re: I Need a Hero, for Hire

latinogamer — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 23:42:11 GMT

Thats the same presidentail address when he questions how many schools could of been built for the price of an air bomber. The same sentiment can be echoed in today's world, so here is hoping MGS4 is revelant to today's world socio-political arena.

re: I Need a Hero, for Hire: A Look At What President Eisenhower and Solid Snake Have In Common

Shawn Elliott — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 18:24:13 GMT

Some musings from an admirer:

"The result is that MGS 4’s gameplay vocabulary and rhetoric reinforce each other to achieve what games do best: radically simplify complex systems—in this case, post-9/11 hot zones—in order to entertain and possibly inform."

Does MGS 4 inform? I’d like to see you hit this head on, even if, as you say, the game is no presidential address. The Military Industrial Complex needs war or the threat of imminent war to fuel it. From the profiteer’s/Drebin’s point of view, high-intensity conflict writes checks. Is this explored? What is our/Snake’s POV? He isn’t exactly the taxpayer in the equation. Nonetheless, are you arguing that the game discourages open conflict by hitting us where it hurts? Is this ability unique to the medium? Message movies can nudge our attitudes by depicting the effects of actions and policies on people. Can games condition us via virtually experienced cause and effect? How did you handle it, and why? Is it simply a matter of prefering to sneak or shoot? Or did these mutually reinforcing gameplay mechanics and thematic thrusts play a part? Did having the heavy weaponry induce you to fight the battles that it was designed to win (echoing the notion that we make war when we have the means to), even though you understood that doing so will make future conflict costlier?

In his farewell address, Eisenhower also said “only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.” When Snake chooses to stay out of his enemies’ sight, is he also avoiding public scrutiny and accountability? Is MGS 4 using Eisenhower’s sentiments to indict or justify Snake?

Do MGS4’s gameplay vocab and rhetoric reinforce each other elsewhere and/or support the Einsenhower theme? For instance, what relation do Otakan and Sakharov (MGS3) have to Eisenhower’s scientific-technological elites and the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop?

Does MGS 4's rhetoric simplify or convolute real concerns with another Russian-doll arrangement of conspiracies? How central is the "War economy" when the President of the United States is a conspirator (see MGS 2)?

Does Kojima rely on underdeveloped allusions alone to dazzle us? Sure, the MGS series adopts the seemingly sophisticated language of memes and genes, but then even the worst quacks wed the lexicon on quantum physics with the bunkum of positive vibrations.

Shawn Elliott

re: I Need a Hero, for Hire: A Look At What President Eisenhower and Solid Snake Have In Common

SuperEffective — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 23:33:45 GMT

Great essay. Thank you!

Real short: Even when Sci-Fi/Action/Romance/Genre Lit reduces real world events down into manageable commercial elements, we're still better off for it. I may not think that Lost handles colonialism especially smartly, but it's nice that the concept even shows up on our collective radars at all, if only as a starting place.

And Kojima's works are destined to be starting places for folks thinking about the MIC. Either they want to google the idea or they don't.