Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes and Rape

[The Crispy Tiger]

To know what I'm talking about let me include a link to Chico's Cassette Tape 4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zi5118dawhc

Then let me give you a link to Nerd³'s video because I'm talking about his opinion also (Skip to the 17 minute mark in): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JW1HP-JiPWo

Good, that should pretty much bring you up to speed on the tone of the last game and what will be The Phantom Pain.

How to put this into words... What the hell Kojima. What the fuck were you thinking when you wrote this. Because it's not badly written, it's not torture porn, it's not for titillation or excitement. It's clear to me that was important character development that shows the extent of the torment placed on Paz and Chico. It's shows how fucking far off the deep end the two have gone and why that's important. You put this completely to the side, IN THE REWARD SECTION, because if you put it in the main campaign, as a cutscene/flashback when talking to Chico, you would've gotten a fucking AO rating without a doubt.

Two Things.

A) When you write shit like this, you make the choice of two options that become available. Place it where it needs to be placed, in THE EXACT PLACE TO PUT IT. OR SCRAP IT!!!! It's okay to not put certain things in. You could've had it implied in a conversation. You could've put it as a cutscene. You've could've done SOMETHING better, but instead you put it in the WORSE POSSIBLE PLACE, you could put it.

B) Listen to the end. Here's the thing, I should be upset at the end part more than anything else of the entire tape if I were offended (Which I'm not offended at the material written, I'm offended at where they decided to put it.), but here's the thing, I'm not. Although, yes it's casual sex between a woman and child, and yes, that is beyond fucked to a level of fucked up that I can't begin to describe in words. The reason why I'm not calling the lynch mob on that shit is because of what I said at the beginning. The extent of the torment on the two of these people has been so severe that they are now supporting each other and caring for one another in a romantic way. THAT'S HOW FAR THIS SHIT HAS GONE, THAT'S HOW FAR THEIR PSYCHE HAS BEEN RUINED AND PLUNGED INTO COMPLETE SHAMBLES. It's gone so far, that Paz, a twenty something year old woman is now romantically involved with Chico, a thirteen year old boy...

That is FUCKED UP.

Part two and three of the tape, Paz's rape by Skull Face (Which by the fucking way, I should point out that I've NEVER played a Metal Gear game, but as far as I know, they've always been blockbusters of fun with popcorn and shit like that, and still are, with the exception of putting a bomb in Paz's vagina... YEAH, so what fuck happened where it got this dark? I digress), and Chico's forced sex with Paz, there's not really much to talk about. Those parts of the tape can only summed up as fucked up and I couldn't get much discussion on them, EXCEPT FOR THIS. I say Chico's forced sex because I don't know exactly who's raping at the moment, that scares the shit out of me, but let me explain. Skull Face has Chico have sex with Paz. Paz kinda, sorta, gives him consent because she knows there's no way around this. So the person raping her would be Skull Face, but he's not doing the deed, that would be Chico. You know what, I don't fucking know, and someone's going to have to put on their detective hat and deduce specifically what crime's being committed there.

That's a lot of questions and a lot of talk to be put out there. I really want to know what everyone's opinion on this is, and yeah, I feel like I need to take a bath.

 

[Fappy]

I watched the commentary but I am not going to listen to the tape. Don't really see the point. Rape and torture are two highly sensitive topics and it is kind of sickening how they've been handled here. Like the OP, I understand the idea of the tape, I really do. I think that, when appropriate, it is OK to go into graphic detail regarding something so ugly and vile because, well, that shit DOES happen in real life. The problem here, however, is that it has NO PLACE in MGS and has been handled with the finesse of a drunk elephant (no surprise there). It is very, very, very important to know your audience when you will touch such volatile subjects and it is like Kojima wasn't even paying attention. What may very well could have been insightful commentary of modern torture camps and/or a deep, emotional and uncomfortable character study just turned into a spectacle.

I am not convinced gaming as an art is really ready for this kind of subject matter. Sure, you may have some truly brilliant writers pull it off in an indy game or something, but as far as AAA games go... just no. This is the kind of shit that makes every other art form look down on gaming. The blatant sloppiness and immaturity at play here is, quite frankly, disgusting.

 

[The Crispy Tiger]

I watched the commentary but I am not going to listen to the tape. Don't really see the point. Rape and torture are two highly sensitive topics and it is kind of sickening how they've been handled here. Like the OP, I understand the idea of the tape, I really do. I think that, when appropriate, it is OK to go into graphic detail regarding something so ugly and vile because, well, that shit DOES happen in real life. The problem here, however, is that it has NO PLACE in MGS and has been handled with the finesse of a drunk elephant (no surprise there). It is very, very, very important to know your audience when you will touch such volatile subjects and it is like Kojima wasn't even paying attention. What may very well could have been insightful commentary of modern torture camps and/or a deep, emotional and uncomfortable character study just turned into a spectacle.

I am not convinced gaming as an art is really ready for this kind of subject matter. Sure, you may have some truly brilliant writers pull it off in an indy game or something, but as far as AAA games go... just no. This is the kind of shit that makes every other art form look down on gaming. The blatant sloppiness and immaturity at play here is, quite frankly, disgusting.

I totally see your point of view, and your opinion is totally valid.

 

[Casual Shinji]

I am not convinced gaming as an art is really ready for this kind of subject matter. Sure, you may have some truly brilliant writers pull it off in an indy game or something, but as far as AAA games go... just no. This is the kind of shit that makes every other art form look down on gaming. The blatant sloppiness and immaturity at play here is, quite frankly, disgusting.

It's ready. But as is with every other medium, if you expose too much, the tragedy gets bogged down by the visual nastiness of it all.

The whole scene where Paz is getting torn open to remove the bomb from her gut loses all tragedy, because you're too preoccupied with... her gut getting torn open. You don't feel sad, you feel sick.

Now I haven't listened to the tape in question, but I would think the same applies.

 

[Fappy]

I am not convinced gaming as an art is really ready for this kind of subject matter. Sure, you may have some truly brilliant writers pull it off in an indy game or something, but as far as AAA games go... just no. This is the kind of shit that makes every other art form look down on gaming. The blatant sloppiness and immaturity at play here is, quite frankly, disgusting.

It's ready. But as is with every other medium, if you expose too much, the tragedy gets bogged down by the visual nastiness of it all.

The whole scene where Paz is getting torn open to remove the bomb from her gut loses all tragedy, because you're too preoccupied with... her gut getting torn open. You don't feel sad, you feel sick.

Now I haven't listened to the tape in question, but I would think the same applies.

That... makes sense. You make a good point. I think when you touch on topics like this it is okay, if not necessary, to make it very uncomfortable. However, that doesn't mean you should let the ugliness of the act in question take center stage. In the end it is really about the characters, right? Focusing on how it is affecting them is far more relevant than what is specifically happening to them.

Girl with a Dragon Tattoo is a decent example of this. In the American version of the film I felt they focused too much on the rape itself. I understand that it was intended to make the audience uncomfortable, which is good, but it walked a fine line and I think it may have stumbled into gratuity.

 

[lacktheknack]

...and yet, if it were a horror game, this wouldn't be seen as an issue. (Silent Hill 2 and 3, anyone?)

And no, Silent Hill 2 did not deal with the rape thing "well". Angela is assaulted by a monster on camera, is trapped in a room with egregiously sexual pistons, and before she dies, she's staring at a painting of a woman with ripped up genitalia. That's not "subtle" or "different" or "excusable because symbolism", it's just as messed up as any other psychological destruction resulting in sex. Yet no one complains about that.

The game is rated M, yes? Then this type of material isn't unusual or even shocking. It's been done before. Sure, you might think that it wasn't done very well or not appropriate for an MGS game, but the sheer amount of rage you've got going there is kind of alarming and over-the-top.

 

[Kopikatsu]

I should point out that I've NEVER played a Metal Gear game, but as far as I know, they've always been blockbusters of fun with popcorn and shit like that, and still are, with the exception of putting a bomb in Paz's vagina... YEAH, so what fuck happened where it got this dark? I digress)

I should point out that I've NEVER played a Metal Gear game

Yeah, it's kind of obvious that you haven't.

This isn't new ground for Metal Gear. It's actually really old ground. Meryl was raped in MGS 1 (and discussed the pain and shame it caused her), EVA is implied to have done some things with Volgin and his men (one random example, her medical history lists her as having proctitis, an STD gotten through anal sex with many partners; and she describes him as a sadist who gets off on causing others pain and humiliation), Paz was raped by Coldman and cronies in Peace Walker, child soldiers have always been a part of the game (and you kill a fair number of them in MGS1), every game tends to have a prolonged sequence wherein Snake is tortured half to death, etc.

None of this is new for Metal Gear. It has always been this way. I don't know why people are suddenly obsessed over the whole thing. I find it kind of ridiculous that people think rape is where the line should be drawn in a game series where people are brutally murdered left and right, often for no better reason other than they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Hell, Ocelot killed a group of his own allies just to test out a new gun technique.

 

[Mangod]

This isn't new ground for Metal Gear. It's actually really old ground. Meryl was raped in MGS 1 (and discussed the pain and shame it caused her), EVA is implied to have done some things with Volgin and his men (one random example, her medical history lists her as having proctitis, an STD gotten through anal sex with many partners; and she describes him as a sadist who gets off on causing others pain and humiliation), Paz was raped by Coldman and cronies in Peace Walker, child soldiers have always been a part of the game (and you kill a fair number of them in MGS1), every game tends to have a prolonged sequence wherein Snake is tortured half to death, etc.

None of this is new for Metal Gear. It has always been this way. I don't know why people are suddenly obsessed over the whole thing. I find it kind of ridiculous that people think rape is where the line should be drawn in a game series where people are brutally murdered left and right, often for no better reason other than they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Hell, Ocelot killed a group of his own allies just to test out a new gun technique.

Speaking as a person who's neither listened to the tape, played the game, or indeed played any other game in this series, I can still sort of see why so many people have a problem with how this has been handled purely based on what I know from reading about the MGS series and watching various videos of it on the internet.

What happens to the people in this game and in other MGS games is indeed terrible, and that's... fine; war is never a pleasant thing to participate in or behold. But... but, but, but; MGS is not a good series for handling some of the more extreme things that happens during war, because MGS has a serious problem with tone.

Imagine, for a moment, that you've just watched the whole bomb scene mentioned further up the page... and then smash-cut to naked Raiden doing cartwheels. That's the reason why so many people are objecting to this: because MGS has always had this tendency to try and alleviate some of the horror of war and by having silly moments that wouldn't be out of place in a screwball comedy... and then someone intercuts five minutes of the Human Centipede into the middle of Mall Rats.

If the series didn't have this reputation as being "silly Kojima soapbox about war", this wouldn't be getting as much flak as it does currently.

 

[omega 616]

Jesus, calm the fuck down!

Look, my only problem with MGS is tone ... it goes from from splosions everywhere to touching moments to "fucking hell this is dark!" very quickly. This is a game series that has stuff like kissing posters, guards peeing on you and chickens named after the 3 snakes to a boss battle with a spirit that you win by killing yourself, a gay war criminal and what I consider to be the best female character in a game! (the boss)

People get all angry over the writing but it's nice to have a really deep, convoluted, crazy story involving loads of people, it's better than the usual crap generic story lines that are always not much deeper than "the only one who can save the world/day".

Movies can have a rape in them (a Siberian film is apparently chocked full of all kinds of rape) and it causes a mild stir but a game has a woman raping a boy and it's the worst thing ever! Then an evil dude rapes a woman and the evil guy is evil, oh shit! He does kind of need to be evil in order to be evil, it's kind of a requisite ...

"Well, he doesn't have to be all in your face evil." Oh really? And who recently died in a super popular show? He was a king that you all love to hate....? Oh, you know ... it's that show nobody shuts the fuck up about. I don't watch it but I did see a scene with him ordering two naked women to hit each other, that and family members seem to get it on quite regularly and prostitutes seem to be a common thing, I doubt rape isn't in the series. Did I hear a single bad thing said about this? Not a fucking one!

It seems to me that MGS is a very "love it or hate it" series and the ones that hate it have just found it, it's a little more mature than they thought ... so instead of "MGS pushes the envelope of the medium", the story is "What the fuck were you thinking when you wrote this."

Remember, it's only a video game ... it doesn't matter, it doesn't make anybody cause any kind of violence but we can't let our kids play it (for reasons nobody will explain to me).

(and yes, I bloody love ellipses!)

 

[gargantual]

Dude it's a fucking easter egg. Dedicated players find those things. just like the Tanker mission of MGS2, or the storage Section from MGS3 with multiple entry points. Its not the main game and when Phantom Pain comes maybe we'll understand more. He knew guys like you were going to find it considering the game's length.


This is the same man that had Psycho Mantis reading your Save files, and had you playing as Raiden, naked covering his schlong as a subtle message to fanboyism.

Kojima's gonna do what he's gonna do. I'm sure he's aware of real world problems with rape, that's his choice man.

 

[The Crispy Tiger]

...and yet, if it were a horror game, this wouldn't be seen as an issue. (Silent Hill 2 and 3, anyone?)

And no, Silent Hill 2 did not deal with the rape thing "well". Angela is assaulted by a monster on camera, is trapped in a room with egregiously sexual pistons, and before she dies, she's staring at a painting of a woman with ripped up genitalia. That's not "subtle" or "different" or "excusable because symbolism", it's just as messed up as any other psychological destruction resulting in sex. Yet no one complains about that.

The game is rated M, yes? Then this type of material isn't unusual or even shocking. It's been done before. Sure, you might think that it wasn't done very well or not appropriate for an MGS game, but the sheer amount of rage you've got going there is kind of alarming and over-the-top.

Okay, I'm clearly not THAT angry over it. But here's the thing, I'm not offended at ALL about the situation of what was written, and at least it makes sense in a Silent Hill game. It was just badly placed all around and just shittly designed. But's my opinion.

 

[The Crispy Tiger]

Dude it's a fucking easter egg. Dedicated players find those things. just like the Tanker mission of MGS2, or the storage Section from MGS3 with multiple entry points. Its not the main game and when Phantom Pain comes maybe we'll understand more. He knew guys like you were going to find it considering the game's length.


This is the same man that had Psycho Mantis reading your Save files, and had you playing as Raiden, naked covering his schlong as a subtle message to fanboyism.

Kojima's gonna do what he's gonna do. I'm sure he's aware of real world problems with rape, that's his choice man.

WHO THE FUCK PUTS A RAPE SCENE AS AN EASTER EGG?!?!

*Five Deep Breaths Later*

Those are not comparable. Those are all fun. Rape of a woman and a child are not fun. Nor should it be done as an easter egg. Not to mention, I'm not offended by the material written. I'm offended by where it was placed. It should've been done in the actual campaign or scrapped.

 

[The Crispy Tiger]

I should point out that I've NEVER played a Metal Gear game, but as far as I know, they've always been blockbusters of fun with popcorn and shit like that, and still are, with the exception of putting a bomb in Paz's vagina... YEAH, so what fuck happened where it got this dark? I digress)

I should point out that I've NEVER played a Metal Gear game

Yeah, it's kind of obvious that you haven't.

This isn't new ground for Metal Gear. It's actually really old ground. Meryl was raped in MGS 1 (and discussed the pain and shame it caused her), EVA is implied to have done some things with Volgin and his men (one random example, her medical history lists her as having proctitis, an STD gotten through anal sex with many partners; and she describes him as a sadist who gets off on causing others pain and humiliation), Paz was raped by Coldman and cronies in Peace Walker, child soldiers have always been a part of the game (and you kill a fair number of them in MGS1), every game tends to have a prolonged sequence wherein Snake is tortured half to death, etc.

None of this is new for Metal Gear. It has always been this way. I don't know why people are suddenly obsessed over the whole thing. I find it kind of ridiculous that people think rape is where the line should be drawn in a game series where people are brutally murdered left and right, often for no better reason other than they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Hell, Ocelot killed a group of his own allies just to test out a new gun technique.

FUCK.
That's dark, but aren't those all part of the main story, are all of those Easter eggs...

 

[The Crispy Tiger]

Jesus, calm the fuck down!

Look, my only problem with MGS is tone ... it goes from from splosions everywhere to touching moments to "fucking hell this is dark!" very quickly. This is a game series that has stuff like kissing posters, guards peeing on you and chickens named after the 3 snakes to a boss battle with a spirit that you win by killing yourself, a gay war criminal and what I consider to be the best female character in a game! (the boss)

People get all angry over the writing but it's nice to have a really deep, convoluted, crazy story involving loads of people, it's better than the usual crap generic story lines that are always not much deeper than "the only one who can save the world/day".

Movies can have a rape in them (a Siberian film is apparently chocked full of all kinds of rape) and it causes a mild stir but a game has a woman raping a boy and it's the worst thing ever! Then an evil dude rapes a woman and the evil guy is evil, oh shit! He does kind of need to be evil in order to be evil, it's kind of a requisite ...

"Well, he doesn't have to be all in your face evil." Oh really? And who recently died in a super popular show? He was a king that you all love to hate....? Oh, you know ... it's that show nobody shuts the fuck up about. I don't watch it but I did see a scene with him ordering two naked women to hit each other, that and family members seem to get it on quite regularly and prostitutes seem to be a common thing, I doubt rape isn't in the series. Did I hear a single bad thing said about this? Not a fucking one!

It seems to me that MGS is a very "love it or hate it" series and the ones that hate it have just found it, it's a little more mature than they thought ... so instead of "MGS pushes the envelope of the medium", the story is "What the fuck were you thinking when you wrote this."

Remember, it's only a video game ... it doesn't matter, it doesn't make anybody cause any kind of violence but we can't let our kids play it (for reasons nobody will explain to me).

(and yes, I bloody love ellipses!)

Three things:

1) I'm calm, and just tried to write a fun post, despite the dark material I was writing about. I don't think that came through but oh well.

2) If we don't treat video games seriously, who the hell will? Fox News!?!? Video games matter and so do their story. All I do is just to demand something well written.

3) RAPE IS NOT THE PROBLEM IN THIS GAME. It's the shitty placement of it. Game of Thrones was not complained that was used to expand the character and show his evilness rear it's ugly head. It's very similar to this situation, but unlike a television show, you also need to think of where you put this stuff, or else it come off as tasteless.

 

[gargantual]

Dude it's a fucking easter egg. Dedicated players find those things. just like the Tanker mission of MGS2, or the storage Section from MGS3 with multiple entry points. Its not the main game and when Phantom Pain comes maybe we'll understand more. He knew guys like you were going to find it considering the game's length.


This is the same man that had Psycho Mantis reading your Save files, and had you playing as Raiden, naked covering his schlong as a subtle message to fanboyism.

Kojima's gonna do what he's gonna do. I'm sure he's aware of real world problems with rape, that's his choice man.

WHO THE FUCK PUTS A RAPE SCENE AS AN EASTER EGG?!?!

*Five Deep Breaths Later*

Those are not comparable. Those are all fun. Rape of a woman and a child are not fun. Nor should it be done as an easter egg. Not to mention, I'm not offended by the material written. I'm offended by where it was placed. It should've been done in the actual campaign or scrapped.

Apparently HE does, and its a demo. Resident Evil put a lot of serious content in the discoverable diaries. Didn't make it a cheap usage of drama, but informative.

Putting the content front and center, means more Mo capping and acted scenes, which ain't cheap. Look you can feel how you feel, that's ok but there's no International law and council or Senate Oversight committee on the proper usage of easter eggs.

F.E.A.R and one of the WWII CoD's easter eggs were meant to be creepy. Most people use them for humor or fun like the 'good sex' trail off in The Lion King just to lighten up the production experience. So. I don't really see this as a slap in the face. Again I'd wait for the Phantom Pain's context, before deciding this was an above all poor usage.

 

[Casual Shinji]

...and yet, if it were a horror game, this wouldn't be seen as an issue. (Silent Hill 2 and 3, anyone?)

And no, Silent Hill 2 did not deal with the rape thing "well". Angela is assaulted by a monster on camera, is trapped in a room with egregiously sexual pistons, and before she dies, she's staring at a painting of a woman with ripped up genitalia. That's not "subtle" or "different" or "excusable because symbolism", it's just as messed up as any other psychological destruction resulting in sex. Yet no one complains about that.

But it isn't a horror game. And even if it was it'd still be overly blunt and nasty just for the sake of it.

The entire tone of the Silent Hill games is one of psychological horror as well, so gruesome symbolism isn't going to get too much criticism -- It's why we play these games. And even if the whole thing with Angela was just as messed up, it doesn't drown itself out with torture porn. We see the characters observing horrible, horrible things, which may be symbolic to what happened to them, but we don't literally see them subjected to it. We see weird corpses strung up with razor wire, but don't see James slowly getting his ankles sawed off with a piano wire.

 

[The Crispy Tiger]

Dude it's a fucking easter egg. Dedicated players find those things. just like the Tanker mission of MGS2, or the storage Section from MGS3 with multiple entry points. Its not the main game and when Phantom Pain comes maybe we'll understand more. He knew guys like you were going to find it considering the game's length.


This is the same man that had Psycho Mantis reading your Save files, and had you playing as Raiden, naked covering his schlong as a subtle message to fanboyism.

Kojima's gonna do what he's gonna do. I'm sure he's aware of real world problems with rape, that's his choice man.

WHO THE FUCK PUTS A RAPE SCENE AS AN EASTER EGG?!?!

*Five Deep Breaths Later*

Those are not comparable. Those are all fun. Rape of a woman and a child are not fun. Nor should it be done as an easter egg. Not to mention, I'm not offended by the material written. I'm offended by where it was placed. It should've been done in the actual campaign or scrapped.

Apparently HE does, and its a demo. Resident Evil put a lot of serious content in the discoverable diaries. Didn't make it a cheap usage of drama, but informative.

Putting the content front and center, means more Mo capping and acted scenes, which ain't cheap. Look you can feel how you feel, that's ok but there's no International law and council or Senate Oversight committee on the proper usage of easter eggs.

F.E.A.R and one of the WWII CoD's easter eggs were meant to be creepy. Most people use them for humor or fun like the 'good sex' trail off in The Lion King just to lighten up the production experience. So. I don't really see this as a slap in the face. Again I'd wait for the Phantom Pain's context, before deciding this was an above all poor usage.

If he did it for budgeting reasons, I'd understand. But to be honest. I seriously doubt it was for budgeting reasons. I think Konami said, "You can have that shit, but you could got to hide it." Also, you can't compare Metal Gear to Resident Evil. One was Survival Horror and trying to be serious. Trying to be messed up. It failed sometimes. A lot of times. But it was trying up to Resident Evil 4 and beyond. The same with Fear and Cod. Honestly, I don't want to police anyone's creative work. I just critique it.

 

[Kopikatsu]

WHO THE FUCK PUTS A RAPE SCENE AS AN EASTER EGG?!?!

*Five Deep Breaths Later*

Those are not comparable. Those are all fun. Rape of a woman and a child are not fun. Nor should it be done as an easter egg. Not to mention, I'm not offended by the material written. I'm offended by where it was placed. It should've been done in the actual campaign or scrapped.

This is Metal Gear. Audio logs and codex calls aren't 'easter eggs'. Those are the story.

Well actually, the thing about EVA kind of is an easter egg. During the one very short segment of the game where EVA accompanies you through a forest, you have the option of healing her if she gets injured as you do with Snake. You have to go into this screen and go through a few sub-menus to check her medical history. Snake's medical history just lists his injuries (Because getting injured is how you increase your maximum health), but EVA's has proctitis nestled in there between all of the whippings and beatings sustained.

Amusingly, if you flip over to her diet screen, you notice that she's been eating sushi and flambe'd steak (which is actually something she comments on offhand much earlier in the game) while Snake has been eating mushrooms, rats, and, well, snakes.

 

[omega 616]

2) If we don't treat video games seriously, who the hell will? Fox News!?!? Video games matter and so do their story. All I do is just to demand something well written.

3) RAPE IS NOT THE PROBLEM IN THIS GAME. It's the shitty placement of it. Game of Thrones was not complained that was used to expand the character and show his evilness rear it's ugly head. It's very similar to this situation, but unlike a television show, you also need to think of where you put this stuff, or else it come off as tasteless.

Like I said, at the moment the stories in games suck, being little more than a hero story. The back ground to the character is something equally as boring "his family member died" or some shit. MGS goes full on with a back story, Solid snake is a legendary soldier but he is also a clone of a legendary soldier that has been made with flaws ... how much better is that than say Gears of war or uncharted? Gears of war is a legendary soldier turned coward 'cos he wanted to rescue his dad, hardly a unique story. Uncharted is a story of a professional treasure hunter. There are plenty of other games that are like this and they are all equally as boring.

If you boil down MGS far enough you get "soldier trying to save the world" but it has so much more going on than that. I just named 3 games, MGS, uncharted and GOW ... I summed up all three main guys with a short sentence but the only one that missed a massive information about was snake.

Even epic story driven games like mass effect (don't tell me how ME3 ruined the franchise), Shepard's back story is boiled down already for you and just makes you pic where you were born and what you did in some war. Even in the game the story is never really more complicated than "stop the big bad", sure people have there own little arcs, such as that ***** that "owns" omega getting kicked off and you help her get it back or saving Liara's friend from the shadow broker.

So if video games story matter, why do almost all of them suck?

I know I am an MGS fanboy but even I can admit, the tone is wacka-doodle but at least it tries!

The difference is, game of thrones (I assume) had full on girl getting fucked, tits bouncing etc but in MGS it's a simple audio clip.

 

[The Crispy Tiger]

WHO THE FUCK PUTS A RAPE SCENE AS AN EASTER EGG?!?!

*Five Deep Breaths Later*

Those are not comparable. Those are all fun. Rape of a woman and a child are not fun. Nor should it be done as an easter egg. Not to mention, I'm not offended by the material written. I'm offended by where it was placed. It should've been done in the actual campaign or scrapped.

This is Metal Gear. Audio logs and codex calls aren't 'easter eggs'. Those are the story.

Well actually, the thing about EVA kind of is an easter egg. During the one very short segment of the game where EVA accompanies you through a forest, you have the option of healing her if she gets injured as you do with Snake. You have to go into this screen and go through a few sub-menus to check her medical history. Snake's medical history just lists his injuries (Because getting injured is how you increase your maximum health), but EVA's has proctitis nestled in there between all of the whippings and beatings sustained.

Amusingly, if you flip over to her diet screen, you notice that she's been eating sushi and flambe'd steak (which is actually something she comments on offhand much earlier in the game) while Snake has been eating mushrooms, rats, and, well, snakes.

Well, if that's the case. All I have to say is fair enough. Now does anybody want to talk about the story part of the OP and not just the placement rant.