Next Metal Gear Solid May Be Too Controversial to Release

[teh_Canape]

Ground Zeroes = 9/11 reference?

No, Ground Zero is a term for a point of origin of something devastating. For example, the Ground Zeroes for the atomic bomb are Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan.

this makes me wonder
if the game will revolve around actual ground zeroes and such, or if it's some sort of play on words with "heroes" involving a bunch of antihero ground soldiers

also didn't he say the Solid sub-series was over? =P
may have gotten something wrong there though

 

[bananafishtoday]

Some of his concerns over these "taboos" are probably normal everyday subject matter for western audiences. Then again, he's probably just straight up lying to drum up interest, since that's the only tactic he's used since MGS2.

I gotta argue that the lying I assume you're referring to (playable Snake in Big Shell) had legitimate artistic merit. The entire game attacks the idea of wanting to be Snake and idealizing him as a hero. MGS2 is at its core an extended "fuck you" to the player.

 

[Xarathox]

Some of his concerns over these "taboos" are probably normal everyday subject matter for western audiences. Then again, he's probably just straight up lying to drum up interest, since that's the only tactic he's used since MGS2.

I gotta argue that the lying I assume you're referring to (playable Snake in Big Shell) had legitimate artistic merit. The entire game attacks the idea of wanting to be Snake and idealizing him as a hero. MGS2 is at its core an extended "fuck you" to the player.

There was also that interview with him stating that the jungle section of MGS3 was more sandbox than the previous titles. Which it certainly wasn't.

 

[bananafishtoday]

Some of his concerns over these "taboos" are probably normal everyday subject matter for western audiences. Then again, he's probably just straight up lying to drum up interest, since that's the only tactic he's used since MGS2.

I gotta argue that the lying I assume you're referring to (playable Snake in Big Shell) had legitimate artistic merit. The entire game attacks the idea of wanting to be Snake and idealizing him as a hero. MGS2 is at its core an extended "fuck you" to the player.

There was also that interview with him stating that the jungle section of MGS3 was more sandbox than the previous titles. Which it certainly wasn't.

Oh, I hadn't heard that, and yeah, not defending it. I just get twitchy whenever the MGS2 marketing is brought up because I feel like a lot of people don't appreciate what the game was trying to be.

 

[Xarathox]

Some of his concerns over these "taboos" are probably normal everyday subject matter for western audiences. Then again, he's probably just straight up lying to drum up interest, since that's the only tactic he's used since MGS2.

I gotta argue that the lying I assume you're referring to (playable Snake in Big Shell) had legitimate artistic merit. The entire game attacks the idea of wanting to be Snake and idealizing him as a hero. MGS2 is at its core an extended "fuck you" to the player.

There was also that interview with him stating that the jungle section of MGS3 was more sandbox than the previous titles. Which it certainly wasn't.

Oh, I hadn't heard that, and yeah, not defending it. I just get twitchy whenever the MGS2 marketing is brought up because I feel like a lot of people don't appreciate what the game was trying to be.

Oh, I do appreciate it. The MGS series is in my top 2 of all time favorites. And MGS2 in particular is my favorite from the series. The whole ending with GW talking smack to you, made me replay it about a bajillion times just to even wrap my mind around all the crazy.

 

[Therumancer]

Well, we have no idea what these themes could be...

Still, glad to see Kojima deciding to push the envelope. A lot of games are playing it way too safe nowadays.

Also, I'm starting to wonder if Rising really is selling well.

Well, with the name "Ground Zeroes" the image that comes to mind from a Japanese developer is a game that is basically involved in even more Western/US bashing than normal, with a focus on the horrors of the A-bombs dropped on Japan minus Japan's own attitude at the time and the whole situation that lead to that.

While it goes back a loooong time, I remember reading that Raiden was developed for racist reasons since the series was military and having a Gaijin hero didn't go over well with the Japanese market. They tried to replace Snake early on, but Western fans didn't go for it, and that's where the money was.

At the end of the day I've never found Metal Gear to be especially deep to be honest, it just tends to throw in a lot of science fiction tropes along with it's political commentary, but always pretty much comes down to a very simplistic series of events, just with a complicated backstory. At the end of the day your playing some sneaky soldier who needs to take out a bunch of dudes in trap filled complexs to prevent a group of psychopaths from doing bad things. It tends to mostly get complicated when you look at the backstory, who is supposed to be sympathetic for what reason, and how we got to this point, but in the end we're always back to an analogy to Reagan's old MX missle program (the idea of moving missles around the country constantly so they couldn't be targeted or stolen very easily), replacing trains and other forms of realistic transport with a nuclear armed mecha. The thought that the US could (and arguably still can) destroy the world 10x over and there wasn't even a chance of targeting the missles was terrifying, and this largely revolves around the idea of what happened if a third party with an agenda was able to basically do the same thing (which requires a mecha or something like that because a group of terrorists wouldn't have the nessicary control of a national infrastructure).

I of course could very well be wrong, but I half expect Kojima's idea of mature means that he plans to lay into the US more than ever before, and is mostly concerned that the western market won't want to listen to him rant and rave through a game once they catch on since he's taking it to an entirely new extreme. Of course with how well received a lot of other US bashing games have been (many made by the US) he might figure now is the time to take the plunge if he's ever going to do it.

That's my thoughts just by looking at the title, which of course at this point could be very wrong.

 

[loa]

Maybe you play as a drugged child soldier.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Just no more Otacon crying. I think we can all agree that's a line that need not be crossed.

And am I wrong in thinking Ground Zeroes is totally going to be a PS4 release?

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

It's Kojima, so the chances are he's full of shit. I hope he isn't this time, though. I'd like more maturity in MGS. Previous titles, as much as I love them, had quite a lot of adolescent shitty moments.

 

[Lono Shrugged]

Cue game where Snake rapes and eats his enemies to get their power. Traffics in young boys and girls peacewalker style and hi fives a digital Joesph Kony before helping him cut off peoples arms with a motion controller. There is a emotional scene where he asks child he just orphaned if it thinks love can bloom on the battlefield. In between missions there is a minigame where you can use Snake's hands to reduce women to a quivering moaning heap - with a predator drone strike. All while smoking, cos smoking is f**king cool! Also PMC'S!

I have no idea why he doesn't think that would sell. Metal Gear Solid games are nothing but legitimately edgy.

 

[Chester Rabbit]

Eh most of the time when you hear this two things come to mind

A) The topics really aren't that mature at all and are going to feel pretty childish in how they are presented.

B) The developer is really high on themselves. "Oh I am just so very risque I don't even know if people will accept what I am doing because it is just so out of the box. Oh me."

But then again if it is possibly neither of those (but come on it?s the guy behind metal gear)...I do understand why one would be cautious about being controversial at all with the gaming medium right now...hell just because we don't hear too much about it anymore it doesn't mean the media still isn't gunning for another poster boy to get them back up on that "Games are hurting our society" podium again.

 

[Vegosiux]

Is it just me or is this just a PR stunt to hype up just how DARK, EDGY and GRITTY the game is going to be?

And as we all know, "dark, edgy and gritty" makes something both AWESOME and MATURE and if you don't agree with that, you're...I don't know, closed-minded, or something.

I'm sorry, but this looks exactly the same to me as the stereotypical compliment-fisher using self-deprecation in order to provoke positive feedback from people.

 

[xdiesp]

Future soldiers will be genetically enhanced with the DNA of Hideo Kojima.

 

[xplosive59]

That is actually awesome, I am glad Kojima wants to push the boundaries in a medium where if something is slightly controversial that people go up in arms about it, luckily because the game is Japanese and isn't as famous as CoD or GTA that the franchise shouldn't have that much risk of being attacked by western media.

As long as it is not controversial in the "OMG this is so dark and edgy" way and more in a political, realistic and thought provoking way then my interest still remains the same.

 

[llew]

This can go two ways:
1) It's a deep, affecting, mature story that deals with heavy themes and is better than most other medium's take on the subjects due to using the inherent interactivity of games to it's advantage, like Spec Ops.
2) It's a twisted, convoluted, pretentious mess of poor story and odd gameplay that makes WH40K look like Kirby and features too many over-the-top or intetionlly silly moments to be taken seriously.
Either way, idiot fans are gonna ***** about the lack of Snake, unless this is a prequel that involves Snake, which I highly doubt. Personally, though I've never actually play a Metal Gear game (flame me all you like) I really hope Hideo pulls it off. I'm a sucker for a good story.

its a prequel involving big boss a few years after peacewalker

 

[Hagi]

I honestly don't really know much about the MGS series, don't have the consoles required to play them, but wasn't this that series that has quicktime-like events in cutscenes to allow for panty-shots and such of the female characters?

Don't get me wrong. I don't believe you can't combine serious themes with juvenile silliness, but I do believe doing so in a way that keeps the tone of the mature stuff serious is extremely challenging.

I'd love to see it, games tackling actual mature subject matter are great, but based on my hopefully wrong impression of the MGS series there's this small fear that it's going to be something like twincest between two hot underage girls with tragic pasts.

But as I said, I don't really know the first thing about MGS so I'm probably and hopefully wrong.

 

[Woodsey]

You hear this shit from a lot of game writers who have had people praising them far, far more than they deserve. (See also: David Cage.) Invariably they change nothing, because they aren't good writers.

 

[Pedro The Hutt]

It's Kojima, we all know it's going to be a convoluted story where he tries to shoehorn in themes and elements he hasn't got any real understanding of.