Klone.K said:
well newsflash, mgs is made primarily for its story not gameplay and the storyline is supposed to be intellectually stimulating like mgs2 and not an overblown hollywood action flick knockoff like mgs3.
I ask you where was the philosophy and deep thematic exploration, the pot tewists, the character development on par with Raidens and the background stories of bosses in MGS3? It seemed like it was more like a spy flick parody that didnt take itself seriously enough.
You really found MGS2 intellectually stimulating? MGS2 hit you over the head with its themes just like the other two games.
MGS2 complex themes: Hey look Stillman is telling me he didn't teach Fatman the truly important things in life, again, yay. Oh here comes Emma to tell me about the digital control of information, again. Snake just told me we need to find the things important to us and pass them on to the next generation. Cool. Oh, so the entire operation was just a demonstration of the ability to control information and shape its outcome, and it did so by recreating the events of MGS for Raiden? Gee whiz, that is just so deep. All of that long winded poorly written exposition was totally necessary.
Are you one of those people that think the writing in MGS2 is purposely bad? Those supposedly complex themes are shallow and do not elevate the story like you seem to think. Do you read any non-MGS literature? Might be more intellectually stimulating than researching the symbolism in the MGS games. MGS symbolism and story tends to be grab bag of shallow ideas stolen from whatever Kojima happens to be interested in at the time, jammed into the games in a rather heavy-handed way. The themes make a interesting background for the games but certainly don't stand up without the gameplay or action-packed cutscenes.
Klone.K said:
Have you played every MGS games over a dozen times, researched the plot in every essay, journal written on them, researched the symbolism and mythology, spent hours pondering the thematic and philosophical themes of the games and read every Kojima interview and commentary of the games including the japanese ones? Have you read everyone of his old hideochan blog entries? Played the first two MG games?
If story is so important to you why would a true fan need to have played the first two MG games? Certainly not for story, characters or complex themes. So maybe you are just trying to be elitist for the sake of it? Here I can make up a stupid, absurd, and arbitrary set of standards for the truly hardcore MGS fan as well:
Have you beaten every MGS game with the highest ranking, beaten every VR mission with a first place ranking, watched every speedrun, performed your own speedruns? Played through MGS GB and Snakes Revenge? Have you figured out how many licks it takes to get the center of a tootsie pop?
Only if you have done all of the above are you a true super-duper hardcore MG fan. Anything less and you're just another no nothing casual gamer.
Anyone who cares about the gameplay close as much or more than the story in MGS is not a hardcore fan and should look for a different franchise that actually prioritized gameplay.
Or anyone who cares about the story close as much or more than the gameplay in MGS is not a hardcore fan and should look for a different medium that actually prioritized story.
Why would they put so much effort in to the gameplay and boss fights if they aren't important to KP? Why not just dump the gameplay altogether in that case? Why release all these VR missions, or release a new edition of a game with an improved camera but no new stories? Probably because they do find gameplay important.
MGS does things with gameplay you can't find in many other games. How many games have bosses as well thought out and innovative as Psycho Mantis, The End, or The Sorrow? How many games feature the variety of a MGS scenario? All the little details scattered around the game world that can make an area fun to explore and play through over and over again, discovering something new each time? Sure the games have been bogged down in the past with a bad camera, gimmicky mechanics, and poor controls, but the games are fun despite all that. Besides MGS2's story is actually a lot like the controls in past games; a overly complicated way of performing a simple thing.
tl,dr: Klone.K is a joke, I have too much time on my hands, and MGS is good for the variety it features more than anything. MGS may not have the best story, or best gameplay, but throw it all together and you have a really interesting series of games. Truly better than the sum of its parts.