Thursday
May282009
Dreaming of Hostage Situations and Vampires
Thursday, May 28, 2009 at 6:27PM
Considering how much interest I have in video games, I think its somewhat remarkable that I seldom post anything gaming related on this blog.
That said, this post is about video games. Actually, its about Murakami Haruki, terrorists, a hard-boiled wonderland and postmodernism but I'm getting ahead of myself.
I've long been a fan of the Metal Gear series of video games. Spanning over 20 years and several console generations worth of game development, Metal Gear is probably one of the longest-running, single narrative game series ever.
Metal Gear Solid II: Sons of Liberty is often considered the black sheep of the entire game series - eschewing series protagonist Solid Snake for a seemingly derivative JRPG-type hero and incorporating game play mechanics that were a little raw for a final product, there's many reasons fans of the Metal Gear series have to hate on MGSII.
I used hate on the game until I read a rather thought provoking essay on the game itself by video game journalist Tim Rogers.
Imagine if this man designed a video game.
Rogers likens MGSII to the video game equivalent of a Murakami Haruki novel. His claims are actually not too far off - the game features a seemingly straight-forward, somewhat derivative plot line and a familiar setup from the previous MGS games that gradually gives way to a game that is chock full of weird characters, illogical situations, diversions from reality and an ending that is as over the top as it is perplexing.
This of course reads like a checklist for one of Murakami's novels (e.g. Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World).
Years ago, Rogers famously devoted 5 pages of web space atInsertCredit.com years ago to make his case that Metal Gear Solid II is the ultimate, interactive post-modern trip.
In Internet time, his article is an artifact of Pre-Columbian culture. However I found the whole treatment so thought provoking that I occasionally re-read it every now and then - such as yesterday. For those who are fans of Metal Gear or Murakami, his post is long but worth the read. Check it out here:
[Dreaming in an Empty Room: via Insert Credit]
That said, this post is about video games. Actually, its about Murakami Haruki, terrorists, a hard-boiled wonderland and postmodernism but I'm getting ahead of myself.
I've long been a fan of the Metal Gear series of video games. Spanning over 20 years and several console generations worth of game development, Metal Gear is probably one of the longest-running, single narrative game series ever.
Metal Gear Solid II: Sons of Liberty is often considered the black sheep of the entire game series - eschewing series protagonist Solid Snake for a seemingly derivative JRPG-type hero and incorporating game play mechanics that were a little raw for a final product, there's many reasons fans of the Metal Gear series have to hate on MGSII.
I used hate on the game until I read a rather thought provoking essay on the game itself by video game journalist Tim Rogers.
Imagine if this man designed a video game.Rogers likens MGSII to the video game equivalent of a Murakami Haruki novel. His claims are actually not too far off - the game features a seemingly straight-forward, somewhat derivative plot line and a familiar setup from the previous MGS games that gradually gives way to a game that is chock full of weird characters, illogical situations, diversions from reality and an ending that is as over the top as it is perplexing.
This of course reads like a checklist for one of Murakami's novels (e.g. Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World).
Years ago, Rogers famously devoted 5 pages of web space at
In Internet time, his article is an artifact of Pre-Columbian culture. However I found the whole treatment so thought provoking that I occasionally re-read it every now and then - such as yesterday. For those who are fans of Metal Gear or Murakami, his post is long but worth the read. Check it out here:
[Dreaming in an Empty Room: via Insert Credit]
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