Let the above image serve to remind you that the people behind the product you consume hate you.
The Death Cultists responsible for your beloved childhood IPs hold you in contempt and seek to use your attachment to convert you.
Put away childish things. Put on the armor of God. And reclaim your dignity.
Let me show you how.
Peak Death Cult, and peak hypocrisy to boot. David Hayter outright relies on nostalgic fans for his income and whatever cultural relevance he still has.
Remember, it’s not hypocrisy to the Cultist, because his religion sanctions lying to infidels.
In addition, this would be insulting even coming from the creator of Metal Gear, but coming from the English VA of the main character? Talk about getting too big for your boots. Then again, Metal Gear was never actually deep or meaningful to begin with, it just convinced a generation of kids that it was. Kojima strikes me as George Lucas on steroids – an auteur so insulated by his uncritical fanbase that he just keeps cranking out increasingly indulgent shlock without end. I mean, the man charged 30 dollars for the demo of MGS5, and released a “Director’s Cut” of Death Stranding, a game that he had total directorial control over. He seems to want to make movies, but knows that he wouldn’t make the cut (the translator for MGS2 was even harsher, claiming Kojima wouldn’t last a day in the writing room on daytime TV), so he falls back to gaming, which expects less from its storytelling. The most enjoyable, fun, and slick game in his series (Metal Gear Rising) wasn’t even really made by him – he was unable to get it past the early stages of development and Platinum Games had to be contracted in to build it in earnest. What I’m getting at is that of all the Pop Cult icons, Metal Gear is the most undeserving of the adoration heaped upon it. Star Wars and Marvel were at least once good stories about genuine heroic virtue. MGS was rarely anything more than a confusing, self-indulgent mess.
That’s how Kojima strikes me – as a frustrated film director.
When asked if there would be an MGS movie, he responded with the cope “It already is.”
If further proof were needed, he’s very chummy with Guillermo del Toro and as many other filmmakers as he can.
Agreed. Like Lucas, Kojima’s best works were made when he was reined in by others, before he got too full of himself. Stuff like Snatcher, Policenauts, and the first two Metal Gear games on MSX. Even then, most of his writing is less about coming up with good characters and plotting and more about putting together a pastiche of relevant movie tropes. All style and little substance. Thankfully he (or his subordinates) have good noses for interesting game mechanics, and Konami’s sound and art teams were top notch.
For all it’s many, many faults, I do enjoy most of the mainline series. Its got some cool enough characters and excels at creating an atmosphere.
Hayter wasn’t even given the courtesy of a call when they switched VA’s in the last entry. I’m perfectly content with continuing on in the vein of ignoring this has-been.
What I don’t get is how I point out “Hey, the people who make this agitprop hate you.” And people reply “But it’s well-made agitprop!”
I don’t understand why people say that. Help me understand.
It’s loyalty to the Brand speaking.
For an example, if I learned the people at id Software hated me and decided to make games deliberately subverting DOOM and those who enjoy it, I would then not engage in their slop and take my business elsewhere. There are plenty of others offering products of equivalent value and I do not need to fund people who loathe my existence.
The only reason someone would continue to pay for said product could ONLY be because of what it says on the tin. Just look at the frothing over the new Silent Hill despite it not having any involvement by Team Silent, who MADE the originals. But it says SILENT HILL on the box, and that’s all they need. They don’t want art, they want a Brand.
There is literally no other reason to engage in such behavior in this day and age. We have more alternatives than ever before.
I can only speak for myself but I try not to ramble so I keep my posts short but that can lead to me not getting my main point across.
Included that in my first post to show that despite the fact that I’m actually fond of the series, Hayter and co should be ignored. Kojima is fully deserving of every bit of contempt that I see thrown his way by Razorfist and others.
The misunderstanding was mine, then. Thank you.
MGSV was very prescient in the use of a lab-created bio weapon that targeted the lungs, leading to crisis moment where the beloved Big Boss has to shoot his own infected soldiers. It also had a lot to say about the remnants of the Cold War leading directly into Afganistahn and the proxy wars of the 21st century. Death Stranding felt eerily on-the-nose with the whole humanity living in fear and extreme isolation from one another and only interacting through state-sponsored deliverymen. There is a lot to mull over in these huge stories. Kojima’s work is pretty much in line with classic sci fi, looking at dystopian applications of the global technocracy. You can read a piece of sci fi that has a horrible premise and ghastly worldview and still find it says something interesting or worthy of discussion. Hilarious and ironic that he is balkanizing his own audience here. Hayter’s response comes across as needlessly confrontational and deranged.