The big lie of war in video games is that it’s something you can win. — Robert Yang
This week, my Metal Gear Solid retrospective heads to Kotaku for a second. When I found myself thinking over the things I love most about the series, it’s that one director’s vision is clearly expressing itself with very personal correlation points in his games.
That thought process led me to feel quite strongly I’d prefer for sentimental reasons for there to be no MGS5, or at least for Hideo Kojima to at last get his apparent wish not to be heavily involved. Read all about it here. Surprisingly the biggest trigger of nerd rage for this particular column was my offhanded claim that I’m ‘pretty much the biggest Metal Gear Solid fan there is.’ How dare I!
Changing gears a little, I’ve done a new editorial at Gamasutra about the changing shape of the social gaming space, and why so many core developers are capitalizing on new opportunities there. Whether or not you play or make them I’d appreciate you giving it a read, because I think there are a lot of prejudices (some admittedly earned, and yet) and misinformation about the social sector out there.
I’m also excited to go to Toronto this week. I have the honor of giving the keynote for TIFF Bell Lightbox’s women in film, games and new media day. I have never been to Toronto (or anywhere in Canada, for that matter), but I know enough awesome folks there that I fully expect to love it. And Mathew Kumar has promised to take me for poutine so I’m completely thrilled. Expect coverage and thoughts on the experience in the coming days.
One of the things I love about MGS, besides the stealth gameplay, is its nuanced examination of what war means to different people. In that vein, here’s an editorial I highly recommend. I’ve written a lot about how “realistic” war games make me kind of uneasy. Mostly I just find them spiritually off-putting, aside from the fact I just don’t really enjoy playing first-person shooters as a matter of taste. I don’t consider myself particularly pacifistic, even; I just find the relationship between war games and the reality of our modern climate a little bit uncomfortable for reasons I struggle to articulate sometimes (see my piece from last year, ‘Who Cheers For War?’)
And I struggle to articulate the reason because every time I try, a legion of enraged young men rises up to tell me to shut up and get back in the kitchen, which in itself is disturbing. Anything for which maladjusted people are tempted to scream at the top of their lungs in defense would appear to have a red flag upon it, I think.