old man's pet parrot? You're free to do both). Whether that's enough to cross them off your list is up to you, but the latter is entirely the player's choice already.

Otacon was molested by his mother at a young age, causing his father to commit suicide.

What about incest? 18:1

A bit late. Otacon's backstory already openly mentions it, and Liquid Snake's crazy speeches in the first Metal Gear Solid veer drunkenly into it.

Given some of the things happening in Rising and that have already happened in the Solid series, I wonder what Kojima's going to do in regards to pushing taboos--he'd need something that would work to more or less the same effect on both sides of the Pacific.

 

[Zing]

As noteworthy as his opinion is, and I agree completely the video game industry needs to grow the fuck up if it wants to be treated equally to film and other media. Buut, it doesn't really count if literally half the game is cutscenes. MGS4 is the only MGS game I've played and it had about 4 hours too many.

 

[MindFragged]

I want to call bulls--- on this one. Firstly, he implies games as a medium haven't matured in the last 25 years: HIS games haven't matured much, other parts of the industry are doing just fine (I don't need to list examples to you guys, right?).

Secondly, he acts like he is qualified to be the one to bring more mature themes into gaming. While his games sure have addressed mature themes at certain points and done so in a way that makes you feel their gravitas appropriately, it's usually crow-barred in via his usual over-laden exposition, and any subtext he attempts is so thinly veiled as to be risible. There is a difference between putting mature themes in a game and addressing themes in a game maturely.

Admittedly, I haven't played all of Kojima's games (only MGS1, MGS3, MGS4, ZoE2 and some of MGS2) but if he has skills in nuanced writing rather than just long-winded dialogue and labyrinthine, soap-operatic plot structure, I have yet to see them.

tldr: Games are already addressing mature themes (at least, some of them are) and even if they weren't, Kojima wouldn't be the guy to fix it.

 

[BrotherRool]

Ground Zeroes = 9/11 reference?

I was wondering that too. If someone's deliberately chasing after taboos, that's a pretty good one. Still, does 9/11 really mean much in Japan? Considering Hideo's love of conspiracies, I'm willing to wager that the Patriots, or whoever is behind the scenes, will be revealed to have been behind both 9/11 and the bombing of Hiroshima. Can't wait to find out.

According to other replies in the thread, Ground Zero is the term for the centre of something catastrophic, like a nuke detonation. Hiroshima and Nagasaki have ground zeroes so I think it's more likely to be that sort of thing than a 9/11 since this takes place during the cold war.

 

[sageoftruth]

Ground Zeroes = 9/11 reference?

I was wondering that too. If someone's deliberately chasing after taboos, that's a pretty good one. Still, does 9/11 really mean much in Japan? Considering Hideo's love of conspiracies, I'm willing to wager that the Patriots, or whoever is behind the scenes, will be revealed to have been behind both 9/11 and the bombing of Hiroshima. Can't wait to find out.

According to other replies in the thread, Ground Zero is the term for the centre of something catastrophic, like a nuke detonation. Hiroshima and Nagasaki have ground zeroes so I think it's more likely to be that sort of thing than a 9/11 since this takes place during the cold war.

True. Metal Gear games never really exist in the modern world, so Hiroshima seems a lot more plausible than 9/11. I'm starting to worry that this game will only push buttons in Japanese culture, since they have a very specific set of taboos.

 

[BrotherRool]

True. Metal Gear games never really exist in the modern world, so Hiroshima seems a lot more plausible than 9/11. I'm starting to worry that this game will only push buttons in Japanese culture, since they have a very specific set of taboos.

Oh thats an interesting point, I always figured the games were a bit tamer in terms of controversial topics than they made out to be, but I never thought about the different cultural background.