2nd September 2004, 9:06 PM
Ok, yeah I found it very interesting and very compelling. I especially like that (he claims) Hideo Kojima confirmed what he has said. And love the notion that MGS2's story is a story that only a videogame can tell. Really, how else would MGS2's story be told and be anywhere NEAR as effective. It's a story that you need to be playing to really be immersed in. At least this is how I see it, as yunno, I can't go back in time, erase my memories of the game and then read a version of the game that was made into a novel, then go forward in time regain my memories and compare the two... yah, sounds about right.
Which really goes with what we were saying in the other thread about finding ways to tell a story which are exclusive to the medium of videogames. One example was Metroid Prime, a very simple premise with a lot of background. If you are interested in the story YOU, the player, has to search out and find it. As interactive a Story as you can get (other than the fact that the story, past and present, is predetermined. Perhaps the ultimate goal of videogames is to create a story with how you play the game. And I don't just mean making various pre-determined choices to alter which of the various endings you will see, rather a story that is truely made by the player, with no predetermined outcome, or final result. The best and closest example of this would probably be Way of the Samurai, but even that is predetermined.).
The opposite end of the spectrum would be MGS2, a story that is thrust upon you, and is only effective in the ways that it is done so. If you found Rose's constant interruptions annoying, GOOD. You were supposed to. It means Hideo achieved what he was trying to do. Were you confused (and amused) by the Colonel's random comments interrupting you, GOOD. I know I ran around trying to get him to say every last one before I progressed. Simply writing in a novel that you are once again interrupted by your superior shouting random obscenites would not have the same effect. I could probably elaborate on what I mean forever, but I hope you get my point. :)
However, I do think there are far less holes in MGS2's plot than most people believe. But that doesn't make the story any less ludicrous. :D
Which really goes with what we were saying in the other thread about finding ways to tell a story which are exclusive to the medium of videogames. One example was Metroid Prime, a very simple premise with a lot of background. If you are interested in the story YOU, the player, has to search out and find it. As interactive a Story as you can get (other than the fact that the story, past and present, is predetermined. Perhaps the ultimate goal of videogames is to create a story with how you play the game. And I don't just mean making various pre-determined choices to alter which of the various endings you will see, rather a story that is truely made by the player, with no predetermined outcome, or final result. The best and closest example of this would probably be Way of the Samurai, but even that is predetermined.).
The opposite end of the spectrum would be MGS2, a story that is thrust upon you, and is only effective in the ways that it is done so. If you found Rose's constant interruptions annoying, GOOD. You were supposed to. It means Hideo achieved what he was trying to do. Were you confused (and amused) by the Colonel's random comments interrupting you, GOOD. I know I ran around trying to get him to say every last one before I progressed. Simply writing in a novel that you are once again interrupted by your superior shouting random obscenites would not have the same effect. I could probably elaborate on what I mean forever, but I hope you get my point. :)
However, I do think there are far less holes in MGS2's plot than most people believe. But that doesn't make the story any less ludicrous. :D
If i had a dollar for every time i ran out of hair in the middle of a spoon making contest id only eat your children with a side of slaw and THOSE ARENT PILLOWS!!