New York Times looks under cardboard box over MGS storyline
by Alan Tsang 
{ Jun 22nd 2008 at 8:15PM }
A New York Times article in the Week in Review section published today discusses the latent meanings within the Metal Gear series' epic storyline and attempts to answer the bigger question of whether video games can be a capable medium, on par with films and literature, in conveying a narrative.
NYT's Dave Itzkoff delves into the world of MGS by exploring the hidden messages from every MGS game; for example, MGS is a statement about atomic weapons, the Patriots of MGS2 portrayed as an Illuminati-like secret society suggests a worldwide conspiracy, MGS3 hints at how a "military-industrial complex" changed the world and MGS4 has Itzkoff describing Solid Snake as a "James Bond meets Rambo" who blur the line between hero and villain. Finally, Snake's endless mission is seen a parable of modern war and invokes the philosophical debate of "determinism and free will."
The article also debates the validity and effectiveness of the cinematic cut scenes -- according to Itzkoff's interviews, 1UP's Shawn Elliott equates this methodology as "kind of cheating" and accuses the game of using "a language that isn't native to its own medium." On the other hand, Leigh Alexander of Kotaku argues the cut scenes are embedded into the game and essential. She even takes a jab at Halo, describing the Xbox series as mindless action that is only popular because "you shoot people."
Just as films have evolved into an acceptable means of telling a full, gratifying story, it won't be long before video games achieve the same distinction.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
klexam @ Jun 22nd 2008 8:36PM
The cut scenes in MGS4 are an intricate part of the MGS4 story. Unlike some cut scenes, these do not take away from the game, but only enhance the missions. Of course any Xbox fanboy would take a jab at these wonderful cut scenes because their HDless systems and regular DVD's couldn't hold them.
Video games are evolving into a story telling medium. They are becoming more cinematic in feel and display. MGS4 is the one game that has set the pace now for what an "epic" game should have in it.
Henry E. @ Jun 22nd 2008 8:42PM
I've read the NYT for at least 2 years, i've always felt that they been bias against Sony. It has always felt to me that they been Xbot fanboys. I don't know if it's just me, i haven't read any NYT lately, so i don't know if that has change. Games shouldn't be look down upon after all it's another form of media and art.
Lavat @ Jun 22nd 2008 9:07PM
I thought it was Gene- MGS1, Meme- MGS2, Scene - MGS3...Whatever...
It is not a movie in much a way...but it still works well with what it does as a game. It is enjoyable to watch rather than compare it to a movie.
LJ @ Jun 22nd 2008 9:09PM
I would not say ""James Bond meets Rambo" who blur the line between hero and villain."
It's really more like ""James Bond meets Rambo" who blur the line between hero and ANTI-HEROE."
RossGough @ Jun 23rd 2008 1:32PM
i'd say "James Bond meets Rambo, and Snake comes in and CQCs their ass to hell"
sounds reasonable?
LJ @ Jun 22nd 2008 9:10PM
I would not say ""James Bond meets Rambo" who blur the line between hero and villain."
It's really more like ""James Bond meets Rambo" who blur the line between hero and ANTI-HEROE."
Justin @ Jun 22nd 2008 9:41PM
Mind telling me what "carboard" is?
MexicanTerrorist @ Jun 22nd 2008 9:42PM
This article is QFT.
Bucfann @ Jun 22nd 2008 9:42PM
It still amazes me that still, this site finds away either by an article, or the comments of the readers, to bring up the Xbox in one way or another.
You finally got a title to be proud of. So your console can be used for more than over priced/over rated Blu Ray movies. Yet still you love to say Xbox.
held225 @ Jun 22nd 2008 10:35PM
hey Bucfann, go back and play your mindless shooting games.
klexam @ Jun 23rd 2008 12:54AM
No, what's really amazing is that you have to come over here and look since your side is so boring right now. The only reason I mentioned the "other" system is because there was a point mentioned in the posting. Oh yeah, it was also a way to comment on the lack of power of the "other" system. This is what really bothered you the most.
Also, if you can't watch the new HD movies, that doesn't mean you have to vent so much anger toward a system that has this function. DVD's cost more than VHS when they came out and it just goes to figure Bluray would be no different. By time you graduate you may realize this economic reality.
SuicideNinja @ Jun 23rd 2008 9:05AM
Klexam, even if you have a Blu-ray player that doesn't mean that HD is any more magical for movies. Sure, it's barely an improvement, but whether we watch upscaled DVD, VHS on the small TV in the kitchen, or Blu-ray on the 57" 1080p, it really doesn't seem to matter at my house. I've yet to wow one person with an HD movie. "I guess it looks better," is about all I get. I'm writing off movies as movies. You can have them with perks, or without.
Anyway, I think the medium is plenty capable. There are many games where the story supercedes the gameplay; usually RPG's. Xenosaga, Final Fantasy, Lost Odyssey, and Indigo Prophecy are a few. Bioshock managed to integrate the gameplay and story telling quite well. Even Halo manages to tell a decent story; it's the repetitive campaign itself that falls short.
It seems a little silly to question an interactive medium as a story-telling device. I think if anything, it's more capable than staring at a screen with no interaction. Doesn't it mean more when you have to participate? That's why teachers ask you questions in school.
andrew @ Jun 22nd 2008 10:23PM
While I enjoyed playing mgs4 very much so, I really hope that the video game industry doesn't take it as a sign to start incorporating long cut scenes into games. While most of the cut scenes in mgs4 were very well done, while being a little long at some points(like the last scene where they basically say the same thing 3-4 times over). I play games to do just that, play. Not watch a movie, that is what movies are for.
Popfrogs @ Jun 23rd 2008 1:57PM
If and when we get another Metal Gear game, I guarantee it will have less cut scenes. Not that it bothers me but if that's people's sticking point with it, then either they need a history lesson from Kojima, or they need to play some SSB or something else that appeals to their lack of attention span.
Kiltman67 @ Jun 22nd 2008 10:19PM
The whole reaction to MGS4 seems like 50% of journalists have forgotten all memories of the previous MGS games.
You have a complicated series of games packed full of cutscenes and journalists get shocked when the final game of the series, intended to tie up the story has lots of cutscenes too. It's like mass retardation has swept across games journalism.
The pinacle of this retardation seems to be centered on Shawn Elliott over at 1UP. A game is "cheating" because it's trying to use the tools of other mediums? So any game that tries to be progressive, that follows in the line of all the post-modern artforms in borrowing from other fields is cheating?
Would Shawn Elliott rather we all play Pong, because God forbid a game try and be anything other then a skill based task.
Overgauss @ Jun 22nd 2008 11:55PM
"a language that isn't native to its own medium."
We've had cutscenes and animations in games since the beginning.
In fact they are intrinsic to most any game fondly remembered.
Certain types of games have longer cutscenes than the rest. Others have 'interactive' cutscenes, or even are nothing but 'interactive' cutscenes like Dragon's Lair.
Kill a boss. Cutscene. Pull a sword out of some rock? Cutscene. Bowser's dead. Cutscene. Etc.
I think this is a novice-gamer, at best, interacting with something that doesn't meet his casual gamer expectations of what a video-game should be or even include.
Has the author ever played an RPG, or strategy game of any type for example? How about an FPS? Racing game. Fighter....bowling.
Personally I think it's a pacing issue. It's the reason why games like King's Field don't do well in America.
I remember showing a friend some new game I had just gotten many years ago, and he would frantically tap buttons through the intro of like the newest blockbuster from Square for example, and I would look at him like he had just lost his damn mind. Then I would show him some other new hotness and he would do the same thing!
I knew he thought I was some stupid gamer nerd and didn't get why I'd want to watch the story, but he used to bug the shit out of me and I'd think WTF is wrong with you. Would you stop doing that?! Please! I'd be all like. Dude! And he's like. What?
Amateur! I'd think from the snobby heights of my clearly evident video-game mastery. I was the go to guy after all. He was just some idiot ruining a good game.
Popfrogs @ Jun 23rd 2008 2:02PM
Your friend sums up everything that's wrong with the Western gamer. Instant gratification, big explosions and gore. Story, what story? Just give the Western gamer a single revenge excuse and he'll be happy to slaughter half the planet with an infinite ammo supply and a handful of grenades.
Guys like that, unfortunately, are becoming more prevalent. They're the ones dissing MGS4 and other story-driven games because they can't shoot anything for 5 minutes while they learn more about the characters and events in the game.
Although, I want to say one thing...I really, really wish MGS4 would get patched to allow you to permanently skip all the cutscenes after you beat the game. I'm doing tranq gun runs with zero kills and skipping the scenes gets annoying.
NinjaAntonio @ Jun 23rd 2008 2:08AM
I really didn't think the cutscene length in MGS4 was that big of a deal...thats why u can pause them. Honestly, I never felt like it was 2 long. The cutscenes just added to a great game and helped me to understand better. I think the game would have been retarded without those cutscenes...it would have just been "liquids here, go kill him" "liquids dead now the world is safe" The cutscenes made me feel like I was making snake do something important and necessary...they made me care. ::cries:: Snakeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!! I love MGS4
NinjaAntonio @ Jun 23rd 2008 1:58AM
I really didn't think the cutscene length in MGS4 was that big of a deal...thats why u can pause them. Honestly, I never felt like it was 2 long. The cutscenes just added to a great game and helped me to understand better. I think the game would have been retarded without those cutscenes...it would have just been "liquids here, go kill him" "liquids dead now the world is safe" The cutscenes made me feel like I was making snake do something important and necessary...they made me care. ::cries:: Snakeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!! I love MGS4
ara Kouftaian @ Jun 23rd 2008 2:52AM
this is true mgs:4 talk abouth what is happening in teh real wold and what could become but it just show everyting whit more acction and drama but they r people who wnat 2 make this world to run under one army one goverment bad people, please everybody check out the movie documentary called " zeitgeist " we ave to do someting to stop bad thing to happend !!! :(
boradley @ Jun 23rd 2008 8:37AM
hey i like mgs4, i like my ps3, i even didn't mind the cutscenes so much, and normally i'm very impatient with cutscenes. but i agree that they are not the native language of games, they're a borrowed language of cinema. i do appreciate what kojima et al are doing but i don't want to have that all the time at all. playing through mgs4 again and just find myself pressing skip constantly.
the natural language of games is playing, and that's where i like my stories to be told - with controller in hand, playing an active part in the story.
"We've had cutscenes and animations in games since the beginning.
In fact they are intrinsic to most any game fondly remembered. "
i have to disagree. i remember gameplay moments far better than cutscenes (going back twenty years too). take gtaIV for example. did not care for the cutscenes one bit. had some great moments actually playing the game though.
i think the nonlinearity of story is the special something that games have over film & novels, and it's something that should be taken advantage of more.
kentuckyfried @ Jun 23rd 2008 5:33PM
I didn't think the cut-scenes were too long. I mean, people are going to complain about anything as far as a story's involved.
MGS3 tried to explain story with lengthy codec conversations; the one with the Boss at the very beginning of the game was a momentum-killer. So I'm glad that MGS4 did away with all that by using skippable cut-scenes. MGS4 did have its share of really, really awful codec sessions that could've been either removed or approached using an MGS1 approach. I'd rather take long-winded, deathbed cut-scenes from bosses instead of cheesy codecs any day.
The one thing I would fault with MGS4 is the briefer cut-scenes that are completely unskippable. It's those points where I want to jump back instantly into the action.
The worst part about MGS4 cut-scenes was the cheese. I don't mind having these as a form of narration (since codecs lack any emotional impact and written text would never work), but it the scenes could've been written better. Maybe. I don't want to talk about it just in case there are some people who haven't finished yet. The cheese disappointed me.
kentuckyfried @ Jun 23rd 2008 5:34PM
I didn't think the cut-scenes were too long. I mean, people are going to complain about anything as far as a story's involved.
MGS3 tried to explain story with lengthy codec conversations; the one with the Boss at the very beginning of the game was a momentum-killer. So I'm glad that MGS4 did away with all that by using skippable cut-scenes. MGS4 did have its share of really, really awful codec sessions that could've been either removed or approached using an MGS1 approach. I'd rather take long-winded, deathbed cut-scenes from bosses instead of cheesy codecs any day.
The one thing I would fault with MGS4 is the briefer cut-scenes that are completely unskippable. It's those points where I want to jump back instantly into the action.
The worst part about MGS4 cut-scenes was the cheese. I don't mind having these as a form of narration (since codecs lack any emotional impact and written text would never work), but it the scenes could've been written better. Maybe. I don't want to talk about it just in case there are some people who haven't finished yet. The cheese disappointed me.
kentuckyfried @ Jun 23rd 2008 5:40PM
wow...sorry about the double-post. I wrote this thing 5 minutes ago, lol, didn't show up until just now.
Popfrogs @ Jun 23rd 2008 7:39PM
I didn't think the cut-scenes were too long. I mean, people are going to complain about anything as far as a story's involved.
MGS3 tried to explain story with lengthy codec conversations; the one with the Boss at the very beginning of the game was a momentum-killer. So I'm glad that MGS4 did away with all that by using skippable cut-scenes. MGS4 did have its share of really, really awful codec sessions that could've been either removed or approached using an MGS1 approach. I'd rather take long-winded, deathbed cut-scenes from bosses instead of cheesy codecs any day.
The one thing I would fault with MGS4 is the briefer cut-scenes that are completely unskippable. It's those points where I want to jump back instantly into the action.
The worst part about MGS4 cut-scenes was the cheese. I don't mind having these as a form of narration (since codecs lack any emotional impact and written text would never work), but it the scenes could've been written better. Maybe. I don't want to talk about it just in case there are some people who haven't finished yet. The cheese disappointed me.
Joeman @ Jun 24th 2008 2:35PM
I am sick of all these people complaining about cut scenes. If your attention span is that short, then go play another game. Stop dumbing down everything else to your level.
There are plenty of games for people with the maturity and attention span of five year olds.
*cough, cough* Halo * cough, cough*
"She even takes a jab at Halo, describing the Xbox series as mindless action that is only popular because "you shoot people."" She's right.